"Everyone's talking about AI and data centers. So I need to pitch a story that's about AI and data centers. Or everyone cares about American reindustrialization. So I'm going to say something too. Truth is that most of the time, by the time it becomes a narrative noise that you can hear about, the moment to invest in that has probably already passed. Most of the investors who are looking in this space will have invested in that heavily 12 to 24 months ago... you can on the flip side tell when a founder has pivoted their initial dream or team or vision into something to fit the consensus of the moment. And I think that lack of authenticity can hurt you more than trying to meet the consensus narrative of the time."

"Sometimes in calls with founders, I'll say, I would love if you could explain to me in two sentences why if this company goes really well, the world is a better place. And if it takes you more than two sentences, it's probably not a great fit for lower carbon, which is no derision towards building anything else. But we really want to invest in companies and founders who are building for the future that we want."

"Growth is a lot more about the investor tracking you down. And the job of an early stage founder is to start to generate some narrative and noise and ecosystem building that allows for that outreach... therefore it means the way you then go out to raise is not emailing every growth investor on the list, but it is a little bit about press and marketing and outreach and how do you generate a signal that we're scanning for."

"I know some founders have an allergy to the idea that an Excel model matters, but Excel is just another way to translate clarity of thought, but from a numerical perspective... I wouldn't ever invest on the basis of an Excel model because they're 100% of the time they're wrong. But I do like to see that effort because it shows to me that they're thinking about this in a capital aligned way and they're not resistant to what you inevitably need to become as you become later stage."

"The simplest thing is that all great companies have had at least one tough round. That's the truth. Like it's not always perfect, smooth sailing. And so even our best companies have had rounds where they accepted terms that they didn't like or it wasn't the valuation they liked or it wasn't the perfect investor that they wanted across the table and that isn't the end of the world so one is just all you need is one person to believe in you... don't overly benchmark against all of that."