People ask what I look for in a company. The honest answer is that I rarely start with the company. I start with the people.
Ideas are cheap and markets are volatile. A brilliant idea in the wrong hands stalls; an ordinary idea in the right hands compounds. Over two decades of building and backing technology companies, the single most reliable predictor of outcome I have seen is not the pitch deck — it is the founder’s relationship with reality: how quickly they learn, how honestly they face problems, and how fast they move from insight to action.
Three things I look for
Clarity before execution. The best founders can explain what they are doing and why in one clear sentence. Confusion in the explanation is usually confusion in the plan.
Speed over hesitation. Markets reward those who act and iterate, not those who wait for certainty that never comes.
Systems over heroics. Individual effort does not scale. Founders who build systems — for hiring, for decisions, for feedback — outgrow those who rely on personal firefighting.
Why this matters now
We are entering a phase where AI will reshape how value is created. Tools will change every year. What will not change is the human capacity to see clearly, decide quickly, and build systems that outlast any single tool. That is why I invest in people first — and why I expect it to matter more, not less, in the decade ahead.