Daniel's view of venture risk traces back to watching his immigrant parents debate selling their apartment to fund an online hotel-booking startup during the dot-com bust, and that experience still shapes a distinctly contrarian approach: he believes boards work best when people have real skin in the game rather than prizing independence for its own sake, and he backs a concentrated set of companies that EVP almost always leads. He's also outspoken beyond deals, having promoted a Founder Rort-O-Meter to explain founder and ESOP tax outcomes in Australia, and he writes under the blunt, personality-driven banner No BS VC.
About their Fund
EVP is known for high founder affinity, ranking #2 in Astral Ventures' anonymous VC Leaderboard among ANZ funds and ahead of many larger names, and for being a low-profile, relationship-driven firm led by Howard Leibman, known as the founder whisperer, who takes an active, hands-on approach by sitting on boards like Practice Ignition and Deputy and building concentrated portfolios rather than spreading bets across many companies. The fund now focuses specifically on early-stage AI-first software companies building for global scale, backing serious software businesses at the Series A stage using criteria like economic quality, earned founder market fit, and compounding advantage, while also offering structured support such as executive hiring through resources like Talent_OS.
















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