Kyle Harrison

Eric Tarczynski

Contrary HQ

Jason Chen

Will Robbins

We met Jake Hillard and Rebecca Wong 4 years ago when they shared with us an ambitious vision: building a new approach to 3D Vision that makes sensing 100x more powerful.

This is no easy task: companies have spent billions of dollars over the past five years building large teams to push the boundaries of computer vision. "Hardware is hard" as the saying goes. But Jake and Rebecca are both persistent and brilliant. They literally invented mathematical theory and signal processing techniques that previously didn't exist, and spent years perfecting the technology.

This became Red Leader, and the results are revolutionary.

The story of Red Leader has been one of stealthy grit until now. I'll never forget how the specific configuration of cloud formations on a dreary day in Palo Alto was the deciding factor as to whether or not an early Red Leader demo unit worked properly. But with time, the hardware and software were ironed out, top executives from world-class companies joined Red Leader, and the product became ready to market.

The Red Leader difference can look like the difference between having your eyes open and closed. Look at this example -- one the current industry standard, and one using Red Leader -- moving down a street:

There's nothing else like it in the world. With this degree of 3D perception, problems such as autonomous driving will become far easier and safer. 

Jake and Rebecca are wonderful humans, stunningly smart, and their tech speaks for itself. This is why we're so excited to finally announce our pre-seed investment in Red Leader and publicly share that they have raised a $10M Series A.

Investing in Red Leader

I’m excited to share that Ryan Ma has joined from Stripe as our very first designer. I first met Ryan 10 years ago as classmates at Northeastern and distinctly remember thinking that he was exceptional — sharp, creative, hardworking and kind. Those characteristics continue to ring true today.

When it came time to bring on our first in-house designer, Ryan was the obvious choice and my first call. He brings with him world-class design experience from Stripe, Facebook and Lyft. In addition, we’re deeply aligned on Contrary’s people-first vision and team culture. We’re excited to see many of our internal and external initiatives come to life under Ryan’s design leadership.

We're thrilled to announce that Ryan Ma has joined our team to lead design.

Welcoming Ryan Ma

We've been living in a world devoid of human-to-human depth in the professional world for the past 20 years. Glassdoor and LinkedIn have been standard bearers of this era, which doesn't exactly set a high bar.

Kelsey and the team are reinventing this with Candor, building a humanity-filled product for people who care about knowing their colleagues on a personal level, all while improving themselves as teammates.

As with all things at Contrary, it comes back to the people. Kelsey’s a star who’s spent the bulk of the past five years deep in the operations and growth weeds of fast-growing startups like Vanta.

The more we spent time with her and witnessed her ability to execute, the more inspired we were. And when the opportunity to partner came along, it was an easy decision.

The future of work is going to look a lot like Candor, and we’re excited to back Kelsey and the team as they lead the way for the next generation.

Investing in Candor

I met Kyle Harrison 26 days after starting Contrary.

As with most of the early days, it was a matter of hustle and luck. I’d cold emailed him, wanting to build my network in Utah and BYU.

But unlike most cold emails, this one worked.

I’ll never forget how selfless Kyle was during our first conversation. He had no reason to help me – I was a nobody, and he surely wasn’t going to get anything out of this bargain.

And yet he went out of his way to help, introducing me to people like John Koelliker (whose company, Leland, we backed five years later) and the team at Album VC, among a dozen others.

We became fast friends and stayed close, with Kyle becoming an early advisor to Contrary six years ago.

And while our paths diverged for a few years, with me crisscrossing the country and Kyle doing true late-stage growth investing at TCV, a year and a half ago we went on a walk in San Francisco. While catching up on life, the conversation (inevitably) steered itself back to work, the future of venture, and what we both wanted out of our careers.

We believed deeply that venture was changing – fast – and that an opportunity existed to build one of the best venture firms of our generation.

It would be focused on identifying the brightest people in the world – first – and building infrastructure to relentlessly support those people for their entire careers.

Given Kyle had spent the better part of seven years across Index, Coatue, and TCV focused on working with founders later in their journeys, he’d play an integral role in building out this infrastructure.

A year and a half of sales efforts later (and with massive thanks to his wife Camden and children Dax, Jed, and Eve), I’m thrilled to share that Kyle Harrison has joined Contrary as a General Partner to co-found our later-stage practice.

There couldn’t be a better person at the helm. Welcome, Kyle!

We're thrilled to announce that Kyle has joined our investing team as General Partner.

Welcoming Kyle Harrison

Seven months ago, we led Leland’s pre-seed. Today, we are thrilled to share that we’ve doubled down and have led Leland’s seed, alongside friends like FJ Labs, Goodwater Capital, and strategic angels.

At its core, Leland is a bet on the belief in human potential. That with the right expertise and opportunities, anyone is capable of achieving their most ambitious goals. 

In the last nine months, young professionals have purchased over 2,500 hours of coaching on Leland, and coach orders have grown 90% every quarter since launching. Thousands of people on Leland are now reaching their goals—breaking into the best schools and companies in the world.

Best of all, we believe deeply in the team that John continues to build, and their execution over the past seven months has been nothing short of remarkable.

So if you’re looking for help with any career or educational goal, sign up for Leland.

And if you have a skill you’d like to share (and monetize), apply to be a coach.

Doubling Down on Leland

Today, we're excited to share that Megan Kao has joined the investment team.

The Contrary community is a collection of the world's most ambitious and curious people building across categories. When someone joins our investment team, we look for the same level of curiosity and drive -- and Megan is no exception. She's a perfect cultural fit with the ambitions we have for Contrary.

Prior to joining us, Megan was on the finance and strategy team at DoorDash, and spent several years at Goldman Sachs working with companies like Tesla, Uber, and Nvidia.

We're thrilled to announce that Megan has joined our investing team.

In The Media

Investing in Red Leader

Welcoming Ryan Ma

Investing in Candor

Welcoming Kyle Harrison

Doubling Down on Leland

Welcoming Megan Kao