What qualities matter when investing in deep tech startups?

Josh Kopelman

Founder and Partner · First Round Capital

Founders Deeply Engaged with Customers

Josh Kopelman says his firm loves founders who have gone unreasonably deep with customers, because they invest so early that by the time they form a thesis it's too late and founders surface problems they didn't know about.

🚀Michal Rokosz

Partner

Agency

Michal Rokosz says he looks for agency, the attitude that when something needs to be done, you just get it done, and says his fund's type of founder is someone with an entrepreneurial achievement long before the first company.

Morgan Hitzig

General Partner · Overmatch Ventures

Top-Tier Founding Team

Morgan Hitzig says he looks for a top-tier founding team, asking why they are a top five team to build the company and why they are perfect for the problem, since they will be on the journey for 10 years.

The answer starts at 14:05.

Itamar Novick

Founder & General Partner · Recursive Ventures

Domain Expertise

Itamar Novick says domain expertise is the competitive advantage now—deep understanding of customer needs and how AI can rewrite workflows for tangible ROI—not young founders who code fast.

The answer starts at 21:31.

Ross Fubini

Managing Partner · Xyz Venture Capital

Deep Customer Insight

Ross Fubini says he looks for deep customer insight—founders obsessed with access to the problem and how customers feel the pain, so they can understand what to build.

The answer starts at 9:33.

David Weisburd

Founder · Weisburd Capital

Founder Product Fit

David Weisburd says he looks for founder product fit, which he calls underrated, and loves to back founders who productize themselves, making it their entire identity.

The answer starts at 29:19.

MF

Morgan Flager

Managing Partner · Silverton Partners

Grit and Long-Term Conviction

Morgan Flager says he looks for grit, resolve and long-term conviction: a founder who won't walk away and attaches personal reputation to the business, not a 'sunshine patriot' who bails when things get hard.

Subrata Mitra

Partner · Accel

Vision and Team-Building

Subrata Mitra says he looks for founders who truly believe in their idea and can build a great team, including having a vision that attracts talent better than themselves.

The answer starts at 27:15.

Julien-David Nitlech

Managing Partner · Iris

Market Anchor

Julien-David Nitlech says he looks for a market anchor—deep tech mature enough that reference players see it as disruptive but usable—because going too deep too early risks a vision the market isn't ready for.

MI

Manu Iyer

Co-Founder & General Partner · Bluehill.Vc

Founder Quality

Manu Iyer says founder quality is non-negotiable, along with the pain that put the founder on that path and the founder's ability to tell that story, since not everyone understands the nuances of the tech.

SK

Steve Kupfer

Partner · Reach Capital

Curiosity

Steve Kupfer says he looks for curiosity, which he calls probably the single biggest characteristic in a founder, since without authentic curiosity the friction of managing volatility becomes much more intense.

Thomas Bigagli 🪐

Partner · Plug And Play Tech Center

Visionary, Complementary Team

Thomas Bigagli says the common ground he looks for is a visionary and complementary founding team, considering how the founders met, how much their skills complement each other and their ambition.

Eric Vishria

General Partner · Benchmark

Chemistry

Eric Vishria says he looks for chemistry with the entrepreneur, because as a partner first he needs to feel they can work together effectively and learn from each other.

RJ

Raviraj Jain

Partner · Lightspeed

Ambition

Raviraj Jain says he looks for ambition, describing prodigy founders with the ambition to deliver and repeat founders who become more ambitious after success.

Yuval Ariav

Managing Partner · Symbol

Depth

Yuval Ariav says the quality he looks for when investing is depth, calling it the overarching theme for his team and saying it is correlated with other skills of success.

David Frankel

Managing Partner · Founder Collective

Youth, Energy, Focus, Smarts

David Frankel says he looks for youth, energy, focus, and smarts in founders, calling that combination an intoxicating package that still turns him on at the early stage.

NC

Navin Chaddha

Managing Partner · Mayfield Fund

Domain Expertise

Navin Chaddha says domain expertise—length of experience in that area—is critical in some layers of the stack, because otherwise founders will not have learned how to solve those hard problems.

Charles Hudson

Managing Partner · Precursor Ventures

Creation Experience

Charles Hudson says he looks for whether a founder has been part of a creation or formation phase, because corporate success can leave people unprepared for the unstructured demands of building from scratch.

Jason Gray

Founder & Managing Partner · Pioneer Fund

Unique Insight, Fast Progress

Jason Gray says he looks for unique insight—what founders see that the rest of the market may not—and rate of progress, or how fast they're moving, especially in hard tech or biotech where customer traction isn't daily.

Nico Lechuga

General Partner + Founder · Ego Death Capital

Solving Real Problem

Nico Lechuga says a key thing he looks for when investing is a startup solving a real problem in the world today, because just using Bitcoin's technology isn't enough to have a successful business.