Inception - Early Stage Investing

Picks and Shovels

Generalist Investor

Reach out Portfolio

Network

Backed by

Operators and GPs who diligence deals and open doors when it matters.

Companies

Portfolio

* = angel investment

Operator-Investor

About

Joshua Schlisserman

GP, Operator-Investor

Now — Mastra (Port Co)

Chief of Staff at Mastra, the leading TypeScript framework for building AI agents, backed by Spark Capital, Gradient VC, SV Angel and Basecase VC. My role centers on sales, GTM, and customer support/success.

Before — Series (Employee #1)

Chief of Staff at Series, which builds tools for institutional allocators. I helped scale to our first $1B in AUM, ran all enterprise sales, and built the GTM organization. Backed by 776, Fin VC, Caffeinated Capital and Basis Set Ventures.

Before — Preside (Co-Founder)

Workflow automation for public safety and government, backed by Caffeinated Capital, Basecase VC, Banter Capital and Basis Set Ventures. We never found product-market fit — but I learned how to invest in the next generation of public-sector founders.

I specialize in taking companies from $0 to $10M+ in ARR, finding problem-market fit, and intentionally scaling an organization. I plan to share those learnings with the next generation of picks-and-shovels founders.

Founders

Building something non-consensus?

Reach out if you’re deep in-domain, don’t need hand-holding, and are raising before a lead is locked.

josh@picksandshovelsvc.com