What is Flex Capital?

Flex Capital is a seed-stage venture firm run by the founding CEOs of LiveRamp, BrightRoll, Lemonaid Health, SafeGraph and Pipedream. It writes first checks of $500K to $2M and pledges its voting shares back to founders.

Does Akshay Akula work at Flex Capital?

Yes. Since June 2026 Akshay Akula has been an AI Engineer working on AI and agent strategy at Flex Capital, alongside his main role as Hacker in Residence at NQB8.

How much does Flex Capital invest?

Flex Capital invests at seed, with first checks from $500K to $2M and follow-on reserves through Series A, B and beyond.

Flex Capital: Founders Backing Founders, and Why AI Engineers Belong in Venture

By Akshay Akula · October 10, 2026 · About Flex Capital

Key facts

What Flex Capital is: A seed-stage venture firm: "Founders backing founders"
Who runs it: The founding CEOs of LiveRamp, BrightRoll, Lemonaid Health, SafeGraph and Pipedream
First check: $500K to $2M at seed, with follow-on reserves in Fund II
Governance: Pledges its voting shares back to founders; no board seats unless founders want one
Network: 240+ portfolio founders, 300+ strategic LPs, 100+ venture partners, 600+ angels
Akshay's role: AI Engineer, AI & Agent Strategy, since June 2026

Alongside my main role at NQB8, I work as an AI engineer on AI and agent strategy at Flex Capital. Flex's tagline is "Founders backing founders", and it's meant literally.

Who is behind Flex Capital

Flex is run by founding CEOs of companies worth billions of dollars in aggregate: Auren Hoffman (LiveRamp, NYSE: RAMP), Tod Sacerdoti (BrightRoll, acquired by Yahoo!), Paul Johnson (Lemonaid Health, acquired by 23andMe), plus the founders behind SafeGraph and Pipedream (acquired by Workday). When a founder pitches Flex, they're talking to operators who have been through fundraising, hiring, scaling and exits themselves.

How Flex invests

Stage: seed, with first checks from $500K to $2M and significant follow-on reserves in Fund II.
Approach: generalists with conviction, across sectors and geographies, and quick decisions.
Founder-friendly governance: Flex pledges its voting shares back to founders and takes no board seat unless the founder wants one.
Network: 240+ portfolio founders, 300+ strategic LPs, 100+ venture partners and 600+ angel investors, used for customer intros, senior hiring and introductions to later-stage investors.

Why a venture firm needs AI and agent strategy

Venture is an information business: finding companies early, understanding them quickly and helping them once you're in. Language models and AI agents change every part of that, from how deal flow is sourced and researched to how portfolio companies get support. My job is to build those systems and to help decide where agents genuinely beat the existing process, drawing on what I learned shipping production AI at Vonar.ai.

FAQ

What is Flex Capital?: Flex Capital is a seed-stage venture firm run by the founding CEOs of LiveRamp, BrightRoll, Lemonaid Health, SafeGraph and Pipedream. It writes first checks of $500K to $2M and pledges its voting shares back to founders.
Does Akshay Akula work at Flex Capital?: Yes. Since June 2026 Akshay Akula has been an AI Engineer working on AI and agent strategy at Flex Capital, alongside his main role as Hacker in Residence at NQB8.
How much does Flex Capital invest?: Flex Capital invests at seed, with first checks from $500K to $2M and follow-on reserves through Series A, B and beyond.