Stephen Marcus is a co-founder and general partner at Riot Ventures who brings over 20 years of hands-on experience building large-scale wireless networks and datacenters as a six-time founder/CEO, giving him unusually deep infrastructure and hardware expertise for a venture investor. He has invested personally in roughly a half dozen unicorns and decacorns with a combined market capitalization of over $150B, including three IPOs (Okta, Toast, and Desktop Metal), and is known for deliberately investing at the frontier in ideas that may sound nuts at first, often before a clear market exists.

• Focus on hard tech and defense sectors, specifically companies building complex physical infrastructure or hardware. He expressed significant enthusiasm about leading a round for Endurosat, a major satellite producer, and being a day zero believer in the nuclear energy company Valar Atomics.
• Strong interest in robotics and advanced manufacturing, looking for technologies that democratize access to these tools. He frequently celebrated the milestones of Desktop Metal, including their IPO, and highlighted his investment in Elementary Robotics as a move to make robotics available to the masses.
• Appreciation for American dynamism and the intersection of technology with national interest. He framed the precision of a SpaceX landing as proof that American ingenuity is alive and well and often uses flag emojis when discussing domestic tech achievements.
• Advocacy for rapid execution and civic engagement within the tech community. He organized a group to bid on rebuilding the Palisades infrastructure to drive down costs and speed up timelines, and he posted a reminder to founders that a startup is not a project.
• Enthusiasm for the future of transportation, particularly electric and autonomous vehicles. He shared his personal excitement about ordering a Cybertruck and a Model 3 from Tesla and posted updates regarding regulatory approval for fully driverless cars.