Fund I · Southern California
Pacific
Tide
Simple, efficient investing. We handpick a small number of companies at Seed and Series A and back them with conviction.
01 — Thesis
Great returns come from fewer, better decisions.
Pacific Tide invests at Seed and Series A. We do not index the market and we do not spray capital across a hundred names hoping a few carry the fund. We select a limited number of companies, each of which has to clear a single high bar: a demonstrated capacity for scaled growth.
Every commitment is preceded by expert due diligence and a deep dive into the entrepreneur as much as the business. Markets move. Products change. The quality of the founder is the most durable thing we underwrite.
The result is a portfolio we can hold in our heads, support with real attention, and manage for consistent performance rather than lottery outcomes.
02 — Approach
Four disciplines we hold to on every deal.
Handpicked, not indexed
A deliberately concentrated portfolio. If a company does not earn a place on conviction alone, it does not get capital. Fewer names means every founder gets real partner attention.
Seed and Series A
We enter where ownership is meaningful and the work still matters. Early enough to help shape the company, late enough to see genuine signal in the market.
Capacity for scaled growth
Traction is table stakes. We are looking for the structural evidence that a business can compound: unit economics that improve with volume, a market wide enough to absorb it, and a team built to execute.
Expert diligence
Domain specialists, operators, and technical reviewers pressure-test the thesis before we commit. Diligence is a deep dive into the entrepreneur and the business, not a checklist.
03 — What we look for
The shape of a Pacific Tide company.
- 01 A founder we would back twiceJudgment under pressure, unusual command of the problem, and the honesty to name what is not working yet.
- 02 Evidence, not narrativeReal customers, real retention, real economics. We would rather see a small number that is true than a large number that is assumed.
- 03 Room to compoundA market large enough that success is not capped, and a model where the next dollar of revenue costs less than the last.
- 04 A reason we can helpWe invest where our network, operating history, and diligence bench make a measurable difference to the outcome.
04 — Leadership
Three decades of building, backing, and judging early companies.
Dave de Csepel is forming Pacific Tide after more than a decade at the center of Southern California's early-stage ecosystem. He is CEO and Executive Director of the Alliance for SoCal Innovation and Chairman of TCA Venture Group, one of the most active angel investment organizations in the country, and previously served as Chairman of the Pasadena Angels.
Across those roles he has sat on both sides of the table for hundreds of early-stage investments: sourcing, screening, leading diligence, and working with founders after the wire clears. That volume is the foundation of the Pacific Tide method. Pattern recognition earned deal by deal, applied to a deliberately small portfolio.
He is also a serial entrepreneur and operator. Dave was a founding member and owner of Veritas Realty Investments, where he oversaw design, project management, and sales for residential projects across Greater Los Angeles, and spent the last decade as a lead investor and consultant to BioCorRx Inc., a publicly traded healthcare company focused on addiction treatment. Earlier in his career he held leadership roles at Discovery Networks, Turner Entertainment, and ESPN.
Dave teaches the next generation of founders as an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.
- CEO & Executive Director, Alliance for SoCal Innovation
- Chairman, TCA Venture Group
- Former Chairman, Pasadena Angels
- Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship, ArtCenter College of Design
- Founding member & owner, Veritas Realty Investments
- Lead investor & consultant, BioCorRx Inc.
- Leadership roles at Discovery Networks, Turner Entertainment, and ESPN
05 — Contact
If you are building something that compounds, we would like to hear from you.
Founders raising a Seed or Series A round, and prospective partners of the firm, are welcome to get in touch directly.
Reach Dave on LinkedIn