Sunshine Lake Capital

Sunshine Lake Capital is a pre-seed and seed venture firm backing exceptional founders forged by extreme origins — those who out-iterate everyone to fix the critical global systems that failed them. Founded by Don Stalter (co-founder of CityDeal, acquired by Groupon, and an early Airbnb operator across Europe and Asia-Pacific), the firm is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Its focus centers on category-defining founders — often global outsiders rather than Silicon Valley insiders — tackling critical systems including trade, money, care, work, energy, and risk, largely in SaaS, AI, healthcare, and fintech. Sunshine Lake typically writes checks of $1 million to $2 million at seed, occasionally extending to Series A and B, with a global focus emphasizing North America. The firm has made at least 6 disclosed investments, including Duranta (a $7 million seed round co-led with Base10 Partners and Pear VC), talp, Astor, and Minimal AI. Its investment approach favors co-leading seed rounds alongside top-tier investors to enhance portfolio company credibility, sourcing founders through founder networks and unicorn "orbits" worldwide, and backing conviction-driven bets on talent over geography or pedigree.