In 2014, a brand-new venture capital firm SineWave Ventures got a call from the Central Intelligence Agency. A software startup called Databricks was pitching a partnership, and the CIA wanted SineWave and cofounder Yanev Suissa to serve as interpreter.

“In Silicon Valley, you sell the vision of the future of what’s going to be,” says Suissa, who invested as part of the Bush and Obama administrations before turning VC. “In the government, you sell what it is, that it’s reliable, it works. And it’s hard for entrepreneurs to adjust.”

Databricks was raising a venture round, too; with Suissa and cofounder Pat Muoio, a former National Security Agency group leader, still fundraising their own first fund, SineWave had to sit it out that Series B led by Suissa’s former firm, NEA, with Andreessen Horowitz. But when those two heavyweight firms backed Databricks again in 2016, they made room for Suissa and Muoio’s debut fund to join the Series C, which valued Databricks just over $500 million, according to PitchBook. Today, Databricks appears IPO-bound, valued at $28 billion. SineWave’s second-ever investment, the firm failed to double down. But its $1.7 million check is still worth $39 million now.

SineWave’s much better positioned now to capitalize on its model of connecting Silicon Valley to the Beltway. The firm, which has invested out of two $75 million funds, has more partners today in Chris Gaughan and Vivek Ladsariya; it’s writing larger checks, too. The firm poured $8.5 million into crowd-safety company Evolv, set to go public via a $1.7 billion SPAC; SineWave’s stake is already worth 10x that, good to return its fund.

And in security software firm SentinelOne, which listed Tuesday night with the New York Stock Exchange to raise more than $1 billion in an IPO, SineWave’s turned $17.7 million into a stake valued at more than $200 million. Those exits have the firm tracking to return about 8x their debut fund, a strong result for any firm looking to make a name for itself inside Silicon Valley and out.

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“We look for startups that are commercial startups first and foremost,” Suissa says. “We’re looking for baby Cisco, not baby Lockheed.”

Named after how a curve representing a hill and valley together look like a sine wave, embodying the “rollercoaster” experience of startups, SineWave’s looking to squeeze into deals alongside, not against, the big venture capital firms as a specialist in matchmaking in D.C. for businesses interested in – but not dependent – on working with the government, a different angle from a new crop of civic tech investors looking to back startups in government management, security and defense.

Its partners are far-flung: while Gaughan is based in the D.C. area, Suissa moved to Puerto Rico during the pandemic and also spends time in New York, where Muoio moved in recent years; Ladsariya represents the firm on the West Coast. “Limited partners ask us about it all the time, but it works really seamlessly,” Ladsariya says.

And what makes SineWave work, Suissa argues, is that its partners have no interest in influencing politics or schmoozing with senators. Instead, SineWave focuses on its relationships with what Suissa calls the “bus drivers” – agency managers and chiefs who are the ones actually approving or implementing a startup as more than a pilot behind the scenes. “We’re not trying to change immigration reform, we’re trying to get $5 million or $10 million in contracts for a startup. And if the guys on the ground don’t know you, you’re not part of that ecosystem,” he says.

When Evolv, which makes touchless security screening sensors and tools, was looking to partner with Stanley Black & Decker in 2020, the startup was told its cybersecurity standards weren’t good enough to proceed. Working with SineWave’s team, Evolv spent the next several months looking to boost its security standards. That August, the corporation announced an investment in Evolv through its venture arm as part of a strategic partnership to resell Evolv’s tools. “They’ve had a tangible payoff,” says CEO Peter George.

SineWave’s connections, meanwhile, have paid off at portfolio company Cloud Agronomics, in which SineWave led a $6 million round announced last October. The firm has been valuable in the traditional VC functions like support of a management transition and in assisting in a fundraise made more difficult by the pandemic, says CEO Jack Roswell. But it’s also connected the entrepreneur to a senior adviser at the USDA, with whom the startup now has quarterly conversations, as well as researchers at major land grant universities. “In agriculture, that’s key to prove the efficacy of your technology,” Roswell says.

But while the agencies themselves send deal flow to SineWave – SentinelOne, newly public, came through the Department of Defense – Muoio says the firm still has a long way to go when it comes to scoring major contracts for its portfolio. It was bridging the worlds of commercial tech and in-house tech that inspired Muoio to try VC in the first place. The no-nonsense investor would like to see more sales signed by now. “The volume of sales into the government is still slow, and the worlds are still so far apart,” she says.

For SineWave to succeed long-term, it will need to break through to those “bus drivers” of Suissa’s to open their pocketbooks. At Evolv, George says the firm is looking to make new inroads following the riot and violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6 – an iconic building he believes could have used Evolv’s tech. Says the startup CEO: “We’re counting on SineWave to open some doors.”

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