Flexible capital built for SaaS founders focused on growing their business and maintaining control

Trestle Partners is a private investment fund investing solely in pre-Series A and Series A SaaS businesses. We provide capital to founders so they can continue to scale without committing to the Bay Area's single-track approach to growth. Our founders have built platforms with strong product-market fit and responsible growth patterns.

About Trestle

We identify highly successful SaaS businesses through rigorous metrics and qualities.

$2mm+ in recurring subscription revenue, low customer concentration, high customer retention rates, high gross margins, limited capex.

Demonstrated customer value creation (ROI), customer references, NPS, customer retention.

History of capital efficiency, strong management team and board and hiring competency.

Lead flow, predictability in bookings, LTV / CAC, clear customer segments with common use cases.

Robust competitive moat, strong technology foundation, limited direct competition, validated

Presence of funding and exit demand, validated addressable market, presence of adjacent markets.

Our Approach

We believe the SaaS business model is the most efficient in history. Given its inherent attributes (recurring revenue, high gross margin, controllable cost structure), founders can scale a SaaS business more efficiently now than ever before.

So why has the average early-stage financing grown >3x in the last 8 years? Because the VCs who invest in this space have raised enormous funds and need to increase the size of their investments to make their own economics work.

We believe this focus on huge rounds has created a dependence on unrealistic growth expectations, which has led to a couple of enormous success stories... but far more failures.

Trestle offers founders the ability to continue to grow their business and hit milestones, while keeping their options open and avoiding the pitfalls that come with the traditional VC path.

Our Portfolio

Trestle is proud to have partnered with amazing founders and businesses

Our Companies

Trestle is proud to have partnered with amazing founders and businesses

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Our Team

Our team has experience successfully founding, growing and exiting SaaS businesses as both operators and investors

Thomas Babcock

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Co-Founder and Managing Partner

Thomas has almost 20 years of relevant SaaS investing and investment banking experience. He has been an active board member of more than 15 software businesses including: Marsello, Ecwid, Pathgather (acquired by Degreed) and Glia. Before Trestle, Thomas was a Director at Grassy Creek Ventures, a single family office focused on direct private investments. Thomas began his career at Credit Suisse and Barclays. He received his BA from Wake Forest and his MBA from the Darden School of Business.

Jack Fennebresque

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Co-Founder and Managing Partner

Jack is a SaaS founder and operator. Prior to Trestle, he co-founded A2 Access, a research platform for the investment industry, and built it from idea to scale to exit. A2 was acquired by Dealogic (a Carlyle portfolio company) upon which Jack joined as a Managing Director and continued to oversee growth. Jack began his career at Dahlman Rose and Co, a boutique investment bank. He is an active Board Observer at several Trestle portcos including User Interviews, Plytix, Cargobase and Quantified among several others.

Christian McKean

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Vice President

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Christian has over 10 years of experience in startup strategy and operations, and investment banking. Prior to Trestle, Christian worked on the strategy team at DoorDash, helping create and optimize new revenue streams on the platform. He also worked in strategy and operations at Harry's. He is a board observer at Verasight. Christian began his career in investment banking at Cantor Fitzgerald. He received his BA from Boston College and his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Alexia Kalfas

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Chief Financial Officer

Alexia Kalfas is a seasoned Chief Financial Officer with extensive expertise in Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Investment Banking. As a fractional CFO at several venture capital firms, she manages financial operations, treasury functions, annual audits, tax compliance, budgeting, and valuation processes. Her career began in investment banking at Credit Suisse, and she previously held a leadership role at Everside Capital Partners. Alexia holds an MBA from the Isenberg School of Management and a BA in University of Linköping, Sweden.