Board Partner
First Round CapitalCheck size: No current personal check range or new-investment authority is published. Richard's official Board Partner role focuses on coaching existing First Round companies; firm-wide check ranges should not be attributed to him personally.
Richard applies experience from building startups and running global revenue organizations to help First Round companies navigate go-to-market. His stated scope spans GTM strategy, customer segmentation, product strategy, team building, and operating at scale. His value is less a sector prediction than pattern recognition across zero-to-one, the messy middle, and hypergrowth.
Bright, energetic founders with large ambitions who are ready to turn product insight into a repeatable commercial system. His background suggests particular value for teams willing to examine segmentation, sales motion, organization design, and scale constraints with operating rigor.
No personal pass list is published. For his current role, weak engagement would be a generic fundraising pitch that assumes active check authority, or a portfolio-company discussion without a concrete GTM, product, team, or scaling decision to work through.
Treat Richard as an operating and board resource, not a verified current check-writer. For a First Round portfolio discussion, state the growth objective, target segment, present funnel or revenue evidence, product constraint, team design, and the decision that must be made. Bring the tradeoffs and the operating data needed for a working session.
Choose a specific customer segment, map its buying process and value drivers, then align product packaging, sales motion, account management, and success metrics to that segment.
As a company moves beyond zero-to-one, examine where product strategy, revenue process, team structure, and decision cadence no longer fit the next scale threshold.
Evaluate growth as an interconnected system of segmentation, acquisition, sales, account management, product feedback, organizational design, and international execution rather than as a top-line target alone.
No writing has been linked yet. Kit can search for posts, interviews, and fund essays worth reading before outreach.
No podcast appearances are linked yet. Ask Kit to check for interviews that reveal how this investor thinks.
“I lean on that experience as an operator, advisor and investor to coach First Round companies.”
— https://www.firstround.com/team/board-partners/richard-alfonsi
“Helping to amplify their impact makes me feel energized as well.”
— https://www.firstround.com/team/board-partners/richard-alfonsi
Richard has built venture-backed startups including Tellme Networks, Velant, and Zaplet and has advised, invested in, or served on boards at companies including DoorDash, Bill.com, SoFi, Amobee, Melio, and Transcend. He led global revenue and growth at Stripe as it scaled from about 500 to 2,000 employees, was Twitter's VP of Global Online Sales as revenue grew past $2B, and spent five years as Google's VP of Global Online Media Sales. He holds a Stanford MBA and a summa cum laude Duke degree in electrical engineering.