Steve Wolfe co-founded Growth Street Partners in San Francisco about ten years ago with his partner Nate Grossman, after a career in software-focused private equity. The firm’s name is the point: they don’t invest on Sand Hill Road, Wall Street, or even Main Street, but a street or two behind it, where the rent is lower and practical founders put their earnings back into the business.
Growth Street has now raised three funds — $70 million, $130 million, and a little over $200 million — with the same strategy since day one. They write $5 to $15 million checks for 20 to 50 percent of vertical B2B SaaS and tech-enabled services companies doing $1 to $5 million in revenue, always as a minority partner. Portfolio companies include Chipply and TeamLinkt, both previous Practical Founders guests.
Steve’s 2026 answer to the AI shift is a firm-wide operating principle they call “Operation Cole Trickle”: when the race track fills with crashes and smoke, “go high” and avoid the crazy mess. That means returning to first principles — a high integrity founder, real customer value, a strategic piece of real estate — and treating the daily AI headline cycle as a distraction with a very short half-life.
Key Takeaways
- Go High — Drive above the wreck instead of through it, and return to first principles.
- Minority Stakes — $5-15 million buys 20-50 percent, so founders keep control and keep deciding.
- Headline Half-Life — Reading AI news daily burns time on knowledge that expires in weeks.
- Right to Win — Add AI where you already have an edge, not everywhere you see a nail.
- Exit Discipline — Growth Street models five times revenue at exit, same as day one.
Quote from Steve Wolfe, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Growth Street Partners
“We call it founder market fit. We’re not buying control of the businesses, which is really a critical component of our strategy. Founders are willing to talk to us because we’re a minority investor. What it means for our strategy is that our founders are going to make thousands of decisions without us. So they need to have the same values that we have, because God forbid they don’t, we’re in big trouble.
“When we think about diligencing a new opportunity, when a business has got $1-5 million of annual recurring revenue and it’s growing nicely and everything seems good. But the clay on that business is still really wet, so we can help them mold the business.
“But the founder that we’re partnering with, the market that we’re entering into, that clay is usually pretty dry. You can’t change the founder and you can’t change the market. And so that founder better be aligned with you, better have the values that you have. Otherwise, you’re in big trouble.”
Links
- Steve Wolfe on LinkedIn
- Growth Street Partners on LinkedIn
- Growth Street Partners website
- Steve’s earlier Practical Founders episode (#123, with Nate)
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