Top Decile Podcast
Most VCs talk about the future, but new and emerging fund managers are actually funding it. Top Decile goes inside the minds of the new wave of venture capital, sitting down three times per week with emerging managers writing first checks into startups and technologies. Listeners learn how these VCs think, what they're betting on, and what they see before others catch on. Aimed at VCs, founders, and anyone curious about where the world is heading before it gets there.
Episodes
The Gap Where MedTech Startups Go to Die? She Funds It. | Fehmida Kapadia, Fay Ventures
Fehmida Kapadia has advised more than 150 medtech startups over two decades. Five went on to raise $50 million or more, and three exited. Along the way she built Amplify MedTech, an 800 person network of founders, clinicians, and academics that now sources most of her deal flow. Fay Ventures is her $1 million seed fund for AI enabled medtech founders stuck between a working prototype and FDA clear
The VC Who Talks Founders Out of Raising VC | Jonathan Bragdon, Capacity Capital
Jonathan Bragdon founded or co-founded seven companies, two of which landed on the Inc. 5000 list twice each. Capacity Capital is his seed stage fund for founders across the Southeast, where 64% of investments have gone to women, founders of color, or veterans. His 50+ LPs are almost all operators who built businesses themselves, and a third had never invested in a fund before he taught them how.W
The Best Canadian Fintechs Aren't Racing to the US | Tal Schwartz, North Exit Ventures
Tal Schwartz spent a decade building the Canadian fintech industry before he started investing in it. He founded the Canadian Lenders Association, now the largest financial services trade group in the country with every bank as a member, writes the Canadian Fintech Newsletter, and runs the Canadian Finance Summit. North Exit Ventures is his $10 million seed fund, backed by a roster of exited finte
Forget the 90% failure rate - this VC wants 100% survival. | Javier Cueto, Imagine Ventures
Javier Cueto has reviewed more than 12,000 startups across Latin America. Through Imagine Lab, he backed 120 of them at idea stage and hit a 30% survival rate, including two acquisitions that tripled his investments. He now runs Imagine Ventures, a pre-seed and seed fund investing in the future of work and future of finance across the region, where four years in, every portfolio company is still a
The LA MediaTech Fund That Banned a Word From Its Deck | Seth Hallen, Hallstone Ventures
The word: "Hollywood." Seth Hallen spent 25 years on the technology side of film and television, including leadership roles at Panavision's Light Iron, Sony and Pixelogic, plus nine years as president of the Hollywood Professional Association. He cut the word from every fundraising conversation anyway, and closed Hallstone Ventures oversubscribed in 12 months.Hallstone backs the infrastructure beh
Anyone Can Build a Marketplace Now. He Knows Which Ones Last. | Rob Mihalko, Spectus Ventures
Rob Mihalko grew Ariba Network into a $400 million B2B marketplace, has three exits to SAP, Microsoft, and Disney, and has invested in or advised more than 50 marketplace companies. He teaches the digital marketplaces course at Stanford Continuing Studies and now runs Spectus Ventures, a seed-stage fund backing founders building digital marketplaces and business networks.We get into the term he co
Great Idea, No Revenue? This VC Passes Every Time. | Eran Savir, Savyon Ventures
Eran Savir is a three-time founder with two exits who built and ran two prior seed funds together generating a 3.5X return and 79% IRR, taking one of them public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Now he runs Savyon Ventures, an early-stage fund in Israel backing AI, digital, and e-commerce founders.Find out why Eran refuses to invest until a founder has sold to real strangers instead of friends and
He Spent 20 Years Catching Fraud. Now He Vets AI Startups. | Nikhil Mittal, Blue Ridge Ventures
Nikhil Mittal spent nearly two decades investigating fraud, money laundering, and sanctions for major banks and fintechs, a career his own father also built. He evaluated roughly 250 startups before writing his first check, and now runs Blue Ridge Ventures, a pre-seed and seed fund backing AI native founders across every sector, part of Decile Access's inaugural cohort of 23 funds.We get into what
The VC turning Healthcare Economics into a Cheat Code | Genevieve LeMarchal, Suncoast Ventures
Genevieve Lemarchal spent over a decade as a serial entrepreneur, logging more than 10,000 hours in early-stage sales, marketing, and growth strategy and coaching over a thousand founders, before she ever wrote a check. That operating background shaped Suncoast Ventures, her seed-stage healthcare fund, whose first fund is already producing distributions and on track to be fully returned next year
The 22-Year-Old VC Getting First Checks Into Celebrity Brands | Tahnoon Murtza, Grey Sheep Ventures
Tahnoon Murtza is 22 years old, and has spent his entire life inside the entertainment industry as a touring musician. That put him in the group chats where celebrity brand deals get built long before any VC hears about them. He personally wrote early checks into Sommer Ray's consumer brand and Jeremy Lynch's HP-1, both before the rounds ever opened to outside investors, and now runs Grey Sheep Ve
The VC Who Wrote the Book on Femtech | Navneet Kaur, TechThrive Ventures
Navneet Kaur has launched seven consumer brands from zero to scale, worked with over 200 startups across emerging markets, and built FemTech India, the country's first and largest women's health tech ecosystem, spanning 450+ companies and one unicorn. She also wrote the first published book on the femtech industry, and now she's launching TechThrive Ventures, a San Francisco based pre-seed fund ba
Vertical First, AI Second: Why Domain Experts Win | Vijay Rajendran & Amit Goel, gAI Ventures
Vijay Rajendran led portfolio value creation at 500 Global across 2,800 companies in 80 countries before co-founding gAI Ventures. Amit Goel brings 20 years as a payments and identity operator, including building and selling a fintech company. Together they've built a venture studio around one central idea: vertical expertise should drive AI company formation, not the other way around.We get into
Science Fair Winners Are Founding Unicorns at 3x the YC Rate | Anthony Atlas, Science Fair Fund
Anthony Atlas won first place at the International Science and Engineering Fair at 17, earning himself a minor planet in the process. He spent years noticing that science fair alumni kept turning up as exceptional startup founders, then built the data to prove it: finalists who go on to start companies do so at a 15 percent unicorn rate, with over two-thirds making it through Series A.We get into
The VC Finding Latin American Founders Before US Funds Do | Lorenzo De Leo, Enya Ventures
Lorenzo De Leo spent more than a decade as managing director at Rocker, one of Miami's leading venture studios, where he helped build over 40 companies across the US and Latin America. That operator background is now the foundation of Enya Ventures, his pre-seed AI fund targeting Latin American founders at the moment before US capital starts paying attention.We get into why Latin America is at a t
Betting on AI and Blockchain Before Anyone Else | Radhika Iyengar & Jorden Woods, StarChain Ventures
Radhika Iyengar was named one of the Top 100 Women of the Future and has advised startups that generated $4 billion in shareholder value. Her co-founder Jorden Woods is a Caltech astrophysicist with her own exits and $50 million raised for portfolio companies. Together they wrote a book in 2019 predicting enterprise AI and blockchain would converge. Then, they spent six years building the track re
Supply Chains Don't Just Fail Companies — They Fail Nations | J.P. Keating, ProChain Ventures
J.P. Keating spent 25 years inside five Fortune 500 supply chains — Boeing, Anheuser-Busch, Allstate — before deciding insiders needed to be the ones writing the check. Now, as founder of ProChain Ventures, he's backing pre-seed and seed stage founders building the technology that makes global supply chains faster, more resilient, and harder to break.In this episode, JP and Connor dig into why sup
Betting on LatAm's Biodiversity Advantage | Galit Flasterstein, Danta Fund
Galit Flasterstein sold a travel company she ran in Costa Rica for a decade, then built a marketplace connecting LatAm artisans to global buyers, and concluded the real gap wasn't commerce but early-stage capital. Now she runs Danta Fund, a pre-seed vehicle backing ag tech, biotech, food tech, and climate tech founders across Latin America with a thesis built on the region's biodiversity.We get in
Backing the Founders that Ate Glass | Nathan Maton, Basal Capital
Nathan Maton built his career at the intersection of design, technology, and human behavior, with stints at Google, Khan Academy, and Omada. He became an angel investor and ran The Clearing, a workshop for founders navigating life after a significant exit. That work crystallized his debut pre-seed and seed fund thesis: repeat founders in FinTech and AI are systematically underserved at the earlies
The VC Fund That Sees Opportunity in Red Tape | Walid Aradi & Wes Schwalje, Red Tape Ventures
Walid Aradi and Wes Schwalje spent over 15 years at Tahseen Consulting advising heads of state, ministries, and 11 unicorns on navigating the regulatory and political realities of the MENA region, including structuring two of the region's biggest exits, Uber's acquisition of Careem and the Dubizzle-EMPG merger. Together they launched Red Tape Ventures, a Dubai-based seed fund backing marketplace a
Finite to Infinite: Why Energy Innovation Needs Operators, Not Observers | Vineet Shah, 8 Clockwise
Vineet Shah spent 18 years inside the energy industry. From a 4.6 gigawatt power plant through CurtissWright and Caltrol to co-founding Honeywell's lithium-ion battery business, where he created the industry's first-ever performance guarantee product. He launched 8 Clockwise as both a venture studio and seed fund backing founders in energy access, decarbonization, and advanced materials, guided by
The Fund That Bets on AI Built In, Not Bolted On | Anca Burke & Andrey Mikhalchuk, ARTA VC
Anca Burke and Andrey Mikhalchuk co-founded ARTA VC around a shared frustration: 70% of enterprise AI integrations fail because companies try to attach AI to systems that were never designed for it. Their fund backs early-stage founders in the DMV who have already done the opposite.We get into how AI-powered autofocus eyeglasses gave a retired military pilot better vision than he'd ever had, why t
The VC Window Into Quantum Is Finally Open | Mike Keymer, AlphaKet Capital
Mike Keymer is an MIT-trained engineer who spent two decades commercializing deep science for U.S. defense agencies, biotech analytics, and quantum computing platforms. He launched AlphaKet Capital to back seed-stage companies building the infrastructure layer that quantum needs to scale: the quantum equivalent of modems, repeaters, and memory.We get into why a massive capital influx in late 2024
Can VC Rebuild America's Industrial Base? | Ryan Else, Roadster Capital
Ryan Else spent nearly two decades working inside enterprise security, industrial markets, and frontier tech before launching Roadster Capital to back seed-stage founders modernizing the American industrial base. His portfolio already includes a company that received a $150 million commitment from the U.S. Department of Commerce for extreme ultraviolet lithography critical to national chip securit
The MedTech Founder Backing Surgical AI | Garrett Smith, ReefHaven Ventures
Garrett Smith holds a PhD in bioengineering from UC San Diego and co-founded two medtech companies acquired for a combined $600 million, one before FDA approval. After spending years investing in and partnering with early-stage companies at Johnson & Johnson, he launched Reef Haven Ventures to back life science and medtech founders at the convergence of biology, robotics, and AI.We get into wh
The Fund That Creates the Founders It Invests In | Alan Blakeborough, Launchpad Ignite Fund
Alan Blakeborough is a military veteran and 35-year serial entrepreneur who built startup accelerator Launchpad after discovering South Carolina had no support system for tech founders. People were leaving for Atlanta, Charlotte, and Austin just to find a community. Now he's running the Launchpad Ignite Fund, which primarily invests in companies that stay on after graduating the accelerator.We get
The Fund Betting on Founders Who've Lived the Problem | Mike Saloio, Begin Ventures
Mike Saloio spent eight years as a sell-side equity analyst at Oppenheimer, covering Cisco, Apple, and EMC, before founding Huddle, a VC-backed marketplace that helped over 150 startups assemble design and engineering teams. Now he's launching Begin Ventures to back the founders pre-seed ecosystems routinely miss: domain experts using AI to reinvent legacy consumer industries.We get into why AI is
What's Actually on the Shelf | Moy Aras, Lucinda Capital
Moy Aras spent over a decade running brand and innovation at Chobani, Nestlé, Nespresso, Aloha, and Applegate before betting on early-stage CPG founders the way he wished someone had bet on him. He wrote angel checks, built a 13-brand portfolio, and launched Lucinda Capital in 2025.We get into why the consumer brands that matter most get built by founders with audacity rather than pedigree, how op
The Missing Bet in Music Tech | Collette Tibbitts, Joker Deck
Collette Tibbitts spent years at the intersection of music and tech, consulting for Island Records and Sony Music Nashville and working on blockchain at Universal Music Group. She co-founded Joker Deck to back the founders venture capital has consistently walked past.We get into why music tech is a proving ground for innovations that expand well beyond the industry, how misaligned access and capit
Going Against the Grain in VC | Oscar Carreón & Roberto Nieves, Cabra Ventures
Oscar Carreón and Roberto Nieves co-founded Cabra Ventures after careers spanning Mexico, China, the Netherlands, and the Middle East, including Roberto's time in institutional investment at Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. They set out to build the fund they always wished existed for founders who don't fit the traditional VC mold.We get into why the next wave of fintech will be built by fou
Backing the Systems Pharmacy Needs Next | Christian Tadrus, Pharmacy Innovator Fund
Backing the Systems Pharmacy Needs Next | Christian Tadrus, Pharmacy Innovator FundWhy pharmacy needs new infrastructure to connect to care, payment, and clinical workflows, how economic misalignment is holding the profession back, and what it takes to build a fund from inside the industry you're trying to change.Through Tadrus Advisory Group, Christian Tadrus launched the Pharmacy Innovator Fund
Why Neurotech Is at an "AI in 2016" Moment | Varun Turlapati, Chaanakya Capital
Varun Turlapati spent 16 years as a software engineer before founding Chaanakya Capital, a $2M pre-seed fund backing US neurotech and medtech startups. His edge is his master's in electrical and computer engineering. He can evaluate the science-heavy deals most VCs don't even understand.Find out why neurotech is at the same inflection point AI was in 2016. Hear how one company puts a bionic hand o
The VC Fund Backing AI Companies Fixing Real, Unsexy Problems | Doug Griffin, Spatial Capital
Doug Griffin has founded four companies in computer vision and spatial AI. Three exited, including acquisitions by Apple and Roblox. Now he's running Spatial Capital, backing early-stage physical AI and spatial computing founders tackling the problems nobody else wants to touch.We get into why he only bets on unsexy problems, how AI can compressing 13-year mining timelines down to three, and what
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