We invest
in

Early stage capital for technical founders building technical tools

CORE BELIEFS

All companies are software companies

Some of them haven't realized it yet though

Developer time is precious

And it needs to be used on value-add projects

The stack matters

We don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to software, we prefer best-in-class tools

Bottoms-up adoption wins

A product-led approach is key to winning the hearts and minds of technical users

CURRENT PORTFOLIO

Our sweet spot is a preseed or seed round for a company building something to free up a developer to focus on value-add activities

Hoss

Developer experience platform

March 2020

Acquired by Niantic

Freshpaint

Codelessly connect your site to your marketing and analytics stack

March 2020

Buf

API management and schema design platform

May 2020

Cortex Labs

Cloud infrastructure for machine learning at scale

August 2020

Acquired by Databricks

Parabeac

Turn changes in your design files into pull requests for Flutter apps

December 2020

Acquired by El Paso Labs

Swell

Infinitely flexible headless e-commerce platform

December 2020

Octane

Monetization platform for usage-based software

March 2021

Acquired by Stripe

Canonic

A low-code platform to craft APIs in minutes

March 2021

Wasp

A simple language for developing full-stack web apps with less code

April 2021

Axiom

Browser automation. Quickly, without code

May 2021

stealth

Stealth company in the financial ledger database space

July 2021

CatalyzeX

Discover AI models & code to catalyze your projects

July 2021

Single Origin

Learned semantic intelligence and optimize global queries

September 2021

stealth

Stealth company in the data engineering space

October 2021

Cased

Use AI to solve production problems faster

November 2021

Model-Prime

Enterprise-grade robotics infrastructure

December 2021

Architect

Dependency-aware continuous delivery platform

December 2021

Quiltt

Low-code fintech infrastructure

December 2021

Unify

Build AI your way

January 2022

Digma

Resolve performance issues in pre-production, prevent incidents and disruptions

February 2022

Jamsocket

Tools for building browser-based applications

March 2022

Acquired by Modal

Lekko

Dynamic configuration platform

April 2022

Acquired by Rippling

Wilderness Labs

Secure IOT for every developer

June 2022

stealth

Stealth company redefining the client/server boundary

June 2022

Shuttle

Build backends. Fast.

December 2022

Athenic AI

The natural language interface for cloud data

December 2022

stealth

Stealth company in the customer support tooling space

February 2023

Oxen

Data mangement for machine learning datasets

March 2023

Poolside

The best code you never wrote

July 2023

Availabl

Plug-and-play AWS monitoring

August 2023

Buddy

The simplest way to offer insurance on the internet

September 2023

Argilla

Open source platform for fine-tuning LLMS

October 2023

Acquired by Hugging Face

vlt

A new home for JavaScript packages

December 2023

YearOne

Growing software engineers, one lesson at a time

March 2024

CopilotKit

AI copilots for your product in hours, not months

July 2024

Prototyper

Prototype your next product in minutes, using AI-powered design tools

August 2024

Notika AI

No-code notifications. Powered by your database

August 2024

dScribe AI

Transform videos into actionable insights

Jan 2025

Odynn

Modular API platform for launching embedded loyalty and rewards programs

Apr 2025

FOUNDER

Picture of Taylor Clauson

Taylor Clauson

Founder & Managing Partner

I started Abstraction Capital after a few years of teaching myself how to code. To be clear, no one is going to hire me as a developer, but I realized over the years that the plumbing behind software is both exciting and full of opportunity.

Prior to Abstraction, I spent 7 years at a Kansas City based firm called OpenAir Equity Partners, investing in and building IoT and data companies. My career includes time spent in economic development and a stint at a cleantech startup; I was lucky enough to be in Class 23 of the Kauffman Fellows Program.

I love to read, learn new things, and be outdoors.

FEATURED POSTS
Thesis AI
•
June 4, 2025

Vibecoding, Negative Expertise, and the Future of Engineering

I’m having a hard time with some of the public narrative that AI spells out the demise of the developer as a profession. LLM-assisted development is a generational shift in how techincal work gets done–and those best positioned to benefit from it are the ones who understand the code being produced and the infrastructure on which it runs. The shift may lead to an increased demand for people with technical expertise and the creation of VibeOps as a category.

Taylor Clauson
Thesis
•
February 25, 2025

Unbundling AWS

Note: this post is republished from Taylor's personal blog in 2020, but served as a core part of the original thesis for Abstraction Over the past year, I have spent a lot of time digging into cloud infrastructure and technical tools as a space for investing. One of the emergent behaviors of technology trends is the accelerating advantage of being a winner, played out with network effects or scale effects (or both!

Taylor Clauson

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