VC Uncovered

Mercedes Bent spent six years as a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, worked at the Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crisis, and founded her own startup. Now she's building Premise, the early-stage VC firm she co-founded with Vanessa Larco, as a deliberate rejection of what venture capital has become."We have become an index play," Mercedes said on VC Uncovered. "And I'm basically doing the anti of that."Premise focuses on pre-seed and seed investing in the AI ecosystem, small by design and deliberate by strategy. Mercedes believes the technology is real but the market is running ahead of itself. "We're in a hypey moment of AI, but in the grand scheme of things, this is such early innings. More akin to when mobile was coming out than it is to the end of the mobile cycle." She pointed to potential IPOs of OpenAI and Anthropic as the likely correction point, when public market investors apply fundamentals-based scrutiny private markets have avoided.At the center of Premise's sourcing is Surreal, a community Mercedes started as a dinner series for engineers and AI researchers. The first gathering happened in her living room. It has since moved to art galleries, drawing over 5,200 applicants in the past year. Most attendees don't know there's a VC behind it. "The minute you're saying, hey, here's office hours for VCs, now people are posturing. I wanna get to know the real you."Mercedes also applies behavioral economics as both a diligence lens and personal discipline. She looks for founders who understand the emotional architecture of their product. On the personal side, she flags the risk of getting captured by a founder's energy and letting excitement override judgment. "I get so excited about founders sometimes on the very first meeting and I think it through and I'm like, well, it's a terrible deal. Maybe they're just good at talking." The training is to make sure the founder, product, market, and deal terms all earn conviction independently.Her bet is that firms built on relationship density rather than deal volume will survive cycles better. "I wanna see that whole journey with you. And have you naturally come to it."This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC. SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders, pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

What does it mean to invest when moats are disappearing and anyone can build an MVP by 1 a.m.? That question sits at the center of this conversation with Haley Bryant, Partner at Hustle Fund, one of the earliest voices to appear in the VC Uncovered newsletter.Hustle Fund invests at the earliest stages, writing first checks into companies 50% of the time across B2B, fintech, and health tech. Haley is based in the DMV and has spent the past year expanding her focus into cybersecurity, dual-use technology, and energy, backed by capital awarded from Washington, D.C.The conversation opens on a theme that runs through everything: execution speed. Haley describes a founder she nearly passed on because he had no defensible moat. His response was direct. His only moat was execution velocity. She wrote the check. The business has been moving ever since, starting in fintech and expanding into physical AI. That outcome shapes how she approaches sourcing now, spending more time with teams over weeks to measure pace rather than evaluating a pitch deck as a static snapshot.Drew and Haley also dig into what "AI-first" actually looks like when evaluating companies. Drew's threshold is simple: are founders running out of AI credits multiple days a week? If they are, the behavior is there. The tools are the same for everyone. What separates founders is how obsessively they use them.On the fintech side, Drew makes the case that embedded fintech is no longer a wave, it has already passed. The opportunity now sits in the unsexy, deeply technical infrastructure layers that most investors never think to look for. He describes this as invisible fintech, businesses that do not look like fintech from the outside but are powered entirely by financial rails underneath. Haley connects this to her conviction in vertical AI, particularly businesses that can get into the flow of payments at the industry level.The two also discuss the consortium model, a strategy where early-stage founders partner with companies in adjacent spaces to create distribution leverage and show up to enterprise customers as a more complete solution rather than a point product.Haley closes on two areas she is actively backing. One is Fortify Education, a lending-as-a-service platform for trade schools helping more people access skilled trades at a time when the workforce gap is widening. The other is a satellite communications company building Twilio-style infrastructure for laser-based data transmission between satellites, a space she believes is deeply underserved given how much data will need to move as AI infrastructure expands into orbit.Speed round topics include Haley's side gig teaching SoulCycle, the case for the nine-minute nap, OpenAI Whisper as a daily AI tool, and a recommendation for "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind," a book on curiosity that she says shaped how she approaches both investing and life.This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC. SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

The next wave of fintech may not look like fintech at all. Bukie Adebo Umeano, early-stage investor at Anthemis Group, has spent four years building an investment thesis around that idea. The firm calls it invisible finance: financial services so well-built that nobody notices they are there. No app to open, no form to fill out. Just a business owner making decisions while the banking, lending, and payments infrastructure adjusts automatically in the background.In this episode, Bukie breaks down financial services innovation in three waves. Wave one was digitization, moving from branches and phone calls to mobile interfaces. Wave two was embedded finance, putting financial products at the point of need inside existing business tools. Wave three, where Anthemis is writing checks now, is the version where financial services simply run in the background. "We don't think about our electricity, do we?" Bukie said. "You just walk into a room, you turn on the lights, you never think twice about the fact that the lights work."Before she was an investor, Bukie was a founder. That operator experience reshaped how she thinks about the VC-founder relationship. She explains why a VC who loved your pitch still passed, why go-to-market questions come earlier than founders expect, and why portfolio construction means great companies get turned down all the time. "There are so many great companies that we have not invested in, knowing they were great companies," she said.Bukie also gets into what actually qualifies as a moat, and why most claims to defensibility are overstated. The one she takes seriously is genuine network effects: "Why does having company A make it easier, better, or more likely for company B to also be part of this network?" She looks for reinforcing data loops and deep workflow integration, where a product embeds itself in the place users already work.At Anthemis, the early-stage fund focuses on pre-seed and seed companies in "high assurance" industries: financial services, healthcare, energy, and other heavily regulated categories. The infrastructure plays Bukie finds most compelling right now include core banking rebuilt with AI, data orchestration platforms, and coordination layer businesses that unify the growing stack of AI agents companies are already using.Bukie also shares how growing up as the second of four sisters shaped her thinking. "Be open to being incorrect," she said. "I learned that at a very young age."Her framework keeps returning to a counterintuitive place: the less visible the technology, the more interesting the investment. The question she keeps asking is not where the flashiest opportunity is, but where the work will still need to happen regardless of what the technology does next, and who is building the invisible infrastructure to support it.This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC. SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

What if the best venture opportunities are hiding in industries that software never touched?Nicole Tommaso, Principal at Harlem Capital, joined VC Uncovered to break down the firm's contrarian approach to early-stage investing. She explains why she believes AI is unlocking markets that were completely closed to venture just a decade ago.Harlem Capital backs underrepresented founders at the seed stage ($1M–$2.5M checks), but their edge isn't just who they back. It's how they think. Nicole explains why the firm evaluates a founder's childhood before their business plan, what a "high slope of learning" actually looks like, and why the most telling interview question is: what's the earliest entrepreneurial thing you remember doing?She also unpacks Harlem's biggest investment theme right now: leapfrogging legacy industries. Truckers, tradespeople, and small business owners never adopted software. But they're adopting AI. And that generational handoff from Boomers to Millennials is cracking open markets that venture capital couldn't touch before.Plus: why proprietary data is the last real moat, what metric is replacing ARR in the AI era, and the simple nighttime habit that keeps Nicole sharp in one of the most demanding jobs in venture.In this episode:How Harlem Capital spots founders built to lastThe "leapfrog" thesis and why legacy industries are the new frontierWhat defensibility actually looks like when building costs near zeroWhy Harlem isn't backing down on diversity, even as the industry pulls awayThis season is supported by SVB, Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC. This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not investment, financial, or legal advice.

Read the VC Uncovered profile: ⁠⁠https://www.vcuncovered.com/p/atlas-berry-m1cIn this podcast:Drew Glover talks to Atlas Berry from Mission One Capital (M1C) on the "physical AI" revolution and the industrial infrastructure required to power it.Atlas, the founder of M1C, explains that the U.S. power grid is facing a "comfort crisis," currently unable to meet the massive energy demands of AI. He positions M1C as a specialist partner focusing on three pillars: energy, industrial resilience, and earth systems. By prioritizing "behind the meter" power generation and Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), the firm aims to build a decentralized, resilient power landscape that can operate independently of the traditional, strained grid.The conversation takes a compelling turn as Atlas shares his transition from high-stakes investment banking in South African mines—where meetings required security sweeps for explosives—to managing the global footprint of Linkin Park. These high-pressure environments, coupled with early venture experience backing companies like Lyft and Snap, shaped his "performance protocol" for evaluating the next generation of industrial founders.The episode is particularly insightful when he discusses the "Misogi": an annual challenge with a 50% chance of failure designed to recalibrate a founder’s mental and physical endurance. Atlas argues that building in hard-tech is an endurance sport, requiring "battle-tested" individuals from military or elite engineering backgrounds. He cautions that in an infrastructure-heavy future, specialized VCs must act as more than just capital providers, serving as deep value-add partners for those solving tangible, world-scale problems.Sponsor:This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC. SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We’re proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

Tarun Gupta (Jump Capital)Read the VC Uncovered Profile:https://www.vcuncovered.com/p/tarun-gupta-jump-capitalIn this Podcast:Drew Glover talks to Tarun Gupta, Partner at Jump Capital, for a deep discussion on the foundations of high-conviction, early-stage venture capital investing. Drawing on his previous experience in M&A and corporate development within the sports betting industry, Gupta outlines his unique, outcome-oriented approach to identifying generational companies. Central to his philosophy is the “Quit Your Job” litmus test, asserting that a strong investment must inspire such belief in the founder and the problem that an investor would seriously consider leaving their post to join the venture. Furthermore, Gupta challenges the conventional reliance on Total Addressable Market (TAM), arguing that an overly narrow focus can cause VCs to overlook revolutionary companies like Uber or Toast, whose founders ultimately define new market opportunities through clarity of execution.Gupta explains that this strategic foresight extends to approaching every investment with an M&A mindset from inception. He stresses the critical importance of positioning a company for exit and having frank discussions with founders about the optimal timing for a transaction—often before they feel they have reached their peak value creation. The conversation also explores how Jump Capital is strategically engaging with the rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence. Gupta clarifies that their focus transcends merely using AI to improve margins in existing services. Instead, they seek out AI-enabled business models that can profitably serve previously un-addressable or underserved markets, thereby creating new, venture-backable categories.The episode concludes with a rapid-fire Q&A session where Gupta offers sharp insights on specific investment topics. This includes analyzing the success of the live online gaming company Evolution Gaming, recognizing the surprising, transformative operational efficiency of AI note-takers for VCs, and identifying London and the UK as a primary target for international FinTech investment due to its unique market position and talent pool.Sponsor:This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC. SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We’re proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

Nancy Hilliker (RPS Ventures)Read the VC Uncovered profile: ⁠www.vcuncovered.com/p/nancy-hilliker-rps-venturesIn this podcast:Drew Glover and Nancy Hilliker discuss the intricacies of venture capital, focusing on the challenges and strategies involved in being a generalist investor. Nancy shares her insights on navigating the venture space, the importance of building relationships with founders, and the balance between data and team dynamics in underwriting investments. They also explore the significance of empathy and kindness in fostering trust within the investment community, as well as Nancy’s unique transition from equity research to venture capital.In this conversation, Nancy Hilliker shares her insights on the venture capital landscape, particularly focusing on the implications of AI in various sectors. She discusses the dichotomy between the rapid adoption of technology in finance compared to the slower pace in healthcare, and emphasizes the importance of understanding the unique value propositions of AI companies. The discussion also touches on the cautious approach to investing amidst the AI hype cycle, the significance of long-term perspectives, and the necessity of networking in the VC space.Sponsor:This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC.SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We’re proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

Read The VC Uncovered profile : ⁠https://www.vcuncovered.com/p/nia-patel-montage-venturesIn this podcast:Drew Glover talks to Nia from Montage Ventures on the required mindset for venture capital and the power of "outsider" founders.Nia, a Vice President at the seed-stage firm Montage Ventures, explains that in today’s environment, capital is a commodity. VCs must therefore be more than just “expensive passengers”; they must act as a co-founder and sparring partner for the entrepreneurs they back. She highlights Montage’s hands-on commitment, noting that their team of operators and founders actively supports talent placement and commercialization, helping the firm achieve an extraordinary 100% follow-on financing rate from seed to Series A in Fund 3 (17 for 17 deals).The conversation takes a compelling turn as Nia shares how her time in the Royal Air Force (RAF) Combined Cadet Force instilled a "Positive Mental Attitude (PMA)"—a core belief that informed conviction and optimism are essential, not naive, mindsets for success in venture.The episode is particularly insightful when she discusses Montage's "outsider" investment thesis: true disruption rarely comes from inside. Nia argues that insiders carry "cognitive debt" and an incentive to defend the status quo, whereas outsiders, often driven by a deeply personal and lived problem, approach challenges as first-principles thinkers, unburdened by established rules. She cautions that venture capital's reliance on pattern matching (right schools, logos, polished decks) risks mistaking familiarity for quality, ultimately causing investors to miss "generational founders" who exist on the margins.Sponsor:This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC.SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

Read her VC Uncovered profile : https://www.vcuncovered.com/p/samantha-klingelhofer-infinity-venturesIn her podcast:Drew Glover talks to Samantha Klingelhofer from Infinity Ventures on the obsessive mindset of elite founders and VCs. Sam explains Infinity's "founder indexed" approach to B2B FinTech and commerce, and why she believes "constraints force clarity" and lead to better, more capital-efficient companies.The conversation gets really interesting when Sam, an elite competitive cyclist, details her "psychotic" 15-20 hour-a-week training regimen. She explains how managing "pain versus progress" directly parallels the "totally obsessive" nature of the best founders.She also shares the powerful story of her mom's 30-year journey at Williams-Sonoma, rising from an entry-level buyer to becoming the longest-tenured female CEO in the Fortune 500, and how that front-row seat taught her that she "can do it all."Sponsor:This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC.SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

Elias Mufarech - Collide CapitalRead his VC Uncovered Profile: https://www.vcuncovered.com/p/elias-mufarech-collide-capitalRead his VC Uncovered Profile: Drew Glover talks to Elias Mufarech from Collide Capital on his journey from Peru to venture capital and his investment philosophy of "finding exceptions". Elias details his path, including launching Endeavor in Peru , working at a B2B FinTech startup in Mexico City , and scaling Cloud Kitchens with Travis Kalanick during the chaotic early days of the pandemic.The conversation gets really interesting when Elias introduces his "Baker's Son thesis", explaining how watching his father build a company from scratch in Peru shaped how he underwrites founders based on their craft and passion. He also offers a fascinating look at Collide's unique student scout program , describing it as one of the largest in the U.S. and explaining why their long-term, educational approach is more valuable than a traditional, transactional deal-sourcing model.Sponsor:This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC.SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

David Roos - Core Innovation CapitalRead his VC Uncovered Profile: https://www.vcuncovered.com/p/david-roos-core-innovation-capitalPodcast Summary:Drew Glover (Fiat Ventures) talks to David Roos from Core Innovation Capital on the power of the "anti-mega fund" and investing to "do good and do well". David details his journey from a lucrative but unfulfilling career in fixed-income trading to venture capital, explaining why he believes smaller, strategic funds are better for founders. He argues that mega-funds often treat seed rounds as mere "option bets" and are incentivized to play a "management fee game" , while his ~$100 million fund takes meaningful ownership and is truly aligned with building fund-returning businesses.The conversation gets really interesting when David explains how Core quantifies its impact thesis. He introduces their "trillion dollar metric" —an audacious goal to create $1 trillion in net new worth for everyday people by investing in companies that save them money or help them earn more. He also offers a provocative take on Direct-to-Consumer FinTech, declaring it "very much alive" and poised for a new wave driven by AI-powered personalization and automated finance.Sponsor:This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC.SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

Courtney Leimkuhler - Springbank.VCRead her VC Uncovered profile here: https://www.vcuncovered.com/p/courtney-leimkuhler-springbankvcPodcast Summary: Drew Glover talks to Courtney Leimkuhler from Springbank Collective on investing in the overlooked backbone of our economy. Courtney breaks down Springbank's thesis of funding the critical infrastructure for how we work, live, and care—tackling massive, historically underfunded markets like childcare and elder care. She introduces the "Doritos versus daycare" paradox: while consumer goods have become cheap and abundant, essential services for families have become prohibitively expensive and difficult to access, creating a huge opportunity for innovation.The conversation gets really interesting when Courtney shares how her deep background as an operator in "big finance," including running M&A for the New York Stock Exchange, gives her an edge. She explains how she uses her intuition not as a gut feeling to invest, but as a "veto power" to walk away from deals, especially when founder dynamics feel off or early customer wins seem unrepeatable, not just unscalable. She also offers sharp advice for founders in the care space, warning them to avoid the "me" trap of building for their own niche problem instead of solving for care as the massive economic infrastructure issue it truly is.Sponsor:This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC.SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

Xan Wood - Canvas PrimeRead his VC Uncovered profile here: https://www.vcuncovered.com/p/xan-wood-canvas-primeSummary:Drew Glover talks to Xan Wood from Canvas Prime on the art of being "long-term greedy." Xan breaks down his core investment philosophy, which treats providing value as a compounding function. He explains how consistently helping people and sharing deal flow without expecting an immediate return builds invaluable goodwill and opportunity over a decade-long fund cycle. He also shares how he finds diamonds in the rough by avoiding the hyper-competitive "power law" deals and instead focusing on businesses at their go-to-market inflection point.The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Xan recounts one of his first entrepreneurial ventures: launching a wildly successful boxing gig as a student. This story offers a raw look at his early hustle and his knack for finding unlikely partners in chaotic environments. He also explains his "Mosaic Theory" for due diligence, a framework for piecing together an investment thesis from incomplete, and sometimes conflicting, information to see the full picture of a company's potential.Sponsor:This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC.SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.

Jeff Becker - AntlerRead his VC Uncovered profile here: https://www.vcuncovered.com/p/jeff-becker-antlerDrew Glover talks to Jeff Becker from Antler on backing people, not companies. Jeff explains Antler's unique model of investing in founders at "day zero"—sometimes before an idea is fully formed or a company is even incorporated. He shares how Antler provides the capital, culture, and community to help individuals get through the most vulnerable stage of their journey.The conversation gets really interesting when Jeff describes Antler's ideal founder as a "maniac"—an outlier who is intensely driven, creative, and inspiring. He also breaks down Antler's investment strategy, framing it as both an "insurance policy and a lottery ticket." He explains how their high-diversification approach gives their fund a 63% chance of landing a $10 billion company, offering a compelling look at a different way to approach venture capital.Sponsor:This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC.SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.