Dorm Room Fund raises $50M for its fourth fund, with early bets on Cursor and Anysphere

Dorm Room Fund has closed a $50M Fund IV, its largest to date, with First Round Capital continuing as an LP. Partner Molly Fowler describes the fund as targeting roughly 75 to 80 companies over three years, writing sub-$1M initial checks.

The model rests on a structural bet: the cheapest moment to back a founder is before they have enough traction to command institutional terms. Fowler frames DRF's entry point as a replacement for the friends-and-family round, capturing founders who can move fast with minimal capital but don't have wealthy personal networks to draw on. As AI continues to compress the cost of starting a software company, that window is getting sharper, and more founders are dilution-sensitive enough to care who takes that first check.

“We just raised $50,000,000. We're really excited. Our check size is usually sub million for the first time around. We're probably gonna end up investing in probably like 75 or 80 companies over the next three year period. We were lucky enough to get into Cursor — Tony and Mike were both on the team when they were in undergrad.”

Portfolio sourcing

Two channels drive deal flow. Regional student teams cover top entrepreneurial ecosystems across the US and invest in active founders building while in college, MBA programs, or PhD programs. The second channel, which Fowler flags as a "superstar hitter," is DRF alumni. Any founder who passed through the DRF community as a student investor or portfolio founder remains eligible for a check, regardless of when they build next.

That alumni network is where the fund's most visible wins have come from. Fowler says DRF got into Cursor through its Anysphere founders, Tony and Mike, who were both on the DRF team during undergrad. Ben Horwitz is cited as another recent portfolio founder who came through the alumni channel.

The fund spun out of First Round in 2021 and began deploying Fund IV around July 2025. First Round remains an LP but is no longer the sole institutional backer, with Fowler noting the addition of other institutional partners that give DRF more capacity to support founders beyond the initial check.