What factors matter most in investment analysis?

🚀Michal Rokosz

Partner

Outlier Potential

Michal Rokosz says his job is to find the anomalies—outlier potential—because companies that become decacorns are outliers rather than the regular course of action, and standard inputs wouldn't produce nonstandard output.

Kenan Saleh

Investment Partner · Andreessen Horowitz

Team Commitment

Kenan Saleh says the most important factor is that the team is fully bought in and willing to leave their jobs to build full time, while other factors like traction or location are flexible.

Itamar Novick

Founder & General Partner · Recursive Ventures

TAM, Moat, Team, Category-Winner Potential

Itamar Novick says he weighs the TAM, the moat, the team and the characteristics of a category winner, because VC-scale businesses need those to become the one winner-takes-all company.

The answer starts at 36:16.

Andy Rachleff

Chairman · Wealthfront

Product Market Fit

Andy Rachleff says he prioritizes product market fit, calling proving the value hypothesis—finding the market that cares for your product—the core of it.

Jeff Morris Jr.

Founder & General Partner · Chapter One

Milestones to Next Round

Jeff Morris Jr. says a big thing he thinks about is the milestones a company needs to raise its next round, since raising at a very high seed valuation can make a later flat or down round fatal.

MF

Morgan Flager

Managing Partner · Silverton Partners

Founder's Personal Experience

Morgan Flager says he prioritizes founders' personal experiences and background to distinguish genuine obsession from trend-chasing, and says motivation matters because building a company is hard.

Anish Acharya

General Partner · Andreessen Horowitz

Big Idea

Anish Acharya says he looks for how big the idea is when analyzing companies, because the key lesson is to be more ambitious.

The answer starts at 1:04:13.

NQ

Nicole Quinn

Managing Partner, Co-Founder @ Connect Ventures · Connect Ventures

Strong Founder

Nicole Quinn says the factor she prioritizes is the founder, looking for the exact right person—ideally the best in the world to build that startup—because they bring the right tools and experience.

The answer starts at 17:31.

Subrata Mitra

Partner · Accel

Founder Conviction and Team-Building Ability

Subrata Mitra says he looks for founders who truly believe in the idea they are pitching, and second for their ability to form great teams and attract talent, which may have to be better than the founder's own.

The answer starts at 26:26.

Thomas Bigagli 🪐

Partner · Plug And Play Tech Center

Founder Team

Thomas Bigagli says the common ground in evaluating companies is a visionary and complementary founding team—how the founders met, how their skills complement each other, and their ambition—though he says evaluation differs by geography, company type and TRL.

Sunil Dhaliwal

Founder and General Partner · Amplify Partners

Durable Revenue and Margin

Sunil Dhaliwal prioritizes durable revenue, contribution margin, consistency and value delivered to a customer, saying these are everything.

Yuval Ariav

Managing Partner · Symbol

Depth

Yuval Ariav says the one overarching theme for his team is depth, which he says is correlated with other skills of success, such as hiring, strategy, planning and accountability.

David Frankel

Managing Partner · Founder Collective

Youth, Energy, Focus, Smarts

David Frankel says he prioritizes youth, energy, focus and smarts, saying that package together is intoxicating and that early-stage focus and intensity makes him want to be part of it.

Rick Zullo

Founder and Managing Partner · Equal Ventures

Net Margin and Moat

Rick Zullo prioritizes net margin and the industry's moat structure, saying net margin can't be known without understanding the moat and that what matters is whether a position becomes defensible at scale.

Mark Peter Davis

Managing Partner · Interplay

Barriers and Market Size

Mark Peter Davis says that whenever he looks at a market, the two factors are barriers and market size, calling that the combination that matters, with the venture-scale yield in companies that have real barriers and huge markets.

Jason Gray

Founder & Managing Partner · Pioneer Fund

Unique Insight and Speed

Jason Gray says he prioritizes unique insight—what founders see that the market doesn't—and rate of progress, how fast they move and crush problems, especially in hard tech where customer traction isn't daily.

Ellen Chisa

Partner · Boldstart Ventures

How They Think About Products

Ellen Chisa says she tends to get to know people by learning how they think about products, looking for the through line of what they're building and why; she doesn't spend much time on TAM.