Sierra Ventures

The DPI Podcast

Business EN ↓ 4 episodes

We are Deconstructing Pre-seed Investing. We want to showcase the world's best pre-seed investors so they can talk about how they identify the best companies and the themes they're excited about. We also want to help founders find the best fits for their companies to help them build generational businesses.

Author

Sierra Ventures

Episodes

Ep. 4: The Naive Optimist Thesis: Betting on Founders Who Don't Know the Box Exists | Charles Hudson, Precursor Ventures 25.06.2026 56:39

Charles Hudson has backed 500+ teams over 10 years at Precursor Ventures — one of the original pre-seed firms. In this episode, he explains why his biggest winners come from "naive optimist" founders who break industry rules, why he thinks AI software might have no real moats, and how his contrarian 75/25 reserve strategy is finally getting validated. (0:00) Introduction and Charles Huds...

DPI Podcast Ep. 3: Don't Be Contrarian — Just Be Right: Sheel Mohnot, Better Tomorrow Ventures 28.05.2026 58:59

Sheel Mohnot, co-founder and GP of Better Tomorrow Ventures, has deployed $450M across three dedicated fintech funds and says the VC obsession with contrarianism is overrated — "you just have to be right." In this episode, Sheel breaks down BTV's accounting shortage thesis (3 bets from 3 different angles), how he competes with multi-stage funds at pre-seed, why he intentionally shran...

Ep 2: Software Beyond the Screen: 9 Years of Nerdy-and-Early Investing | Sunil Nagaraj, Ubiquity 22.04.2026 1:04:18

Sunil Nagaraj is the solo GP of Ubiquity Ventures and a 9-year pioneer of what he calls "software beyond the screen." He backed Rocket Lab at a $30M valuation, led Halter's seed after a 45-minute meeting at Il Fornaio (Halter just raised $220M at a $2B valuation from Founders Fund), and has one of the highest seed-to-Series-A graduation rates in the business. In this episode, he brea...

Ep. 1: Imagine Claude 14 — Why Do You Still Exist? | Nic Poulos, Euclid Ventures 25.03.2026 1:16:46

Nic Poulos asks every vertical AI founder the same question: "Imagine Claude 14 — it does everything seamlessly. Why do you still exist?" With $611B wiped from SaaS market caps in 2026, that's no longer a thought experiment. Nic is the Founder and GP at Euclid Ventures, a pre-seed fund focused on vertical AI, and has been writing first checks into vertical software for 15 years acros...