Marcia Butcher knows what she loves and she's going after it. After all, venture capitalism is about taking bold risks, and early risks at that.
This strategy has paid off for the founder and general partner of Day One Ventures over the past six years, as the early-stage venture capital firm takes a unique approach to the industry by spearheading public relations efforts for its portfolio companies.
Through Fund I ($20 million) and Fund II ($50 million), the Silicon Valley firm's portfolio has achieved 22 exits, including the Terran Orbital IPO, and has also invested in eight unicorns, including Superhuman, Remote, Worldcoin, Truebill (exiting to Rocket Companies in 2021) and DuckDuckGo.
Masha Bucher, founder and general partner at Day One Ventures. Image courtesy of Day One Ventures
Five years ago, Day One Ventures had $11 million in assets under management, but Butcher and her team have grown it to just over $450 million, she told TechCrunch. She's also surrounded herself with experts in the field, including Classpass co-founder Sanjiv Sanghavi, who joined the firm in 2022 to invest in climate tech.
The firm announced its third fund, $150 million, on Tuesday to back early-stage founders “solving humanity's most pressing problems, from stark wealth inequality to the imminent threat of climate change to growing feelings of social isolation.”
She also said the new fund “marks the beginning of a new chapter that includes our established expertise in storytelling and PR, as well as deeper integration of arts and culture.”
From Russia, with its excellent PR skills
Venture capital isn't the only risk Butcher has taken. She grew up in Russia (her real name is Masha Dolokhova). The Washington Post ran a lengthy article in 2022 about Butcher's teenage ties to Russia, including her time as a teenage leader of Russian President Vladimir Putin's youth organization, NASH. There was also a documentary made about her in 2012 called “Putin's Kisses.”
Butcher said he was still young and felt it was not up to him to choose whether or not he was part of the organization. He also said the Washington Post article was “inaccurate,” as it said Butcher had met with wealthy Russians and received funding from them. Butcher told TechCrunch that he had never been involved with them or received any money from them.
“I cannot go back to Russia because I am an enemy of Russia,” Butcher said. “I cannot see my grandparents. It is not home to me at all. I completely disagree with their actions and am deeply saddened by the damage they have caused to my maternal relatives in Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, she launched her first company, a social media agency, at age 18, which grew to 80 employees within six months. She then went into public relations to learn more about how a business runs.
In 2010, she met Runa Capital co-founder Serg Bell on Twitter. “When we connected, he was already the founder of three unicorns, which was pretty surprising,” Butcher told TechCrunch. “He told me about his startup and his quantum technology projects in Singapore and London. When he explained what he was working on, I realized it was something that catered to the world more than just doing social media marketing.”
Inspired by Bell's story, Butcher joined Luna Capital in 2011 and served as its public relations director until 2013, when he joined data-protection startup Acronis as vice president of communications.
Butcher moved to the US around 2014 and opened an M&A PR studio. She worked with clients such as Houzz, HotelTonight, and PandaDoc. She met with many founders and worked with about 100 companies. And they began to ask her for advice on issues other than PR.
“It was clear to them that I could help them with more than just PR, and they said it would be helpful to have someone they could talk to about strategy and business development,” says Butcher. “I didn't want to limit myself just because I had a contract, because it was an interesting role for me.
In 2017, she decided to switch gears a bit and become an angel investor, taking the risk and getting free PR. She has invested in companies like Lithic, Chatfuel, Acquired.io, and Truebill.
A year later, Butcher left the M&A PR studio to found Day One Ventures.
Betting on AI
Over the past six years, the firm has focused on areas such as AI, fintech, climate, the future of work and Web3, some of which have seen VC support wane in favor of all things AI-related.
She told my colleague Anna Heim in 2023 that on average, only two out of 1,000 AI startups would survive unless they had both the knowledge and business acumen to tackle the industry.
But if executed well, Butcher believes AI can help us function more efficiently as a society.
“There's a lot of economic inequality, like climate change and healthcare issues, and I think AI can help solve that,” Butcher said. “AI will unlock a wealth of resources that bring out the human element. Over time, AI will increase people's well-being. When I invested in Superhuman, I was amazed that they could write emails in my style and then edit them with a short command like, 'Hey, that's too long.'”
A new dawn, a new day
Now, with Fund III, Day One Ventures is beginning to focus on what Butcher calls “the future of humanity,” a sector he says is “at a crossroads in history, where technological advances offer unprecedented possibilities for human progress.”
For “Future of Humanity,” the company will also be exploring a deeper integration of arts and culture, she said.
Day One's recent investments include cloud-seeding startup Rainmaker, which generates clouds to bring rain to drought-stricken areas; space asteroid mining startup Astroforce; industry-specific credit card company Affiniti for small businesses; and blockchain network Layer N.
The company has also invested in Cradle Healthcare, which is developing technology to cryogenically freeze bodies. While the latter technology is already available, Butcher said Cradle is working on faster freezing and how to reverse it.
“The goal of the Cradle is to preserve your personality and memories for the future,” she said. “When they froze your brain in the past, they froze it so slowly that parts of the brain turned to water and everything got damaged. The Cradle can freeze it so quickly that it preserves it without turning it to water.”