Investment Thesis
The Connected Ecosystem
An operator's perspective on the next decade of infrastructure and connectivity.
01. The Opportunity
The connectivity revolution is just beginning. The next decade will fundamentally reshape how people, places, and things interact.
The next $100B in telecom value won't be built by AT&T or Ericsson. It will be built by the startups they need to acquire.
The carriers spent a decade and hundreds of billions on 5G infrastructure. Now they need software, AI, and edge intelligence to monetize it — and they lack the organizational agility to build it internally. That creates a narrow window for early-stage companies with the right domain access and distribution relationships.
Stormbreaker was built for exactly this window. Our GPs ran the networks, led the divisions, and signed the enterprise contracts. We don't study this market. We built it.
02. The Eight Pillars
Mobility & Wireless Technologies
Devices, services and infrastructure that enable users to access, share, and manage information without being tethered to a specific location, fostering greater connectivity and flexibility in their environments.
Networking
Integrated systems and protocols that enable the secure and efficient exchange of data across interconnected devices, facilitating both localized and wide-area communication services, including private networks and SIM technology.
IoT Devices
Interconnected objects (consumer and industrial) and sensors that communicate over the internet, enabling the collection, exchange, and analysis of data to enhance automation and efficiency in various aspects of daily life and industry.
Telematics & Transportation
Technology used to remotely monitor and manage vehicles and equipment, gathering and transmitting data on usage, location, and diagnostics to optimize performance, safety, and efficiency.
Edge Compute & Distributed Infrastructure
Computing and storage resources deployed at or near the point of data generation — reducing latency, enabling real-time intelligence, and shifting processing power from centralized clouds to the distributed endpoints where connectivity meets the physical world.
Private Networks & Open RAN
Software-defined network architectures that replace proprietary hardware with open, interoperable systems — enabling enterprises, carriers, and government to deploy dedicated wireless infrastructure with greater flexibility, lower cost, and faster innovation cycles.
AI-Native Connectivity
Machine learning and AI systems purpose-built for the connected ecosystem — optimizing network performance, automating infrastructure operations, and enabling intelligent applications across wireless, edge, and industrial environments.
Industrial Connectivity
Automation, sensing, and connectivity technologies that bring American industrial infrastructure into the software-defined era — enabling factories, supply chains, and critical infrastructure to operate with the intelligence, resilience, and efficiency required to compete globally.
03. Why Stormbreaker
The incumbent infrastructure providers are large, complex, and slow-moving. Startups building agile, software-defined solutions for networking, security, and edge computing are poised to capture immense value. The transition from monolithic hardware to distributed, intelligent software isn't coming — it's already underway. The incumbents are too slow to lead it. That's the opening.
No one sees this market the way we do. No one is better positioned to back the companies reshaping it. Our GPs ran AT&T Mobility, led Qualcomm, and built Clearnet from startup to a $6.6B acquisition. We've been the customer, the partner, and the acquirer. We know exactly what it takes to win in this market — because we're the ones who used to decide.
There is virtually nothing we haven’t seen.