Going Solo

Enrico Mellis spent a year at the startup that became Foodora, nearly five at Project A, and four and a half more at Lakestar. In November 2025 he launched Animal: no fund, no management fee, just his own check going in first on every deal, with a small group of angels invited in behind him. Here’s what stuck with me: * Venture is really three jobs wearing one trenchcoat: sourcing, selecting and s...

A few weeks ago I sat down with Sarah Drinkwater, founder of Common Magic. Sarah came to venture from the outside. Journalist, club night runner, vintage clothing shop owner, operator, angel. Her journey looks nothing like a straight line. As you often find, that’s kind of the point. Her fund, Common Magic , backs products with community at their core, building on her experience creating products...

Adam Besvinick of Looking Glass Capital has been investing at pre-seed for over a decade — solo, and on his own terms. In this episode, he joins Dan to talk about cold-emailing his way into a role at Lowercase Capital, what he learned from Chris Sacca that still guides him today, and what marks don't tell you about the companies that matter most. This is a public episode. If you would like to disc...

Odin’s research lead Dan Gray takes the conversation online to meet emerging managers and solo GPs from around the world, unpacking their investing journey and thesis. In this episode, Dan sits down with Arian Ghashghai, who founded Earthling VC in 2023 to back weird, fringe, early-stage companies across future computing, robotics, AR/VR, AI, bio, and more. They discuss the challenges of raising i...

Lawrence Lundy-Bryan is the General Partner & Head of Research at Cloudberry VC, Europe’s first dedicated semiconductor VC, launched in 2025. In this episode, he joins Paddy Ryan to discuss chip investing, photonics, and why the next decade may be built in the physical world. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, vis...