Farooq Abbasi builds his own tool to find promising engineering leaders years before they start companies, looking past warm intros and pedigree to back technically sharp, often immigrant founders who built internal tools at big companies before going out on their own. He backs this early, technical risk before a market is obvious, often working with founders who show up with just a whiteboard sketch instead of a deck, and he reviews his own investment decisions every year to check his judgment over time.