Sam Cates is a Venture Partner at Virta with over 15 years of investing and operating experience. He co-founded Positive Sum, a VC firm, and previously spent over a decade at General Electric.
What Sam can write
Virta Ventures writes $100K to $1M checks, larger than 5% of firms in the atlas.
Bars: how many firms report each check band. Highlighted: Virta Ventures.Career
- General Electric
- GE Ventures
- Positive Sum
- Virta · Venture PartnerNow
- General Electric · Corporate Audit Staff
- GE Ventures · Venture Investing
- Positive Sum · Partner and Founder
- Virta Ventures · Venture PartnerNow
Companies founded
Investments named in public bios
Focus
Education
Also at Virta Ventures
Partners like Sam
At firms with a similar stage, sector and check size.
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One email when Sam's firm raises a fund, adds a partner or shows new activity.
Send Mode VC your deck
Raising a pre-seed or seed round? We write $1M to $5M first checks and help founders with distribution. A partner reads every deck.
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Who is Sam Cates?
Sam Cates is a Venture Partner at Virta with over 15 years of investing and operating experience. He co-founded Positive Sum, a VC firm, and previously spent over a decade at General Electric.
How much does Sam Cates invest?
Sam Cates invests through Virta Ventures, which writes checks of $100K to $1M at pre-seed, seed.
How do I pitch Sam Cates?
A warm intro from a founder Virta Ventures backed works best.
What did Sam Cates do before Virta Ventures?
General Electric; GE Ventures; Positive Sum; Corporate Audit Staff at General Electric; Venture Investing at GE Ventures; Partner and Founder at Positive Sum.
Last updated 2026-10-15. Is this you? Ask for a correction.