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Ryan Carlson is a General Partner at Cantos Ventures based in San Francisco, California, where he invests in seed and Series A tech startups across North America. Before joining Cantos, he served as a Managing Director at HD Ventures from 2017 to 2021 and held earlier investment roles at Formation 8 and Bain Capital Ventures. His investment portfolio encompasses more than 20 companies, including the $3.2 billion unicorn Ironclad, Printify, and Mach, which was subsequently acquired by Stripe. In March 2026, he led a $15 million Series A funding round for the AI workflow startup Nexlify and became an advisor to Y Combinator's AI track. Carlson also maintains a public presence by publishing a newsletter and speaking at industry conferences. The Stanford University graduate currently focuses his capital deployment on early-stage enterprise software, AI, fintech, and B2B SaaS.
