Gokul Rajaram
About Gokul Rajaram
Gokul Rajaram started his career as a technical lead at Juno. He later became a Product Management Director for Google AdSense, where, according to Pinterest's board biography, he helped launch the product and grow it into a substantial part of Google's business. He then became Product Director of Ads at Facebook, where he helped move the advertising business to mobile.
He spent about six years at Square (now Block), leading Register and then Caviar. He moved to DoorDash when it acquired Caviar in 2019 and stayed until April 2024. He holds a B.Tech in computer science from IIT Kanpur, an MBA from MIT and a Master of Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin.
Rajaram is a co-founder of Marathon Management Partners and has been a partner there since January 2025. He has been on Pinterest's board since February 2020 and Coinbase's since August 2020. He was on The Trade Desk board from May 2018, and one third-party profile dates that role as ending in April 2026. PitchBook also lists board or advisory roles at companies including CoinTracker, AtlasCard, Straiker and Birdeye.
Public counts of his angel investments vary by source and date. Crunchbase shows 110 investments, with no lead investments, exits or founded companies recorded. Other profiles are much higher: Hustle Fund and Jolly say 300+ startups, NFX Signal records 296, and a 20VC episode description says 700+. Founders should treat the Crunchbase figure as a floor for what is publicly recorded.
He is widely described as a prolific angel. Press and podcast profiles list Airtable, Figma, Groq, Runway, Supabase and Vercel among his investments, and Hustle Fund also names Coinbase. A Hustle Fund article says he wrote one of the first checks into Printify in 2016. He was also an advisor or fund advisor at firms such as Jungle Ventures, Firebolt Ventures and Tau Ventures, according to PitchBook.
Crunchbase counts 72 AI investments since 2023. Its AI portfolio for him includes EvenUp, Turbo Law, Knit, Factory, HydraDB, Mirai, Veria Labs, August, Doppel, Katalyze AI, Pocket and DeepJudge.
Crunchbase's activity feed and other trackers show 2025 rounds he joined across AI and enterprise software. These include Eudia, Composio, Wisdom AI, Valarian Technologies, alphaXiv, Julius AI, GC AI and Cortex AI. Many of these are seed and Series A rounds with other investors.
NFX Signal lists his investment range as $25K to $1M, with a sweet spot of $50K. That is a third-party profile, and he has not published a check size himself in the sources reviewed. The same profile shows activity from pre-seed through Series B. The sectors it lists are AI, enterprise, cloud infrastructure, fintech, consumer internet, e-commerce, health IT, climate tech, advertising and media.
A Hustle Fund write-up says he looks for first-principles thinking and for complete founding teams that can both build and sell. It gives the Printify founder as an example, where he was drawn to the founder's depth of knowledge about earlier failed attempts. That is a secondary account, not a statement from Rajaram. His own focus on small teams, speed and software durability in the AI era appears in his podcast conversations with Daniel Scrivner and The Twenty Minute VC.
He is based in San Francisco and invests mainly in the United States. Tracxn also lists investments in India.
- Printify: one of his early angel checks, in 2016, according to Hustle Fund.
- Figma: named as an angel investment in several profiles. The investment year is not public in the sources reviewed.
- Airtable: named in The Twenty Minute VC's profile of him. Year not public.
- Groq, Runway, Supabase and Vercel: named in the same profile. Years not public.
- Composio: AI company that raised a Series A in 2026 after a seed round. TipRanks lists him as an investor.
- Wisdom AI: raised a round in May 2025, which Crunchbase lists among his investments.
- Valarian Technologies: raised a round in May 2025, which Crunchbase lists among his investments.
- Knit: in his Crunchbase AI portfolio. Its 2025 Series A is on his activity feed.
- Jolly: he was an angel investor in its Series A, which TipRanks dates to March 2025.
- EvenUp, Turbo Law, Factory, Doppel, Katalyze AI, Pocket and DeepJudge: in his Crunchbase AI portfolio. Round details are not confirmed here.
- crunchbase.com/person/2ae517bd-f03e-b7fc-8e79-8448627d15c4
- linkedin.com/in/gokulrajaram1
- investor.pinterestinc.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details
- jolly.com/backers/gokul-rajaram
- signal.nfx.com/investors/gokul-rajaram
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/106531-21
- thetwentyminutevc.com/gokul-rajaram
- hustlefund.vc/post/angel-squad-gokul-rajaram-investments-what-the-godf
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Gokul Rajaram has made 110 investments according to Crunchbase. 72 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including EvenUp, Turbo Law, Knit, Factory and HydraDB.
Gokul Rajaram appears in 10 AI deals tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $56M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $7M and the largest at $15M. The most recent are Trmeric (Seed, $6.5M, Oct 2026), Hypercubic (Seed, $5.3M, Aug 2026) and Aitan (Seed, $15M, Jul 2026).
Gokul Rajaram most often invests alongside Y Combinator, Kasra Nejatian, Pioneer Fund and Transpose Platform Management, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Gokul Rajaram
Who is Gokul Rajaram?
He is a San Francisco angel investor and product leader who worked at Google AdSense, Facebook Ads, Square and DoorDash. He co-founded Marathon Management Partners and sits on the boards of Pinterest and Coinbase.
What check size does Gokul Rajaram write?
NFX Signal lists a range of $25K to $1M with a $50K sweet spot. He has not published a check size in the sources reviewed, so confirm it with him directly.
What stage does Gokul Rajaram invest in?
Third-party profiles show activity from pre-seed to Series B, mostly in software. Crunchbase counts 72 AI investments since 2023.
What does Gokul Rajaram look for in founders?
A Hustle Fund article says he looks for first-principles thinking and teams that can both build and sell. That is a secondary summary, not a direct statement from him.
How many startups has Gokul Rajaram invested in?
Crunchbase records 110 investments. Other profiles say 300 or more, and one podcast description says over 700.
How can founders contact Gokul Rajaram?
His public profiles are on LinkedIn and X (@gokulr). NFX Signal also lists a warm introduction route for members.
Is Gokul Rajaram an angel investor?
Yes. Gokul Rajaram invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 110 investments.
What AI companies has Gokul Rajaram invested in?
Gokul Rajaram's AI investments include EvenUp, Turbo Law, Knit, Factory, HydraDB, Mirai, Veria Labs and August. The 10 rounds on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Gokul Rajaram based?
Gokul Rajaram is based in San Francisco, United States.
What stage does Gokul Rajaram invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Gokul Rajaram has invested at Seed, with a median round of $7M.