{"id":24382,"date":"2026-02-23T12:45:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=24382"},"modified":"2026-02-23T12:45:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:45:37","slug":"the-29-year-old-investor-who-went-from-selling-fake-ids-to-backing-poppi-raises-a-75-million-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=24382","title":{"rendered":"The 29-year old investor who went from selling fake IDs to backing Poppi raises a $75 million fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Patrick Finnegan began his career as an entrepreneur while struggling to fit in at a Delaware boarding school. He started businesses as a way to cope (some above board, like building websites, and some less so, like selling fake IDs). He dropped out after hearing about the Thiel Fellowship, which awarded $100,000 to fellow dropouts under 22 years old. Though he didn\u2019t make it to the finalist round after traveling out to Las Vegas, he remembers seeing Lucy Guo and hearing about Dylan Field, who had founded Figma. Finnegan decided to follow a similar path, moving to New York to start a budding startup career and meet other young people across the city\u2019s tech and art scenes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Finnegan earned a smattering of headlines as a precocious 19-year-old wunderkind before going mostly under the media radar. But he\u2019s been productive over the past decade, gaining a name through putting together special purpose vehicles and venture funds that became early backers of buzzy projects. One, the prebiotic soda Poppi, completed an acquisition with Pepsi for nearly $2 billion last year. But where Finnegan has built his reputation is as a connector: the type of amorphous yet essential investor who knows someone who knows someone who can turn a little-known product into a cultural phenomenon. For Poppi, Finnegan facilitated an intro to the manager of Post Malone, who became one of the drink\u2019s most high-profile ambassadors. \u201cHe just knows everybody,\u201d Poppi cofounder Stephen Ellsworth told me. \u201cThat is Patrick\u2019s superpower.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That may not seem like the foundation for a successful VC firm. Still, in today\u2019s impossibly saturated attention economy\u2014where every new product seems to have an A-list celebrity as an investor or spokesperson\u2014finding authentic boosters is a hot commodity. It\u2019s also why Finnegan partnered with Chris Hollod to build Second Sight Ventures, which is announcing the close of its $75 million first fund. Like Finnegan, Hollod built a career out of the celebrity-driven investment paradigm. Through his role as the managing partner at Ashton Kutcher\u2019s A-Grade Investments, he really pioneered the model, though he started the firm around when Finnegan was still in middle school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, the two are finding early-stage opportunities in a category that Finnegan describes as \u201ctech companies that also have a cultural edge.\u201d Investments for the firm have included the Kardashian-backed supplement brand Lemme and the Mario Carbone-backed restaurant software startup Loyalist. \u201cWe\u2019re really just making sure that we\u2019re investing in businesses that know how to tell good stories,\u201d Finnegan said.\u00a0\u201cAnd then helping them amplify and tell better stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked whether Finnegan, now knocking on the doorstep of 30 years old, is worried about losing his edge. \u201cJust being a student and knowing my place and just being a sponge,\u201d he said, echoing his early experience trying out for the Thiel fellowship. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be the smartest person in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo Schwartz
X:<\/strong>\u00a0@leomschwartz
Email:<\/strong>\u00a0leo.schwartz@fortune.com<\/p>\n

Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.<\/p>\n

Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today\u2019s newsletter.<\/em> Subscribe here.<\/p>\n

VENTURE DEALS<\/h3>\n

– <\/span>Pepper<\/b>, a New York City-based developer of ecommerce technology for food distributors, raised $50 million in Series C funding. <\/span>Lead<\/b> Edge<\/b> Capital<\/b> led the round and was joined by existing investors.<\/span><\/p>\n

– <\/span>Ownwell<\/b>, an Austin, Texas-based property tax savings platform, raised $30 million in funding. <\/span>Alpha<\/b> Edison<\/b> and <\/span>Mercato<\/b> Partners<\/b> led the round and were joined by <\/span>Intuit<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, <\/span>Left<\/b> Lane Capital<\/b>, <\/span>First<\/b> Round<\/b> Capital<\/b>, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n

– <\/span>Inscope<\/b>, a San Francisco-based AI-powered financial reporting platform for companies and accounting firms, raised $14.5 million in Series A funding. <\/span>Norwest<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Storm<\/b> Ventures<\/b> and existing investors.<\/span><\/p>\n

– <\/span>Potpie<\/b>, a San Francisco-based agentic AI platform designed to work across large codebases, raised $2.2 million in pre-seed funding. <\/span>Emergent<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>All In Capital<\/b>, <\/span>DeVC<\/b>, and<\/span> Point One Capital<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

EXITS<\/h3>\n

– <\/span>RevSpring<\/b>, a portfolio company of <\/span>Frazier<\/b> Healthcare<\/b> Partners<\/b>, acquired <\/span>TrustCommerce<\/b>, a Chicago, Ill.-based health care payment and security platform, from <\/span>Waud Capital<\/b> Partners<\/b>. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS<\/h3>\n

– <\/span>Peak<\/b> XV<\/b>, a Bangalore, India-based venture capital firm, raised $1.3 billion for a new fund focused on AI, financial tech, and consumer sectors.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#29year #investor #selling #fake #IDs #backing #Poppi #raises #million #fund<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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