First Round Capital

First Round Capital is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies.

Managed by Josh Kopelman, Chris Fralic, Rob Hayes and Howard L. Morgan, the Philadelphia-based company typically provides seed-stage investment that ranges from $250,000 to $500,000. The company seeks to take an active role in the operations of the companies in which they invest, often investing in pre-revenue companies. "We think of ourselves as baby-nurses, not baby-sitters," says Howard Morgan, former professor at the Wharton School of Business, and partner at First Round Capital.

Since its inception in 2004, First Round Capital has backed more than 70 companies, including VideoEgg, Outright, Yummly, ScanScout, myYearbook, Knewton, Wikia, Yieldex Jingle Networks, Odeo, LinkedIn, Eventful, Krugle, Ambient Devices, The Climate Corporation, del.icio.us, IronPort, RockYou!, SkillSlate, Solve Media, Catchfree and several other firms. First Round Capital, while still in its very early years, has already generated significant returns for its investors from acquisitions such as StumbleUpon by eBay for $75 million and Mint.com by Intuit for $170 million.

For Christmas 2008, the company produced a video holiday card in homage to the hit YouTube video "Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)" in which its portfolio company executives were depicted dancing; the video became a viral hit. For its 2010 production, the firm created a series of YouTube videos spoofing the viral "Old Spice" videos.

In 2010, the company was ranked the third-largest venture-capital investor in the United States, as measured by the number of deals.

In September 2012, First Round moved its headquarters from suburban Conshohocken, Pennsylvania to University City, Philadelphia.