# VC10X - Investing $80 Million in AI Startups - Elizabeth Weil, Founder & Managing Partner, Scribble Ventures

An episode of [VC10X - Investing, Venture Capital, Asset Management, Family Office, Wealth Management](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1632806986), 29 Jul 2025, 37 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/a453ddd4/podcast/play/106148742/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-6-29%2F404741587-44100-2-617f1df2b718c.mp3

Elizabeth Weil, founder and managing partner of Scribble Ventures, just closed an $80 million Fund III focused on AI-native startups. She spent seven years at Twitter during hypergrowth from 60 to 2,500 employees, then built the Market Development team at Andreessen Horowitz. ⭐ Sponsored by Podcast10x - Podcasting agency for VCs - https://podcast10x.com Key Topics discussed: The Scribble Network - 100+ operators and executives providing deal flow and portfolio support - Strategic angels helping companies scale - "Unfair advantages" through warm connections AI Investment Philosophy - Backing "AI-native" founders who "grew up" with the technology - Focus on proprietary data and unique workflows - Moat matters more than ever in a noisy landscape Bold Predictions - Every person will have a personalized tutor in their pocket - Digital immortality: preserving knowledge beyond physical existence - AI transforming healthcare, education, and daily behaviors Founder Evaluation - Key question: "Why are you the team on this planet that is going to be able to build this company?" - Looking for "guttural desire" vs. whiteboard solutions - Warm introductions as primary signal Fund Details - $80M Fund III for pre-seed and seed - $750K - $1.5M initial checks - Can lead, co-lead, or follow rounds - Intentionally generalist despite AI focus Contact: - Website: scribble.vc - Email: hello@scribble.vc - X: @elizabeth Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (02:39) Elizabeth's journey from Stanford to Twitter (03:08) Early career and how she got into tech and startups (08:57) The Scribble Network and how it helps portfolio companies (12:21) Definition of AI-native companies and key characteristics of founding teams (14:17) Assessing the defensibility of a startup's data strategy (15:39) Learnings from operating at Twitter and Andreessen Horowitz (18:08) Key factors for investing at pre-seed and seed stages (20:13) Fundraising experience for Fund Three and navigating the LP landscape (23:03) Approach to valuations in the AI startup ecosystem (24:28) Exciting AI sub-sectors and areas with potential (30:15) Evaluating startups in a rapidly evolving AI landscape (31:51) Advice for early-stage founders on building their venture (34:08) Rapid fire round of questions about Scribble Ventures' investment strategy For sponsorship or guest appearance requests, write to prashantchoubey3@gmail.com Subscribe to VC10X on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts.

## Transcript

[0:00] I have three children, I see how different it is.
[0:03] Like they just talk to chat and they're like hey chat, you don't
[0:06] even know Google exists anymore. Great idea is just half the
[0:10] battle now because you can quickly spin up a company.
[0:14] I do believe that every person on this planet is going to have
[0:18] a personalized tutor in their pocket.
[0:22] The model we are using today is the absolute worst model you
[0:25] will ever use in your entire life.
[0:30] Hey everyone, this is Prashanth and I'll be host of the VC10X.
[0:33] Podcast and today we have. Elizabeth will with us.
[0:36] Elizabeth is the founder and managing Partner of Scribble
[0:39] Ventures, where she just closed an $80 million Fund 3 focused on
[0:44] backing AI native startups. Elizabeth's journey is
[0:47] fascinating. She spent seven years at Twitter
[0:50] during its explosive growth, then build the market
[0:53] development team at Androcene Horowitz.
[0:55] What makes her perspective unique?
[0:57] Her formative experience, of course.
[0:59] But there's one more thing. Her husband Kevin is currently
[1:03] running product at Open AI, giving her insider insights into
[1:06] how the world's most advanced AI company thinks about the future.
[1:11] In today's episode, we talk about the Scribble Network and
[1:13] how it is the lifeblood of Scribble Ventures, definition of
[1:17] AI, native companies, bold AI predictions, navigating the
[1:21] tough LP fundraising environment, and lots more.
[1:25] Whether you're building in AI or simply curious about the future
[1:28] being built in Silicon Valley, this gives you a front row seat
[1:31] to how 1 of Venture's most thoughtful investors is placing
[1:35] her bets. Let's dive in.
[1:36] This episode is sponsored by my own podcasting agency called
[1:40] Podcast 10X, where I help venture capitalists, asset
[1:43] managers, allocators and family offices and starting their own
[1:46] podcast and building a strong brand.
[1:49] Podcast 10X is designed in a way to work well with the busy
[1:52] schedule of investors, where we handle every aspect of podcast
[1:56] production so you can focus on investing.
[1:59] If you're looking to build a strong investor brand, starting
[2:02] a podcast should be right up your priority list.
[2:06] It's the only form of marketing where you can showcase your
[2:08] strong network. In other words, access to
[2:11] limited partners and founders and grow that network further.
[2:15] And contrary to what most people hear, it's still very early to
[2:18] start a podcast. There are at least 10X more
[2:21] newsletters and thousand X more blogs than there are podcast in
[2:25] this world. You can learn more about our
[2:27] podcasting services at Podcast ten-x.com.
[2:31] I'll make sure to add the link in the description below.
[2:34] Enjoy this episode. Hey Elizabeth, so good to have
[2:37] you on the VC10X podcast. How are you doing?
[2:39] Hi, thanks for having me. Great to be here.
[2:42] Yeah, it's a pleasure having you on.
[2:43] You have had an incredible career from your time at Twitter
[2:46] to end the scene or words to founding civil adventures,
[2:50] right? Could you share the personal why
[2:52] behind starting this firm and what was the gap in the venture
[2:57] landscape that you failed that needed to be filled and how that
[3:01] vision has evolved to now closing your largest fund to
[3:04] date, the $80 million fund, Fund 3.
[3:07] So tell us more about it. Thank you.
[3:09] Well, the journey is definitely a work in progress still, but it
[3:13] always, always makes sense looking backwards.
[3:15] But yeah, just to, to how scribble came to be.
[3:19] So I came out to the Valley about 25 years ago from, for
[3:23] Stanford. I went and grew up in near
[3:25] Sacramento in a little town called Orangevale.
[3:27] And I was undergrad in economics, master's in
[3:29] engineering. And really what opened my eyes
[3:32] to tack in the Valley was a program within the engineering
[3:34] school called the Mayfield Fellows program.
[3:36] So that was really where I got my start.
[3:39] I, I joke that it saved me from going to a consulting firm or
[3:42] investment bank because through that program during the summer
[3:46] you work at a venture back startup.
[3:48] So I was very lucky to land at a small eight person company back
[3:52] in 2003 and I learned so much. It was so fun.
[3:58] We grew to 130 people. We grew and we've shrunk back
[4:02] down to about 8 over about three years.
[4:06] And I just had a wild ride and so many people that I still
[4:09] know. So that got me into the bug for
[4:12] startups. And after my master's, I went to
[4:15] Menlo Ventures, so stage agnostic firm on Sandhill, learn
[4:18] the ropes there and then went to Institutional Venture Partners
[4:21] later stage and it was actually there in 2008.
[4:25] We made an investment in Twitter and I gotten, I'd already been a
[4:29] beta user, but I got to know the company from from the business
[4:33] side through that as well. And then friend there said they
[4:35] need somebody to start your analytics team.
[4:37] And Kevin, my husband and also one of the legs of of the
[4:41] Scribbles tool. He's our operator in residence
[4:44] day-to-day deep operator, but we were already married at the
[4:47] time. We met on the triathlon team at
[4:49] Stanford, actually, and I came home and said, hey, this little
[4:52] company, Twitter needs somebody to start their analytics team.
[4:55] Who do we know? And Kevin said, well, well, I
[4:58] could learn that. And so the next thing you know
[5:01] what he started in early O 9, stayed through crazy hyper
[5:04] growth through about through seven years took a public and I
[5:08] went over about not six months after he had joined in the end
[5:11] of 2009, started the corporate development team, worked for our
[5:15] CEO Dick Costolo for all four years I was there and again just
[5:19] loved, loved operating. That did tease out after a
[5:23] while, though. I missed the investing side, but
[5:24] wasn't sure I wanted to go straight back into it yet and
[5:28] was recruited out by Andreessen Horowitz.
[5:30] And there I had a chance to build out a team called Market
[5:32] Development. And I was a great motion for our
[5:34] portfolio companies. So essentially connecting the
[5:37] Fortune 500 Global 2000 to our portfolio companies and goal
[5:40] revenue. So great lift for them and built
[5:44] that team over 4 years. And then I really did miss the
[5:47] investing side, but Kevin and I'd been able to lightweight
[5:51] Angel invest. We'd we were writing small
[5:53] personal checks. He'd gone on to run product in
[5:56] Instagram and then Co found Libra Facebook crypto
[5:59] initiatives before leaving to be the planet president, taking
[6:03] that public, and now he's at open AI running product there.
[6:08] But through all that time, we were just connected to create
[6:11] founders friends in the valley all over the country that matter
[6:15] all over the world and building in super interesting spaces.
[6:18] And we were writing small personal checks at that point
[6:21] and I saw this, you know, barely managed portfolio.
[6:24] We had this Google Doc that we put everything in and we
[6:29] invested in about 100 companies over 8 years.
[6:31] And at by that point I had three small children and I was
[6:34] terrified and I would never be able to send them to school if
[6:37] we kept at that clip. But I really saw that it was
[6:40] working. So I picked my head up.
[6:43] I've been at a firm as a general partner called 137 Ventures and
[6:46] that was in the structured secondary side.
[6:48] But again, it wasn't early stage and I love the motion of early
[6:51] stage. So the big gap I saw that the
[6:53] seed precede funds were getting larger and larger.
[6:58] And this collaborative size check was what allowed you to
[7:02] not be sharp elbowed in the market.
[7:03] And that's the way I love to invest and build.
[7:06] So I felt like if you could write size of fund, which
[7:09] scribble 1 summer of Zoom pandemic of spounded scribble
[7:13] right at the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
[7:17] And that first fund was a $50 million fund.
[7:20] And I felt like if you kept your fund size constrained and really
[7:23] worked like a builder and a startup mentality of, you know,
[7:27] we're scrappy and, and we love that we're in the weeds.
[7:31] We all wear multiple hats and you could really return a fund
[7:34] of that size. So, so Scribble was born and
[7:38] again, one of the thesis was create that network that as an
[7:41] Angel, you just grow a network around you.
[7:43] Great operators, day-to-day executives, people that are
[7:47] their Angel investors, operators at other firms and, and, and
[7:51] companies and you really can build a great motion.
[7:55] So Scribble, Scribble $150,000,000 fund like I
[7:59] mentioned was a 2020 vintage Scribble 2.
[8:02] Fortunate to raise a $55 million core fund and then a small
[8:05] breakout vehicle, which is our opportunity fund.
[8:08] Essentially that was a small $30 million fund for B and beyond.
[8:11] And now just closed up the fundraise for Scribble 3 and $80
[8:15] million fund for a core fund precede and seed and backing the
[8:20] best top 1% founders. We say building in really unique
[8:24] interesting spaces. And I also think it's so much
[8:29] that VCs talk about specialized, specialized, but really at this
[8:33] stage and backing great people, a very network based.
[8:36] We believe in this intentionally generalist motion.
[8:38] At first. We've been AI heavy through the
[8:41] five years and do look at that. But we look across enterprise
[8:45] consumer, we have a few interesting robotics companies,
[8:48] some big data and weather companies and big swings.
[8:51] So we we really look everywhere, but really want to back that top
[8:56] 1% founders. Absolutely.
[8:58] And many congratulations on the fun 3, which is now live, right
[9:03] and a lot of Scribble ventures also, you know was around
[9:08] Scribble network as you call it, right?
[9:10] So tell me more about what is this network?
[9:13] How did you build this and who are the people in it?
[9:16] And how does this help your portfolio companies do things
[9:20] better? Yeah, so it very organically was
[9:23] is the real answer. And like I mentioned, you know,
[9:26] as your Angel investing, it's just the collection of people,
[9:28] people that I'd worked with, other people you get to know
[9:31] through. I like, why do this job?
[9:33] I love the fabric of connecting people.
[9:36] And I think that's something as the Valley especially does well,
[9:40] that you're always in a moment to meet new people, connect
[9:42] dots. And I love doing that.
[9:44] I would be doing that if I if I didn't have a job and I really
[9:50] wanted to replicate that with Scribble.
[9:51] So we call it the Scribble network and we, a number of
[9:55] those people are listed on the websites or on the Scribble
[9:58] website and many of them are small LP's in our fund as well,
[10:03] which is which is quite rewarding.
[10:06] But those are the people that we we call for diligence help, we
[10:10] see opportunities from, they're sending interesting companies
[10:14] from founders that have been on their teams.
[10:16] Many of the people on Scroll Network are day-to-day operators
[10:20] and executives. So they're seeing interesting
[10:22] things and they can say, hey, this person's leaving my team,
[10:25] their top 1% founder. But you should definitely tackle
[10:28] what they're what they're looking at and then helping us
[10:31] spin up on diligence. So if you think of all of the
[10:33] parts of the job for AVC, seeing picking, winning and helping
[10:38] portfolio companies down the road, the Scribble network helps
[10:41] across all four of those things. So seeing obviously with
[10:44] extended deal flow picking, helping us diligence and and vet
[10:48] people even, you know, back channel references and then
[10:53] winning often one of the great things we turn the table as we
[10:58] try to to win an opportunity and a founder and say, who would you
[11:01] like to meet? And these people really are on,
[11:04] you know, text or e-mail and in a dinner away and when they see
[11:08] this extensive list of people that can really help, you know,
[11:12] eyes wide open and really impressive.
[11:14] And then often we also bring these people in a small angels.
[11:18] So we think to build a really an exceptional round, you should
[11:22] take a few strategic angels. And if we can make room for
[11:26] three to five phenomenal angels, that'll help that that company
[11:30] grow as well. We should be be putting those
[11:33] people together and then helping the companies down the road.
[11:38] As you can expect, this rival network has great expertise in a
[11:41] variety of areas. So if you need someone to help
[11:43] on growth or on, you know some sort of marketing channel or you
[11:48] need to talk to somebody that's been ACFO at a company that's
[11:51] gone public, like all of those pieces are there.
[11:55] Absolutely, yeah, that that has to be so helpful for founders
[11:58] for building, right? That's invaluable.
[12:01] So with the new 80 million fund, a lot of your focus is on
[12:05] backing AI native startups and the pre seed and seed states,
[12:08] right. So how do you define Mai native
[12:11] company and what are the key characteristics you look for in
[12:15] a founding team that signals that they have the DNA to build
[12:18] a category defining company in, in the space they're operating
[12:21] in? Yeah, and as you know how noisy
[12:24] the landscape is right right now, it is a hard job, but
[12:26] really pulling out those those great opportunities and backing
[12:29] the best. I really do look at AI as an
[12:33] enabling technology. I think it's going to to touch
[12:36] absolutely everything we do going forward in some way.
[12:39] And I look at this is, you know, if you're ultimately success is
[12:42] making the world faster, cheaper, better, safer, smarter,
[12:47] AI is able to do all of those things.
[12:50] And beyond that journey, I, I also really look at the analogy
[12:54] to electricity. So much is changing right now.
[12:57] And within the electricity wave happened, you think of the
[13:02] trickle down effects that we don't even think about, like the
[13:05] way labor hours and workforces adapted because now we had
[13:10] electricity and you didn't just have to work during daylight
[13:13] hours. Like there's so many other weird
[13:15] things that start to come of it. So as a team, we we really look
[13:19] for either and native teams that have been that have grown up in
[13:24] it. I mean, I have three children.
[13:26] I see how different it is. Like they just talk to chat and
[13:29] they're like, hey, chat. And that's that.
[13:31] They don't even know Google exists anymore.
[13:33] And so I think 1 is backing founders that have grown up in
[13:36] that environment, education, etcetera.
[13:38] Also repeat founders that have done this before know the
[13:42] playbook of building, but now have all of these exceptional
[13:45] tools to work with. I mean, those are two big
[13:47] things. And one of the other things we
[13:49] really drill into is Mote because there is so much noise
[13:52] right now and we're all able to build and replicate similar
[13:57] things. Like a great idea is just half
[13:59] the battle now because you can quickly spin up a company.
[14:04] So how do you really create some Moat and some network effects
[14:07] that create that lock in value that that will basically
[14:10] underwrite? What we want to do is underwrite
[14:12] 100X and we want to envision a stand alone public company or
[14:15] two in the areas that we're backing.
[14:18] Absolutely. And your investment thesis
[14:21] emphasizes companies with their proprietary data asset, right?
[14:26] And in an era of foundational models, how do you assess the
[14:30] defensibility of a startup's data strategy?
[14:34] So I think data is one piece or some unique workflow that we
[14:39] have a few investments in the portfolio that I really admire
[14:42] where those founders have some unique understanding of that
[14:47] workflow or working with the data set and the workflow.
[14:51] So those are some of because data and now we all have so much
[14:54] data. So that isn't just the thing
[14:57] that can differentiate. You really have to have some
[15:00] secret of why are you the team on this planet that is going to
[15:04] merge all of those pieces and and be able to build a company
[15:07] where you actually create real revenue and real value.
[15:11] Absolutely. And having operated at companies
[15:14] like Twitter, right, and and even adventure capital forms
[15:18] like Andreessen Horace, arguably the best in the game, right, in
[15:21] a way. What are some learnings from
[15:24] that operator journey at first at trade and then attend Recent
[15:28] Horowitz as an investor and you carry forward indescribable
[15:32] ventures and into helping your founders and also building the
[15:34] firm. Taking inspiration, maybe
[15:37] learnings from your time attend Recent Horowitz as well.
[15:40] Yeah, and and so many pieces that are, you know, part of the
[15:44] journey. But one of the things operating,
[15:47] there's too much to do in any given day.
[15:49] And it's just the cadence of work that you get excited about.
[15:52] And I, I mean, I joke, you didn't have time to sit down.
[15:56] You didn't have time to get into the right conference room at the
[15:58] right time. Like it was just so fun.
[16:00] And it there's that skip in your step.
[16:02] I wanted to build Scribble in a way that makes me proud.
[16:07] And that that is part of it. Like we have the hustle, we have
[16:10] the drive. We operate on a WhatsApp thread.
[16:12] We start in WhatsApp thread with each one-on-one scribble,
[16:16] founding team and team scribble. We want our founders to say they
[16:19] have scribble in their pocket. I am so I, you know, I joke
[16:24] normal, but I like that I can invite a founder to meet me for
[16:29] a walk and you get to know them personally.
[16:31] You also are doing the work, but that it's not fancy.
[16:35] VC meets founder. I just operate so much more as a
[16:39] builder. I'm not fancy and I think
[16:43] there's something just about that hustle the founders really
[16:46] appreciate. So that is one of the things
[16:49] from the in recent time we really were standing up
[16:52] operations with an adventure firm.
[16:54] And the thing I admire about them is they really built the
[16:57] playbook on what services do our founders most need through this
[17:02] journey. Market development is definitely
[17:04] one of them. That's customers.
[17:06] So I love that I've had that motion to build tech talent,
[17:10] both on the engineering side and VP and above level talent is a
[17:14] huge need as companies growing scales.
[17:17] So that's something that we can help with.
[17:19] Go to market that all need help and go to market strategy.
[17:22] And that's something that every team member at Scribble has both
[17:25] done, built and is exceptional at.
[17:29] And then in addition to, you know, pieces of product, I think
[17:31] Kevin is one of the best product operators and being able to even
[17:36] talk about the extremes things and how do you build a bench and
[17:39] how, how do you, you know, work with your direct report?
[17:44] If so, we're in the weeds enough on those helpful stages, but
[17:47] we're not trying to build your company for you.
[17:50] And and then some of the things that I really now having been in
[17:54] venture in the Valley for 25 years, next round of
[17:58] fundraising, that's always a need and The Who, the firm, the
[18:02] partner, the angels, what should that construction look like?
[18:05] And that's something that I definitely love helping our
[18:07] portfolio companies with as well.
[18:09] Yeah, absolutely love that. Almost covered all the fronts VC
[18:13] has to cover, right? Awesome.
[18:15] So when you're investing at the pre seed and seed stage, right,
[18:19] let's say there's not a lot of traction there, right.
[18:21] What are the key things that you're looking for at that stage
[18:24] that help you make the decision whether to whether to invest or
[18:27] not? It it's hard then this motion of
[18:31] venture, I think you do start seeing it when you see you know
[18:34] when you see it, but it takes a wide top of funnel.
[18:37] But but really one of the first round issues is warm intros.
[18:42] So many, most all of the companies that we get to know at
[18:47] the top of funnel are already warm introde in.
[18:50] So there's some signal there. Then I always love asking the
[18:55] founders like, why are you the team on this planet that is
[19:00] going to be able to build this company, have some unique
[19:02] background that drives you to do that.
[19:04] And I think when there's that story and you can tease it out
[19:07] like there's some guttural desire for this company to
[19:10] exist, you can very quickly tease that out versus we've been
[19:15] whiteboarding for six months, we wanted to solve a problem and
[19:18] this is what we came up with. So I think meeting the team and
[19:22] hearing that story is first, first part of it.
[19:25] I think unique backgrounds and why your past and your journey
[19:30] LED you to this, that's something I'd love to hear.
[19:33] You don't necessarily need to have the top pedigree.
[19:36] You don't need to have been in every rocket ship company, but
[19:39] that there's some meandering journey LED you to this.
[19:42] So there's some of the few things we we start with.
[19:46] Yes, absolutely. And just coming out of that
[19:49] fundraising ground for your Fund 3 and now is one of the most
[19:55] difficult times in the LP landscape that we have seen how
[19:59] they're deploying, right. So what was your experience
[20:02] while fundraising? What were the key things that
[20:05] you observed and how LP's are approaching deploying and what
[20:09] can be helpful from maybe other managers are trying to raise
[20:12] right now? Yeah, it is a difficult time if
[20:16] you feel fortunate to be be done.
[20:18] But again, even our LP network, we've extended and built so much
[20:22] as a part of of Twitter, that part of Scribble.
[20:25] The first fund was, you know, I rewinded that I hated selling
[20:32] Girl Scout cookies, so I never wanted to ask anybody for money.
[20:35] But when you really see this playbook for what you want to
[20:38] build, you get over that fairly quickly.
[20:40] That summer of Zoom, I basically had to ask anyone that I could
[20:48] think of. I felt like for, for money and
[20:51] it was very uncomfortable, but I, I believed in the strategy
[20:54] and the why I would make them more.
[20:57] Usually your first one is a lot of friends and family, but some
[21:00] great executives, people that had I, you know, known through
[21:04] the journey and they, I never asked for anything.
[21:07] And if they were, they are saying, of course, but we're
[21:09] talking smaller checks, some phenomenal family offices, some
[21:14] small institutions. But we do not have one large
[21:18] anchor. We do not have the laundry list
[21:21] of universities and endowments. So Scribble 2, again, it was a
[21:26] long tail. And that's one of the values
[21:28] too. So many people are investing in
[21:31] in Scribble and want to be a part of it.
[21:33] And Scribble 3, I would love to tell you that I have, you know,
[21:37] 5 LP's and all the amazing endowments and institutions.
[21:43] But again, this has been built out of like people we've built
[21:47] strong connections with and our LP's have grown over time with
[21:51] us. And it's, it's great to get to
[21:54] know. I always love family offices
[21:56] because there's some unique story of, you know, what did you
[21:59] do? There's some entrepreneurial
[22:01] journey with that group and you get to know them all like, like
[22:04] real people. I think we might look very smart
[22:09] given the climate, you know, not that we had a choice on it, but
[22:14] I think endowments and universities are going to be in
[22:17] an entirely different part of the venture landscape now as
[22:21] they tweak their models. Things are coming.
[22:23] So I'm hopeful that the strong relationships we built with some
[22:27] phenomenal family offices in smaller groups will grow over
[22:30] time. And we'll, we'll call down that
[22:33] LP base of Scribble. But I again, I look at it as
[22:37] part of the network piece. We host Camp Scribble in our
[22:39] backyard every fall. And now we extend it to many of
[22:43] our LP's to those people are just now friends and great
[22:48] conversation folks too that we've even been able to to add
[22:53] in with our founders and things like that.
[22:54] So I look at it as a less scary, you know, pitching to the to the
[22:59] large LP's, but more building this collection of friends.
[23:04] Absolutely. Yeah.
[23:05] Thanks for sharing that. And since you're focused mostly
[23:08] on investing in AI startups, right?
[23:10] And that space is super hot right now.
[23:12] And when something is hot, you know the valuation skyrocket in
[23:16] that space, right? So how do you think about
[23:20] valuations as well as being mindful about at what point
[23:24] you're investing in and that's reasonable enough to get a good
[23:28] outcome out of it going forward. So tell me about that.
[23:32] So I think investing in world class AI founders now and having
[23:39] the ability to see across the landscape on valuations, I think
[23:43] that's part of it. I think again like around
[23:45] construction, I look at this as portfolio construction and we
[23:49] are definitely sense sensitive to valuation because the math
[23:52] has to math. But there are those unique cases
[23:57] where some phenomenal say second team is coming out to do it
[24:01] again and building an interesting space in a large
[24:03] market. We can make the case for certain
[24:06] times to make the exception. So I do again look at this like
[24:10] a a construction of our fund where there are some of those
[24:14] high Flyers that we can rationalize, but it's going to
[24:17] be hard. And then there's those great
[24:20] opportunities where you're you're getting in early with a
[24:22] pre seed opportunity and you're still at a very traditional pre
[24:27] seed evaluation. Absolutely.
[24:32] And you must have seen tons and tons of AI startups giving you
[24:35] network. Also your husband is operating
[24:37] in that space and obviously an amazing need for, right.
[24:42] So what are the specific areas or let's say sub sectors within
[24:46] AI that you're most excited about?
[24:49] What are the spaces that you think are maybe already taken by
[24:51] the existing players? And what are the areas that you
[24:53] think are still wide open for new players to take?
[24:57] Yeah, I'm, I'm enjoying spending some time in some definitely
[24:59] like out there areas that I, I have faith will exist soon.
[25:04] We haven't made some big bets in yet.
[25:08] When I when I do enjoy that's still growing and many companies
[25:11] have been back, but in this AI world now needed infrastructure
[25:17] and tooling that needs to adapt to like what we do have
[25:20] available now. So that's that's one area that I
[25:22] do think it is exciting also the longevity and like being
[25:30] enhancements or time. I think we are going to have
[25:32] access to so much more data that allows us to either I think we
[25:37] will be shocked that we all aren't taking individually
[25:41] tailored drugs, prescriptions, etcetera to make us healthier,
[25:46] better, longer living. So that synthetic bio piece to I
[25:51] really get excited about something, some things going on
[25:54] there. Also, I don't think we've solved
[25:57] education yet. I do believe that every person
[26:00] on this planet is going to have a personalized tutor in their
[26:04] pocket. And what form factor is that on?
[26:07] How does it adapt and grow? I don't feel like we've we found
[26:11] that bet yet. And then one of the things that
[26:15] that I, I love thinking about, especially with children and
[26:20] also aging parents, that this idea that we will live forever
[26:27] and not in the sense of, I don't believe that we're all going to
[26:29] be living to 200 anytime soon, but that our, our children's,
[26:35] our families, our friends will have access to our knowledge
[26:38] base or our brains or the memories or experiences.
[26:42] Again, like what, what form factor does that take?
[26:44] But that Elizabeth will outlast Elizabeth and my children might
[26:49] be able to ask me a question past my, you know, existence.
[26:53] So some of those larger things I like to noodle on.
[26:57] Absolutely. All those quite interesting.
[26:59] And I think AI is also changing behaviors in a lot of spaces.
[27:03] So what I've seen in myself is that I've always been curious,
[27:07] but I think with the coming of the AI chat tools, let's say
[27:11] ChatGPT or perplexity, my curiosity has grown with that.
[27:15] Because earlier if I had to search on Google and so many
[27:18] links come up and you have to think which one is the right one
[27:21] for me and then find the answer in that.
[27:23] But now with these chat bots, you can give a pointed question
[27:27] and get that pointed answers that cater to your questions
[27:30] very personalized, right entirely and.
[27:32] You know, uploading your medical labs or being able to read an
[27:38] X-ray faster than any radiologist and with more
[27:41] precision. And then some of the other
[27:44] lawyers that we've we have made invested investments in the
[27:46] portfolio like one company called Atmo.
[27:48] That's big data for, you know, weather an an AI model there and
[27:54] how much that that can change. It's not just telling us if we
[27:57] should put a sweater on, but agriculture and you know, in
[28:00] world world events, all sorts of things that that starts to
[28:05] touch. And then even thinking how now
[28:08] with more access, like we have some interesting companies
[28:11] within the agriculture space and AI and what can you do there
[28:15] again with more more data. But and then also as we go and
[28:18] grow. So I so much great, great things
[28:21] going, going on right now and I, I look at our portfolio and then
[28:28] in those tools like within the enterprise to that like any
[28:32] designers should be able to write code essentially.
[28:36] And will that be through a voice?
[28:37] Will it be? So we're we're making some
[28:39] interesting bets all over the stack.
[28:42] Absolutely, yeah. And I find that one where I
[28:44] uploaded a medical report and MRI to a chat bot and then it
[28:51] gave me something, but then it said, OK, you should go to a
[28:54] doctor and rather and tell them I'm not the best person for that
[28:58] and then all that. And then I told him, no, you
[29:00] can't do it. It doesn't.
[29:03] Yes, and I think we won't have to care as much about prompting
[29:07] as things grow obviously like we that the model we are using
[29:12] today is the absolute worst model you will ever use in your
[29:15] entire life. And do you need to tell it now,
[29:19] act like you're the world's number one radiologist and read
[29:23] this that we won't need to do those those prompting pieces.
[29:27] So just how much is going on and how fast things are happening
[29:31] and, and even on these agentic workflows, how much more we can
[29:35] get done. But we will start to think of
[29:37] bigger projects where your agent is coming back in a number of
[29:41] days having solved your problem versus just, you know, go
[29:45] purchase my Lego and put it in my cart and check out for me.
[29:48] Absolutely, completely agree. And I think that's also an
[29:51] interesting problem as VCs, right, since these models and
[29:56] LLMS are always getting better with time, right?
[29:59] When you're evaluating startups, how do you evaluate that?
[30:02] OK, this is sounds like a good company today, but what if
[30:06] tomorrow these big LLMS, companies with billions of
[30:08] dollars in funding just do do this out-of-the-box from their
[30:13] product itself, right? So how do you solve for that?
[30:16] Well, I don't think you can entirely solve for it.
[30:19] This is a journey, but one of the things I feel extremely
[30:21] fortunate is to have, you know, Kevin's insight and advisement
[30:25] on our team at Scribble and he is living day-to-day within one
[30:29] of the world's fastest growing companies within a seated at
[30:35] Open AI and he's not able to see the future.
[30:38] But I think just having those conversations about what is
[30:41] building, where are those holes where, you know, where can you
[30:45] think that that a company like opening eye or perplexity won't
[30:50] go? And the more that we can talk
[30:52] about that and keep it a fluid conversation as these models
[30:55] change, I think the better. Because he, he often says that
[30:58] in this climate of product, it's, it's interesting building
[31:02] product at a point like that to where everything is changing so
[31:05] fast and your road map nearly goes out the window.
[31:09] And have being able to talk to our founding teams about that
[31:12] too. And how are they approaching it.
[31:13] And I think again, that gets back to backing the top 1%
[31:17] founders. They will know how to navigate
[31:20] that journey as it changes in real time.
[31:23] Absolutely. Yeah, completely with you on
[31:24] that. Coming to my last main question
[31:27] before we go to the rapid fire around and there's about, about
[31:30] what's the single most important piece of advice that you would
[31:34] like to give to someone in the audience who's likely a founder
[31:39] in the early stages of building their venture, right.
[31:42] So how do they start building? What's the approach, or maybe
[31:46] any learning that you'd like to leave them with that can help
[31:49] them build their company better? Wow.
[31:53] So I have a few things popped to mine.
[31:55] One, my I have a bike on my big three for where I work, when I
[32:01] work, what I do. And forever it's been #1 the
[32:05] people #2 for me is location. Because life's too short to have
[32:09] a really long commute or to, you know, not be in an environment
[32:12] that makes you drive. And #3 is, am I learning?
[32:16] And whenever those get out of whack, then I made the change in
[32:20] my, my career. Now I joke I'll never have to
[32:22] make a change because with Scribble, damn, I'm working with
[32:25] people that I love. I am doing it in a location that
[32:29] makes me drive. And I'm learning absolutely
[32:32] every single day and building. 1 of the things I got to focus on
[32:37] at Twitter though was the the Twitter corporate culture and we
[32:41] were scaling at such hyper growth speed.
[32:43] I started and Twitter was about 60 people in a year we were 320
[32:48] people. And when I left after four
[32:52] years, we were 2500 people. And one of them things I tell
[32:58] myself is and what I like to do is make a big world feel small.
[33:02] And I think that's why I like connecting folks and knowing my
[33:05] mailman and my garbage man and the person that makes my daily
[33:09] sandwich. I love making a big world feel
[33:12] small. I think founders, there's so
[33:14] much ahead to do and you know, you need to build a team and
[33:19] attract talent, but really nailing that and getting it
[33:22] right in the early days when you're adding one person to a
[33:26] two person team, think of the percentage growth that is and do
[33:30] that deliberately. But with those people that now I
[33:34] joke, I all of the people I want to hire, I want to work for
[33:37] someday. And if you can craft a great
[33:40] team, I think it saves you so many headaches as you grow that
[33:44] those people that have that skip in their step and very much are
[33:48] a culture bar raiser And saving the headaches not only of fast
[33:54] firing, but but I think that the people are so, so key.
[33:59] And at this scale and speed, you might get tempted to hire
[34:03] quickly. But it was those first few just
[34:06] so, so important. Absolutely.
[34:09] Great advice there. With that, we come to the rapid
[34:12] fire around and I'll ask you 6 quick questions about the
[34:15] investing you're doing and you have to give 6 quick answers,
[34:18] right? So the first one is one of the
[34:21] sectors in regions you invest in.
[34:24] So our LPA allows us to vest absolutely all over the world.
[34:28] I like to say that our most of our scribble portfolio companies
[34:32] lie within a big airport hub cities.
[34:35] So we got a big clustering of course in the Bay, New York, LA,
[34:38] Seattle, Austin and then some peppered all about.
[34:42] We also have some interesting companies in Lat AM and Canada
[34:46] and even a few international ones.
[34:48] But if we're making an international investment, we
[34:50] definitely take bleed of somebody that knows the market
[34:52] very, very well. That's primary for us.
[34:56] Right. Great.
[34:58] What's the typical stage where you'd like to invest?
[35:02] Typically we're pre seeded seed that's for our core fund, which
[35:06] is our main, main fund in this one.
[35:08] And then we also can invest in both net new and past triple
[35:11] companies out of our breakout fund and that's typically B and
[35:14] beyond. We just want to be on the best
[35:16] world class companies that are that are changing every
[35:19] everything. Right, right, new lead rounds.
[35:24] We can lead, we can lead, we can follow, we can Co lead.
[35:28] Often we look like the second largest check on the cap table.
[35:30] Typically we write a 750K to a million and a half dollar check
[35:35] for the initial investment so we can do all of the above and
[35:38] half. Got it.
[35:39] Where can founders get in touch in case there's a direct way?
[35:43] Easy to find us scribble dot VC at scribble VC and hello at
[35:50] scribble dot VC drop us awesome. Right, last one, where can our
[35:56] listeners follow you? I am Elizabeth on Twitter and
[36:01] Instagram. I'm basically who I am where you
[36:06] are. See me and then you can always
[36:07] get me by e-mail, but that is where I show up on the digitals.
[36:12] Right, absolutely. I'll make sure to put that link
[36:15] in the show note below so that our listeners can get there
[36:18] easily. Thanks so much for making time
[36:20] for this Elizabeth, and I wish you happy and resting.
[36:23] Thank you. Thanks for hosting and looking
[36:25] forward to successful journeys for all of you and get in touch.
[36:29] We want best 1% founders. Absolutely.
[36:33] Thank you so much. Thanks.

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