Since my last exit in 2015 I have lived on the other side of the table: an angel investor receiving three to five pitches a day on LinkedIn alone. A decade of that trains pattern recognition no course can teach. This year we are formalizing it.
Chief in Tech Capital is our first fund: $5M, based in Palo Alto, structured as a 506(c), writing $50K to $300K checks into pre-seed and seed companies. We went through VC Lab to build it institutionally and finished in the top tier of our cohort.
The thesis
We back AI-native software in the future of work, fintech and digital wellbeing. AI-native, not AI-flavored: companies where agents are designed into the product, not bolted on as a chatbot. I have written before about why the moat is not the model. We underwrite workflow ownership, proprietary data and distribution, because that is where value survives model commoditization.
The edge
Our deal flow does not come from cold inbound. It comes from a network we co-built over eight years: the WomenTech and Chief in Tech communities, which have already surfaced more than a hundred startups that went on to raise hundreds of millions collectively. We see founders before the market does, and we can put portfolio companies in front of Fortune 500 technology executives who are part of the same network.
The builder difference
One more thing makes this fund unusual: I ship the same category of software we invest in. The fund itself runs on an AI-driven platform I built to analyze and qualify our deal flow. When a founder walks me through their architecture, I can usually tell within minutes whether it is a real AI-native system or a repackaged wrapper, because I build both kinds with my own hands.
If you are a founder building AI-native software, or an investor who wants exposure to this thesis, my door is open.