As we stand at the start of 2026, I find myself reflecting on the sheer volume of human ambition I’ve encountered over the last twelve months. Leading the pipeline at DUX, I’ve navigated 900 touchpoints this year—900 moments where founders shared their visions for the future. This journey wasn’t mine alone; it was a collective effort fueled by our advisors and co-investors who helped us source and vet the best of the best. For the 300 companies that entered our formal process, we committed to a standard of transparency, ensuring every founder received a clear answer on why we opted out. We know the weight of a “no,” and we provide those answers with deep gratitude for the trust you place in us.
Venture capital is often perceived as a game of intuition, but at DUX, it is a game of rigorous, non-linear discipline. We don’t just look for incremental growth; we look for the founders who think outside the standard trajectories—the non-linear thinkers who see solutions others miss. This year, my team and our network of expert advisors meticulously reviewed 58 companies at the Investment Committee level. From there, our internal team conducted exhaustive Due Diligence on just 5 opportunities. This process is intentionally demanding; it is how we filter through the noise to find the signals that others overlook, ensuring our time is focused only on where we can add the most value.
Ultimately, this exhaustive search led us to just two investments in 2025: Bleeding Edge and AT Group. For our LPs, this selectivity is our promise. By saying “no” to 898 opportunities, we ensure that the capital we deploy is directed toward the rare “alpha” that creates extraordinary returns. We aren’t just looking for investments; we are looking for the correct investments that justify our thesis. To the founders we met in 2025: thank you for challenging our perspective. To our investors: thank you for trusting our process. We head into 2026 ready to do the hard work all over again.
