Welcome to the Verticalist!
We are Nic and Omar, the co-founders of Euclid — a VC firm partnering with Vertical AI founders from inception.
Why We Launched the Verticalist
This publication began as Euclid Insights — a firm newsletter for Euclid. It was a place for the thinking that didn’t fit in our investment memos, internal roadmaps, or quarterly LP letters.
Eventually, it became something more than that — a publication about what happens when AI meets industries with real complexity. About messy workflows, rare domain expertise, and AI adoption beyond Silicon Valley. And most of all, about vertical architects — the founders reimagining industries from the ground up.
Hence: The Verticalist.
If you’re a founder building in Vertical AI, an operator with an earned insight you’re translating into a startup idea, or an investor updating their pattern-matching for a new era of AI — this is for you.
What We Write About
Our writing is an expression of two cornerstones of thought at Euclid: first-principles thinking and continuous improvement. Weekly essays draw insight from from our portfolio, our community (more on that below), and our day-to-day jobs as partners to incredible entrepreneurs.
At the Verticalist, we aim to provide founders, operators, investors, and allocators alike with: research-driven perspectives on Vertical AI; takes on the state and future of venture capital; and actionable insights for founders building at the earliest stages.
More on Euclid
We founded Euclid to help vertical operators build next generation of category-defining AI businesses. We back domain-expert founders with strong, differentiated visions in Vertical AI, partnering from inception.
Euclid’s mandate stems from our conviction — informed by 15+ collective years of investing in vertical markets — that Vertical AI will create hundreds of billions of enterprise value over the next decade. Today, over 50% of B2B software exits are already vertical in nature. AI is accelerating this generational opportunity. Euclid is the first early-stage fund dedicated to the category.
We lead and co-lead inception-stage and pre-seed rounds. Our investment approach is highly concentrated. We partner with a select few founders per year and dedicate the vast majority of our time to our existing portfolio. Based in San Francisco, CA, we bring Silicon Valley networks and resources to exceptional founders across the US and Canada.
We also orchestrate the Vertical Collective: an invite-only network and center of excellence for vertical leaders. Today, it comprises over 200 operators, from breakout startup CEOs to post-IPO founders. Its simple aim is to connect high-quality peers across the vertical ecosystem, bringing value through introductions, deals, advisory opportunities, roundtables, an annual summit, and more.
Learn more about Euclid and how we partner with founders here.
