Michael Berolzheimer
Founder & Managing Partner
Michael Berolzheimer founded Bee Partners to back radical technical founders at the earliest possible moment: before product, before revenue, before the market sees what they see. Over fifteen years and four funds, he has partnered with nearly 100 technical founders at inception. His practice is built on a central conviction: the most consequential investment decisions happen under conditions of permanent ambiguity. The job is not to wait for certainty; it is to recognize the founders who move forward without it. Investing at pre-seed means more than capital. It means connecting founders to the right person at the right moment; the customer, the co-investor, the operator who changes the trajectory. That connective work is where Michael spends most of his time.
The track record reflects that conviction. Early investments include TubeMogul (IPO 2014) and BuildingConnected, acquired by Autodesk for $275M in 2018. TensorStax was acquired by Snowflake in November 2025. One early investment where Bee Partners was the first institutional check is approaching unicorn status. Across the portfolio, 60% of companies historically reach Series A; portfolio companies have raised $2B+ in follow-on capital. Nineteen pre-seed investments have grown to $100M+ in enterprise value.
Michael is also a hands-on technical builder. He is developing a proprietary portfolio intelligence platform using AI and graph-based architectures to surface patterns and connections across Bee’s entire portfolio. This reflects a core belief: if you invest in the thesis that AI will reshape every industry, you should be building with it yourself.
Michael graduated with honors from Vanderbilt University with dual degrees in computer science and economics. He holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He serves on the Dean’s Council for the College of Connected Computing at Vanderbilt, where he focuses on how AI is reshaping technical education and the future of work. He currently sits on the boards of Embroker, Voltaiq, Knowde, and Sourcetable, with one additional board seat at a company still in stealth, and board observer roles at several additional portfolio companies.