Tom Hulme is a founder-turned-VC who studied physics, ran a car business, and founded a magnetic filtration company before becoming a design director at IDEO, where he helped establish business design as a discipline in Europe and pioneered open innovation platforms like OpenIDEO. He built a 5x DPI angel portfolio with outcomes like 255x on Robinhood before joining GV, where he focuses on clock speed as an investment lens—evaluating how quickly teams can iterate rather than just runway length—and backs both foundational AI infrastructure and fast-scaling applications even when they compete with Alphabet.

• Focuses heavily on the application layer of artificial intelligence rather than just the underlying models. He argues that while general AI models are quickly becoming commodities, the real investment opportunity lies in companies applying that technology to specific workflows. He points to his portfolio companies involved in video generation and coding as examples of where value is actually being created.
• A strong advocate for the UK and European technology ecosystem. He encourages entrepreneurs to build global companies from London despite the challenges, often discussing the need to drastically increase the number of computer science graduates from top British universities like Oxford and Cambridge to support this growth.
• Interest in defense technology and national security. His perspective is shaped by his personal background as a military reservist, and he frequently engages in discussions about how technology is modernizing military operations and the broader geopolitical implications for the US, China, and Europe.
• Belief in the resurgence of hardware investments. He suggests that as AI makes software easier to replicate, physical devices might become a place where value accumulates again. He actively promotes consumer tech products from his portfolio, sharing his own positive experiences with new smartphone designs to highlight the importance of high-performance hardware.
• Values resilience and contrarian viewpoints in founders. He believes the most successful companies often rise from adversity and economic downturns. He advises founders to focus on leading indicators like talent retention rather than lagging metrics, and emphasizes finding urgent customer pain points to drive rapid adoption.