Badrul Farooqi
I’m an early stage investor based in San Francisco. As an engineer and product manager, I have built products used by hundreds of millions globally.
I was the first Product Manager at Figma and joined before its public launch. I launched the product and led teams that built the core design tool, Plugins, Figma Community, and more. At Square, I was the Product Lead for merchant onboarding, activation, and our internal developer platform.
My career began as an engineer, building award-winning mobile apps, scaling international fulfillment systems, and creating interactive experiences for millions of people. These experiences helped me refine my sense of product quality, craftsmanship, and building products at a global scale.
Experience
Investing
I partner with technical founders building startups that capitalize on significant market or workflow shifts. I’m looking for teams with a clear hypothesis about their product and its impact on customers, and the ambition to build lasting companies.
I invest between $200k and $500k at the earliest stages. I run an efficient process, respecting founders’ time as well as my own, so you can expect to move quickly if we’re a good fit.
Creative tools
Data and intelligence
Developer infrastructure
New computing
Onchain data and markets
Physical world
Acquired
Founders
Badrul has a clear and consistent vision for what good products should feel like and what makes good teams successful. It is hard to find investors who have good taste and operational experience in building generational products.
Cristóbal Valenzuela Runway
Badrul is one of our most insightful investors and a key advisor on product, strategy, and high level company challenges. His thoughtful guidance and genuine commitment to our success have made him Rive’s most trusted partner.
Guido Rosso Rive
Badrul understands what it takes to build developer-focused products. His product instincts and strategic clarity have helped shape our go-to-market and product thinking at Knock. In the years we’ve worked together, he’s become one of my go-to thought partners and friends. He brings valuable insight without ego, challenges my thinking when I need him to, and does it all with humor and taste. I’m a big fan of Badrul and recommend him to any founder building a technical product.
Sam Seely Knock
Whenever I meet a founder working on creative tools, I make sure to introduce them to Badrul. He’s been a great friend and collaborator on tldraw, always ready with strong opinions informed by his close observations of the industry, as well as from his own experiences working on creative products. As an investor, Badrul provides excellent connections with fellow builders and solid advice on building the company and its reputation among creatives.
Steve Ruiz tldraw
Badrul has been in the trenches with us from day one. He’s helped us solve hard problems, build a strong initial product team, and make clear, high-conviction decisions when they mattered most. He took the time to deeply understand our product and hiring goals, consistently going above and beyond as a true partner.
Alexander Baikovitz Mach9