William Leonard broke into venture capital from Middle Georgia and Mercer University without traditional Wall Street experience, paying out-of-pocket as a college senior for an 11-week VC apprenticeship at VU Venture Partners in New York while still in school. He developed his investing approach through hands-on startup operations and as Dynamo Ventures' third fellow in Chattanooga's Freight Alley, focusing on supply-chain and mobility deals before joining Valor Ventures as a seed-lead investor targeting underrepresented B2B founders in the Southeast.

• Fascinated by testing out new productivity software and artificial intelligence models. Actively evaluates and compares consumer tech tools, such as recently switching personal workflows from Notion to Obsidian and ranking the current performance of major language models like Chat GPT above Gemini and Claude.
• Focused on specific styles of founder communication and pitch mechanics during the fundraising process. Advises against seed stage startups outsourcing their capital raising to investment banks and strongly prefers reviewing sales materials over traditional pitch decks, while also praising founders who provide written memos during due diligence.
• Attentive to broader macroeconomic conditions and shifting venture capital valuations. Frequently comments on the recent surge in funding activity and the return of high early stage valuations, specifically pointing out a recent sixty million dollar seed round as proof that the venture market is highly active again.
• Dedicated to consuming business media through books newsletters and podcasts. Enjoys spending Friday nights reading tech newsletters and frequently shares or asks for book recommendations, noting that Steve Schwarzmans book is worth reading multiple times and highlighting podcast discussions about pattern breaking in venture capital.