Dustin DeVan
“What got you here won’t get you there.”
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My Backstory
Where were you born?
I grew up in Essen, the industrial heart of Germany, where people are known for being hard workers, straight shooters, down to earth, and easy to grab a beer with. My parents taught me the value of dreaming big and working hard. My mother founded a successful biomedical startup in the 1990s, growing it for 15 years before selling to a large firm. She taught me about perseverance, breaking through barriers, and doing simple things better than overconfident incumbents. My father started as a car mechanic before founding his own dealership in the 1970s. He saw success come and go with industry changes, but his amazing relationship skills allowed him to relate to anyone.
Starting at age 8, my parents had me help out on a small farm, which helped me appreciate physical labor. In my teens, I worked admin roles at my mom's startup, learning efficiency and attention to detail. At 16, I took a monotonous job besides high school at a bank’s account statement printing department that taught me patience - which is valuable as an early-stage investor. I studied energy management and finance, doing my undergrad in Germany before a Master's at Purdue and Tsinghua.
After university, I started in corporate finance and M&A, focusing on renewable energy deals. I then joined a large utility amid industry transformation during and after Fukushima. My role changed to business development in batteries, grid storage, and distributed energy. I also supported early tech investments at the intersection of energy and power retail tech. Later, I helped a global engineering firm leverage its vast hardware expertise to partner with early-stage hard tech founders - right before embarking on my own journey as a founder (unsuccessfully).
What is your name?
Dustin DeVan
Where were you born, where were you raised?
I was born in Sacramento but raised in Vacaville, CA. Both my parents grew up in my hometown - they attended high school together. My mom’s side of the family moved to Vacaville a little after the turn of the century, and my father’s side moved there in the 50s.
What is the area you are from famous for?
The Nut Tree and our outlets. If you go to Vacaville’s Wikipedia, they list notable people - one of them being my brother, Kyle DeVan. Papa Roach is also from my hometown, and I went to high school with them, although they were older. The movie Kickboxer had Dennis Alexio in it with Jean-Claude Van Damme - he grew up with my father and I remember him visiting when we were kids.
What did/do your parents do?
My mom sold real estate. She was a tour guide before I was born but stopped to raise me. My father drove a train for Southern Pacific Railroad - he was a third-generation locomotive engineer.
Any siblings when you grew up?
My brother, Kyle DeVan.
What are the two things (outside of school) that you spent the most time on when you were a kid or teenager?
Sports were a huge part of my life growing up. I played just about everything, but ended up competing at a high level across multiple sports - varsity cross country as a freshman without having run before, all-league, and varsity in both basketball and track. It was a very competitive environment and a big part of how I developed discipline and a drive to improve.
The second was leadership. I was elected junior class president, then ASB president, and was ultimately voted “most likely to be president” in our yearbook. That experience of earning trust from peers and representing a broader group at a young age had a big impact on how I think about leadership today.
What are you missing from your younger years?
I miss the simplicity and intensity of that period of life - where everything revolved around your team, your school, and your community. Sports and leadership weren’t separate from life, they were life, and there was a very clear feedback loop between effort and outcome.
I also miss how local everything felt. Growing up in a town where your family history runs deep, where your parents and their friends all knew each other, and where your identity was tied to your community - there’s something grounding about that. As life gets more complex and global, that kind of tight-knit environment is harder to replicate.
Did you have a side job during school?
Yes - I worked consistently throughout school, starting with changing oil as my first job. In college, I took on a range of roles that were both practical and entrepreneurial.
I worked my way up at The California Aggie, starting in ad sales and eventually running the entire sales department for the student newspaper, which was the largest in Yolo County. That was probably my first real exposure to building and leading a revenue organization.
During summers, I worked as a lifeguard for a river rafting company, and I was also paid by the UC Davis math department to do research - which came about after a professor learned I was supplementing my income playing online poker.
Toward the end of college, I even worked as a bouncer at a popular bar - partly for fun, partly for the experience.
What did you study, and where?
I studied Mechanical and Aeronautical Science and Engineering at UC Davis.
Summarize your work after university and before Foundamental.
After university, I started my career in construction and quickly moved into the intersection of technology and the industry. I founded BuildingConnected, a platform that transformed how general contractors and subcontractors bid and manage preconstruction workflows.
We scaled the business into a leading network in the industry, ultimately leading to its acquisition by Autodesk for $275 million. After the acquisition, I spent time at Autodesk helping integrate and expand the platform within a broader construction technology ecosystem.
What is your story of getting into Foundamental?
After BuildingConnected and my time at Autodesk, I became increasingly interested in investing, particularly in areas where I had deep domain experience. Construction and the broader project economy felt massively underserved from a technology perspective, but also incredibly complex - which made it a compelling space to build and invest in.
Through that, I connected with the Foundamental team. What stood out immediately was their focus on construction and the built world as a core thesis, not a side bet. It aligned closely with how I saw the opportunity.
Joining Foundamental felt like a natural extension of my experience as an operator - taking everything I had learned building in the space and applying it to backing the next generation of founders.
I Am On The Lookout For
What makes a great VC investor?
A great VC investor combines judgment, empathy, and the ability to see around corners.
Judgment comes from experience - knowing what matters and what doesn’t at different stages. Empathy matters because founders are operating under constant pressure. And great investors have a point of view - they’re willing to take risks behind their convictions.
What are 3 things you look for in a founder?
First is deep domain conviction - founders who truly understand the problem because they’ve lived it.
Second is intensity and resilience - the ability to push through setbacks over a long period of time.
Third is the ability to learn and evolve quickly - updating thinking without losing conviction.
What are the things in a business that excite you?
I’m most excited by businesses that take something messy or experience-driven and turn it into a system - especially when that system compounds over time.
I’m also drawn to companies with strong feedback loops, where every customer or transaction makes the product better.
And I like founders who rethink how something fundamentally works - not just improving the interface, but changing the underlying model.
What are mistakes that AWESOME founders don’t make, but many other founders make and you see repeatedly?
Great founders don’t optimize for cheap talent - they optimize for value. The best people are force multipliers.
They also don’t outsource their judgment. They listen, but ultimately trust their own instincts.
And they don’t avoid hard decisions - they confront reality early and act on it.
What are values that are ultra important to you in other people in business life?
I value people who can admit when they’re wrong. Taking ownership and apologizing shows real emotional maturity.
I respect people who have the courage to make meaningful changes to improve themselves.
I value people who genuinely care about others’ well-being.
And I respect people who take real ownership - especially when things aren’t going well.
Describe what ‘partnership’ means to you.
Partnership is built on trust, honesty, and shared accountability.
It means having direct conversations, showing up consistently, and working through challenges together. At its core, it’s about alignment over time.
What are you chasing in your life?
I’m chasing the opportunity to be part of companies that have a massive impact - building things that fundamentally change how industries work.
I’m also driven by growth and doing that alongside people I respect.
What intrigues you?
I’m intrigued by really smart people who are deeply passionate about something I don’t fully understand at first. That combination usually means there’s something real underneath it.
Think of VC as an artisan craft. How would you describe your unique craft?
A big part of my craft is assessing people - understanding their potential and how they’ll evolve over time.
I also approach companies through a practical lens - how things actually work and what it takes to scale.
And I’m highly engaged with founders - working through problems together as things evolve.
What is your favorite quote or mantra that can be applied in a business context?
“You can’t outsource judgment.”
“Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.”
What is your secret ninja-skill?
My ability to align and motivate people around a shared goal - turning ideas into something a team genuinely believes in and rallies behind.
In what ways do you feel inferior to some people you look up to?
I wish I could code. I have a lot of respect for people who can take an idea and turn it into a working product on their own.
If you were a super-hero, what would be your super-hero name?
North Star
What is one person in the world you would like to have dinner with?
Jack Kirby.
He was one of the most creative minds behind the Marvel universe. I’d be curious how he built worlds, characters, and systems that had such lasting impact.
What can you nerd out over for hours with the right discussion partner?
I can nerd out on politics - how systems are structured and how decisions actually get made.
Although in today’s climate it’s become a lot less enjoyable, which is unfortunate.
When someone who knows you in your business life very well were to describe you, what adjectives would they use for you?
Well-spoken, personable, thoughtful, curious, and grounded in reality.