Semil Shah
Semil Shah is Founding Partner at Haystack, a seed venture firm in San Francisco writing $25K–$500K checks. DryPowder last updated this profile on June 3, 2026.
Updated
About Semil
Semil founded Haystack in 2013 and has been a prolific early stage investor over the last decade, including early investments in companies like DoorDash, Instacart, Figma, Hashicorp, and Applied Intuition. Prior to investing, Semil held various product and operational roles at early-stage startups, the most recent startup being acquired by Apple. Semil was named to Midas List for Seed Investors by Forbes in 2022, 2023, and again in 2024.
Source: Haystack team page
How to pitch Semil
- Size the ask
- Haystack invests at seed, with $25K–$500K checks.
Other partners at Haystack
Frequently asked questions
What does Semil Shah invest in?
Semil Shah is Founding Partner at Haystack. Haystack invests at Seed.
What check size does Haystack write?
Haystack writes $25K–$500K checks at Seed, per the fund's DryPowder profile.
How do I contact Semil Shah?
Semil has a public LinkedIn profile, linked on this page. DryPowder has an email address on file for Semil, shown on paid plans.
Sources
- Website: Haystack website (team page)
- LinkedIn: Semil Shah on LinkedIn
- Method: How DryPowder builds its data