👊🏽 Special Edition: Ganas Ventures Invests in Toolhouse
This is a special edition of Lolita's Newsletter, a monthly newsletter of curated actionable insights and resources for over 20,000 underestimated founders, funders, and friends.
Ganas Ventures is thrilled to announce our investment in Toolhouse's pre-seed round. We're proud to be part of this round alongside other investors like 500 Global and Ride Home AI Fund. This marks our 18th investment since launching, adding to our growing portfolio that includes Latitud, Around, Shappi, Leadsales, Masa, Storybook, Ask Alex, Distribute, Papaya, Chptr, The Swarm, Careerflow, Avify, Vitrinnea, Manzana Verde, Zócalo, and Nufi. We're excited to support Toolhouse's vision for revolutionizing AI development tools and remain committed to investing in passionate founders who are building the future of Latin America and the US.
💰 Founders, apply for investment here. 👊🏽 LPs, apply to invest in Ganas here.
TL;DR on Why We Invested in Toolhouse
Unmatched Market Opportunity: Capturing a share of the $9 billion AI development tools market.
Explosive Growth: Achieved 200% growth in paid waitlist signups.
First-Mover Advantage: The first comprehensive app marketplace for AI developer tools.
Community-Driven Innovation: Empowering developers to share, monetize, and scale AI solutions.
Proven Leadership: Led by Daniele Bernardi, ex-Head of Developer Relations at Twitter, and Orlando Kalossakas, a builder of top developer platforms at Kong and Stripe.
🚀 Toolhouse: Revolutionizing AI Development
Toolhouse is on a mission to redefine AI development with its comprehensive marketplace for AI developer tools. By empowering engineers to build AI solutions more efficiently, Toolhouse is eliminating the barriers of time and complexity, fostering a collaborative environment that drives innovation.
Team: Toolhouse is led by Daniele Bernardi, an expert in developer ecosystems who transformed the developer landscape during his time at Twitter and Meta. His leadership, alongside a team of industry veterans, drives Toolhouse's mission to streamline AI development and lead the market in tech innovation. Joining him as co-founder is Orlando Kalossakas, who brings a proven track record of growing developer marketplaces and dev-tool platforms. Before Toolhouse, Orlando co-founded Dashcam, an AI agent for QA engineering and bug reporting, and was instrumental in growing platforms at Kong, Mashape (acquired by RapidAPI), Blockspring (acquired by Coinbase), and Mailgun (acquired by Rackspace). Orlando has also built developer communities for Stripe and IndieHackers, combining his software engineering background with deep expertise in fostering developer ecosystems.
Market Opportunity: Toolhouse is targeting a $5.6 billion market projected to expand to $9 billion, positioning itself to capture a substantial market share. By offering seamless integration and high-quality AI components, Toolhouse is poised to revolutionize how engineering teams build AI agents, offering a complete infrastructure to developers across various customer tiers.
Traction and Growth: Toolhouse's traction has been nothing short of impressive, with a 200% increase in paid waitlist signups and significant interest from major enterprises, as the latest collaboration with Groq shows. This strong growth trajectory, corroborated by heavy engagement and adoption by early access users, highlights how the platform is solving an immensely felt need, marking Toolhouse as a significant player poised for market dominance.
First-Mover Advantage: Toolhouse is the first comprehensive app marketplace for AI developer tools, enjoying a strong first-mover advantage. Its unmatched compatibility across diverse AI frameworks and LLMs establishes Toolhouse as the middleware layer for agentic AI, setting a robust foundation for sustained growth and competitive dominance.
Community Power: Toolhouse is building a vibrant ecosystem where developers can share, monetize, and scale AI tools, amplifying their collective impact. This community-centric approach not only fuels innovation but also creates a self-sustaining cycle of growth and collaboration, ensuring that Toolhouse remains at the forefront of AI development.
Unicorn Potential: With a strategic focus on platform expansion and advanced technology integration, Toolhouse is on a trajectory for exponential growth. Their community-driven approach and dedication to empowering developers position Toolhouse to redefine the industry, offering investors a unique opportunity to be part of a transformative venture with unicorn potential.
🌟 Join the Toolhouse Family
Join the Toolhouse community as a developer here (save 50% with promo code GANAS).
✨ Lolita Taub, GP at Ganas Ventures | X | luma
Ganas Ventures is actively investing $100K into pre-seed and seed community-driven startups in the US & Latin America. Learn more at ganas.vc.
Disclaimer: Ganas Ventures is a 506c fund that allows us to publicly solicit for our raise. All are welcome to apply to become an LP; however, commitments to Ganas Ventures will only be accepted by accredited investors.