Laurie Yoler was a founding director at Tesla Motors and an early board member at Zoox, giving her front-row operational exposure to commercializing self-driving technology that she now brings to her investing at Playground Global. She views autonomy as a horizontal capability that can be applied across ground, air, sea, and space rather than just cars, and believes Level 4 autonomy makes far more sense in shared, high-use fleets than individually owned vehicles because of sensor costs.

• Fascinated by early stage deep technology startups that aim for multigenerational impact, specifically those working in artificial intelligence, next generation computing, and life sciences. An excellent example of this is her sustained enthusiasm for the autonomous vehicle company Zoox, where she actively celebrated their technological milestones, leadership changes, and successful acquisition.
• Championing female leadership and recognizing the pivotal achievements of women in the technology sector. A highly relevant example is her involvement with the Computer History Museum to discuss the untold stories of women who helped build major Silicon Valley companies, showing she deeply values diversity and strong female representation in tech.
• Prioritizing founder resilience and the creation of human centric startup cultures. She consistently shares practical advice for new founders, emphasizing that scarcity often drives the best innovation and advising entrepreneurs to carefully curate their mentors since a founder inevitably becomes the average of the people they spend the most time with.