Finding founders before they show up on any VC's radar

And I bring in people that know the technology a little bit more than my, if I have blind, those are my blind spots. But, ⁓ you know, what I really, what I tend to really lean into when I'm looking for, these founders is really people who are intellectually curious, like they could have all the money in the world and all the success in the world. And, and I always say to them, You have, you have 10 seconds to answer this question. If you weren't doing what you're doing right now, what would, what would be your next company? And the really good founders always know what that next company would be. And so there's, there's a real zeal for people who are great builders. Like, I, met, Chad Rigetti, ⁓ and a Dalia who, ⁓ started a Segaldry, which is AI or a quantum computing company, really trying to solve the issue of the physical limitations of AI compute. And he was presenting with 140 other people at Y Combinator. And I met with him after. And I saw his last name. I'm like, this guy is, this is like the Thomas Edison in this particular domain. And

Mm.

He was not surrounded by people. There were a lot of people enchanted by a lot of other companies and we had a great conversation. They're building their company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And I have no idea what his financial successes have been or Adelio's financial successes are. I do know that if he built and sold this company or tuck it public and his brain would bring him back towards building the next. thing and, I finding people like that is, is the most extraordinary thing. And you see that. again, looking at thousands and thousands of founders over time, you begin to sort of see these signals and it's the signals, the really super early stage signals that are what I look for. don't look for, mean, I, I invest in some other companies that are.

Yeah.

You know, well along their way, like I was not an early investor in, you know, in anthropic. That was me. Just, this is an incredible company. ⁓ I don't chase a lot of these things, but my, my intuition is to focus on very early stage founders where the company hasn't even shown up on any VCs radar because their idea hasn't come into form and doesn't have a financial model tied to it. There's a lot of people that talk about.

Mm.

⁓ Heretical thinking, and in other words, trying to see something that is beyond human comprehension that no one else really understands. And like polymathic AI is an example of that. And you, you look at these type of companies and they, they're, they're just a long way away from generating any revenues. But I have all the time in the world to sit and talk and work through that.

Hmm.

with those founders and I, and I relish that space. It's a, it's a long journey before there's a monetization event, but it's, you know, if you're, if you're willing to sit with somebody a long time and work with their, with their, their ideas, I mean, like that, that really is, is unique. It's a good spot to be in for sure.