Root Ventures is a seed fund composed entirely of practicing engineers and hardware hackers who explicitly underwrite "engineering risk" in technically challenging areas like robotics, developer tools, and manufacturing tech that many generalist funds avoid. They hold back roughly two-thirds of each fund for follow-ons and bridges to support capital-intensive hard-tech companies through multiple rounds, while operating from a lab-like office with machine shops and hosting engineering events to serve as an "invisible employee" to technical founding teams.