First Funders

Hosted by Shaherose Charania

Business Investing Entrepreneurship

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Jun 2026

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How first checks get written. What it takes to earn them. First Funders goes inside the minds of the investors who back founders before anyone else believes in them, and the founders bold enough to make that pitch. Each episode, host Shaherose Charania, Partner at Unshackled Ventures and a 20-year veteran of the startup ecosystem, sits down with angels, pre-seed investors, and operators-turned-VCs for candid, tactical conversations. Guests include partners from First Round Capital, Accel, Precursor Ventures, Climate Capital, Hustle Fund, and beyond. We cover how investors are building conviction in an era where AI is reshaping every sector, what they look for before traction exists, and the frameworks behind their best bets. Whether you're writing first checks or trying to earn one, this is your inside track.

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June 3, 2026Episode 1658 min

A Special Episode of First Funders: The Journey to VC with Shaherose and Mel Strong

This episode of First Funders is a little different… It's a conversation between two friends who made the leap from to VC from two shared and unique paths.Shaherose is joined by Mel Strong, an operator-turned investor, whom she met while working at Nike. Today, Mel is a founder of NEXT VENTURES, a fund dedicated to supporting early stage companies in the health and wellness space. In this episode, Mel and Shaherose discuss their shared journeys, why they decided to leave the corporate world, and what they're looking forward to investing in next. Highlights: Shaherose and Mel met at the same company, but both had very different paths to get there.The pair gives a behind-the-scenes look at creating Valiant Labs inside Nike and applying venture-style experimentation within a global corporation. Shaherose leapt first, and then Mel followed after in leaving Nike and going into VC. Mel has often felt like an outsider, but she's turned that into a strength as a VC. Both investors appreciate backing founders who have immigrant or athlete backgrounds, as they've each seen excellent results from people with these profiles. 00:00:00 – Introduction & Why This Conversation Is Different00:02:30 – Mel Strong's Journey: Teacher, Journalist, Nike Executive, VC00:08:15 – Shaherose's Origin Story: Entrepreneurship, Sports & Silicon Valley00:14:15 – Building Women 2.0, Founder Labs & Early Startup Successes00:20:00 – Bringing Venture Thinking to Nike & Building Valiant Labs00:24:15 – From Operators to Investors: Angel Investing, Risk & Reinvention00:39:45 – Leaving Nike, Finding Conviction & Becoming Fund Managers00:47:00 – What We Invest In: Venture-Scale Founders, AI, Healthcare & The Future

May 14, 2026Episode 252 min

S3E02: A modern take on biotech investing: Diagnostics, AI, and longevity - Shahram Seyedin-Noor, Civilization Ventures

Shahram Seyedin-Noor isn’t a physician. Nor is he a chemist. And he’s not a software engineer, either. But you wouldn’t know by the way he commands all of these spaces to invest in some truly cutting edge bio technology like genomics, therapeutics, and diagnostics just to name a few. He’s been at this for almost 20 years, with almost half of that time spent as the founder and managing partner of Civilization Ventures, where he writes $100k – $5m checks into pre-seed and seed biotech companies. He focuses on the spaces in healthcare that don’t always get their due, such as diagnostics and longevity. In this episode, Shahram takes us through how he’s been able to break down barriers as an outsider, why diagnostics needs a rebrand, and what he looks for in AI-native founders. Check size: $100k - $5mHighlights: Shahram’s winding path to his current role has established him as an outsider who’s able to quickly and easily obtain insider knowledge for almost any domain.Civilization Ventures started with just $1 million, but to date its had 17 exits and 3 IPOs including Rocket Pharma, Omada Health, and BillionToOne, with an ever-growing portfolio of companies in the biotech space including companies like Aspect Biosystems, Curai Health, and Foresight Diagnostics.Diagnostics has been unfairly maligned, but it shouldn’t be considered a dirty word within the industry.Incremental medicine has its place, but it’s curative treatments that get Shahram most excited. These days, Shahram isn’t just looking for AI companies, he’s looking for AI-native founders. Chapters: 00:00 – From Immigrant Kid to Venture Capitalist08:30 – Building a VC Fund Like a Startup15:30 – The Contrarian Thesis: Betting on First-Time Founders20:00 – Why Diagnostics Became the Opportunity Everyone Else Ignored24:45 – The Three Investment Pillars30:30 – AI’s Impact on Biotech Investing38:30 – Contrarian Investing vs Following Hype41:00 – Beyond Returns: Building Civilization

April 22, 2026Episode 132 min

S3E01: Monique Woodard, Cake Ventures, Trust Was Always the Moat

What could you do with a free weekend and a few subscriptions to some AI tools? Probably start a billion dollar company. This is the reality for so many startups and tech companies that can suddenly ship projects that previously would’ve taken a couple of months (and a couple of developers) to deploy. So in a world where everyone can build, what’s the differentiator? Monique Woodard has a few ideas. She’s the founding partner of Cake Ventures, a fund writing checks into pre-seed and seed-stage companies at the intersection of technology and demographic shifts. She’s interested in how companies can stand out in a crowded, AI-driven environment, the way soft skills have transformed, and what AI means for the humans still in the loop. Check size: $250k – $750kHighlights: • Trust is key for any company, and it’s not something that’s going to be replaced by technology any time soon. • Monique is thinking more about the desk-less future of work and what AI means for the white collar workforce. • The skills once labeled as “soft” are now getting rebranded into the “hard” skills that everyone needs to survive and thrive. (00:00) - Monique x Shaherose (05:08) - AI at the Application Layer (08:44) - Distribution and defensibility are key (12:22) - Trust at the center (15:15) - Investing in post-domain name companies (23:44) - The state of revenue today

September 30, 2025Episode 457 min

S2E04: Resilience as a Thesis: Tahira Dosani on Building for Underserved Markets and AI in Fintech

Some investors are motivated by the thought of multiplying their fund, securing a bigger slice of the cap table, or, of course, successfully filing for a coveted IPO. But for Tahira Dosani, all she has to do is remember the economic instability of her childhood and she’s immediately re-anchored to her why behind it all. First came the career, starting as a Bain Capital consultant and moving on to launching cellular service and mobile payment solutions in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Then came the first fund, Accion, a non-for-profit where Tahira cut her teeth in early stage impact investing in emerging markets. After Accion, Tahira didn’t set out to start her own fund, but the immigrant-to-entrepreneur pipeline was just too strong and it pulled in this Pakistani native. She co-founded ResilienceVC, a human-centric, early stage fund focused on creating fintech solutions and solving persistent financial challenges for everyday Americans. She writes $1 million checks out of ResilienceVC to fintech companies at the seed stage. Highlights: Tahira’s why dates back to when she was a child who immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan. Her family’s financial challenges stuck with her, and ever since, she’s remained focused on helping others boost their economic status through technology. It might be hard to recall a time before cellphone service was ubiquitous, but Tahira was on the ground in Kabul, Afghanistan when the first towers were raised, signalling a new day for citizens’ economic opportunities. She soon after helped launch the first mobile payment solution, bringing even more power to the region. Much of investing in the post-2010s is focused on iterating and refining existing products, but Tahira’s backing OS Benefits, a fintech company with a new answer to an old problem: lack of health insurance coverage for restaurant workers. We often say that AI is changing the game. And now, it’s changing the way we behave. Tahira is exploring how AI can alter people’s financial habits and ultimately, make better choices on their behalf. (00:00) - Resilience as a Thesis- Tahira Dosani on Building for Underserved Markets and AI in Fintech (01:21) - Tahira’s path to investing (11:52) - How Accion shaped Tahira’s career (17:35) - What makes a resilient founder? (23:35) - ResilienceVC in the U.S. and beyond (28:24) - How Tahira qualifies opportunity markets (30:05) - OS Benefits: Solving the under-insurance crisis (35:24) - The fintech and AI crossroads (43:29) - Common mistakes from fintech founders (49:40) - Curiosity as the anchor (51:51) - Speed round

May 27, 2025Episode 341 min

S2E03: Atoms over bits: Investing in hardware and innovative founders to solve climate challenges - Sundeep Ahuja, Climate Capital

We’ve welcomed investors with unique backgrounds to First Funders before, but Sundeep Ahuja is our first operator-turned-actor-turned-investor. Sundeep is all in on all things climate tech. He’s backing founders leading the way in cleaning up our water, purifying our air, and keeping our planet the way it should be: livable. Today, his micro fund and syndicate platform Climate Capital, has over 400 climate-focused companies in its portfolio. Sundeep shares why he thinks real-world, physical tech has the edge over software, how the words we use matter when it comes to addressing climate challenges, and why he’s still optimistic about the future despite current social and political challenges to climate initiatives. He writes ~$150k checks out of Climate Capital into pre-seed and seed-stage startups addressing emission reductions and climate adaptation. Highlights:Sundeep had a winding path to investing, but his passion for the climate has always been there. He talks about how his time at Kiva shaped and expanded his worldview.We’re heard a lot about software, but Sundeep is firmly in the hardware camp. He’s seeing startups like Copper and Avalo make incredible strides working with physical products – or focusing on atoms over bits, as he says. The way we talk about issues matters, and Sundeep is seeing the impact of language play out in the climate space. His solution is simple: No vague, moralizing language. Just plainly state what you’re doing to help the environment. Sundeep has a careful eye on what’s going on regarding the climate and the current administration, but he’s not feeling deterred. He believes there’s still plenty of capital – and plenty of people who believe in the mission – to sustain the headwinds. Like a true investor, Sundeep has a story about his worst investment and what he learned from it. Mainly, that the importance of due diligence can’t be overstated. (00:00) - Atoms over bits: Investing in hardware and innovative founders to solve climate challenges - Sundeep Ahuja, Climate Capital (01:39) - Sundeep’s journey from eBay to Acting to Impact (02:44) - Finding his purpose at Kiva and focusing on climate (03:52) - Establishing Silicon Climate and writing his first book (09:17) - Sundeep’s work founding and scaling up Climate Capital to an 400-company portfolio (13:45) - Why technical founders and defensible IP are now at the heart of their seed investments. (30:34) - Rethinking the language we use to talk about the climate (34:58) - Lessons from the worst investment Sundeep has made (37:34) - Reasons why Sundeep is hopeful for the future of climate tech

April 22, 2025Episode 21 hr 14 min

S2E02: Before Clay Was a Unicorn: The First Check, the Thesis, and the Long Game - Andre Charoo, Maple VC

Canadians have been the lifeblood behind some of the biggest unicorn startups of the past few years (think Open AI, Uber, Slack, Instacart, Notion, Databricks, CloudFlare, Roblox, Ethereum, Moderna Health, and Clay to name a few), and yet no one talks about them, except for Andre Charoo. And he’s not just talking – he’s putting his money behind Canadian founders through his fund, Maple VC. Andre shares why he thinks Canadian founders are always a strong bet (and bonus points if they’re immigrants, too), what it’s like to wait over 7 years to see a pre-seed investment materialize (in this case, recent unicorn Clay), and how he thinks about moats in the AI age (and why they still matter).Maple VC writes $500k – $1.5 million industry-agnostic checks into pre-seed and seed stage companies with roots from Canada to Korea to Harvard. HighlightsEven long after he left Uber and Hired, Andre never lost his go-to-market spirit and he’s carried it with him as he’s moved from operator to VC. Andre’s investing framework can best be described as Canadian roots with global reach. He’s been working hard to give Canadian founders their due and show their world that they are some of the most ambitious people out there. Clay, a unicorn in the Maple VC portfolio, is a testament to persistence and patience. Andre urges investors to remember they’re playing the long game – waiting for results that may not materialize for nearly a decade. It’s all about building durable companies, and the 7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer still holds true. Andre stresses that defensibility and success come from strategic insight, execution, and taste—not just code.While AI is changing the way companies form and scale, Andre still believes in this undefeated combo for founders: inventors, builders, and operators.(00:00) - Andre Charoo, Maple VC - Before Clay Was a Unicorn: The First Check, the Thesis, and the Long Game (01:40) - Andre’s journey from operator to investor (06:56) - Why Andre will always bet on Candian expats (22:46) - Andre’s check size and how he manages Maple VC (33:38) - The 7-year story of the unicorn, Clay (42:14) - Where Andre thinks AI stands and where it might be going (49:17) - Moats still matter in the AI era (01:03:02) - Andre's take on the inventor-builder-operator trifecta

March 27, 2025Episode 11 hr 17 min

S2E01: Lessons on AI, PM, and LLMs from founder, investor, and operator Shalin Mantri

You can be a founder. You can be an investor. You can be an operator. Or, you can be Shalin Mantri and be all three. This respected product leader got his start by founding a mobile app startup in the early iPhone days in 2011 and followed it up with product leadership in the early days of Uber, Skip and more recently, Google. He angel invests with $5k – $50k checks as a true first believer, usually in companies where he has a personal connection with the founder. He shares his tiered angel investment system, where he sees autonomous vehicles going (and not going), his thoughts on AI, how AI might have transformed Uber’s early days, and what he thinks of the rise of multi-billion-dollar, 1-pizza companies. HighlightsShalin has a tiered system for evaluating angel deals, and ultimately, determining how much he’s willing to invest.Uber experienced incredible growth from its founding in 2009 through the 2010s when Shalin came aboard as a product manager. He chats about how he thinks AI would’ve changed Uber’s story if it had been around at the time. Shalin explains how AI is running a parallel path with autonomous vehicles, especially when it comes to scaling up without losing product integrity. Just like with AVs, the bar is high for reliability, safety, and performance for AI tech. Recently, the search bar has been less of a source of information and more of a source of frustration. Shalin is focusing on building a solution to improve search, with the help of AI, of course. Company headcounts are getting smaller, and yet their valuations are getting bigger. Shalin’s not necessarily sold on the 1-company, 1-billion dollar company just yet, but he sees the trendline moving in that direction. (00:00) - 01 - Shalin/Shaherose A/V (02:19) - How Shalin evaluates angel deals and deploys checks (13:20) - Working at Uber during the early(ish) days (17:59) - Not all growth is good growth (26:26) - Exploring the interplay between AI and AVs (34:07) - When the big bet doesn’t lead to the big payoff (37:42) - Why AI is making it a confusing and exciting time for PMs (42:51) - What’s wrong with search these days? Is search being rewritten - again? (46:40) - Scaling companies down to 1 pizza and 1 pizza only (58:39) - Shalin’s AI angel investments

November 20, 2024Episode 1653 min

15: Founder to fintech evangelist to Internet personality and always a Taco Bell enthusiast – Sheel Mohnot, Better Tomorrow Ventures

We’ve had a lot of cool people on the pod, but Sheel Mohnot is our first guest to achieve this trifecta: 100X an investment, have a founder in his portfolio go to prison, and have his wedding sponsored by Taco Bell. He invests at the pre-seed and seed stages into startups in the financial technology (fintech) space, and he’s quick to tell you that just about everything is fintech. Through his fund, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Sheel writes $500k to $3M pre-seed and seed checks into fintech companies. He came by to talk about that time he got defrauded by a company, how he sparked a bidding war that led to him returning most of his fund, and why speed of execution is one of his favorite traits in founders. Highlights:Sheel is beginning to think that pre-seed is the new seed, and seed is the new Series A. He unpacks these thoughts and outlines what he needs to see in order to believe in a founder at the early stages.Secondaries and early exits and two ways investors can realize an outcome in a shorter time frame than an IPO. Sheel explains how he did this with two companies, Flexport and Indio, and how he feels about his decisions retrospectively. Major companies like Toast and Shopify are synonymous with fintech, but there is a vast network of less-thought-of companies making transactions happen in nearly every imaginable space. Hair salons, golf clubs, and garbage trucks are just a few of the places where Sheel is seeing fintech potential and why he believes that everything is fintech and fintech is everything.Sheel could’ve saved himself some trouble (and money!) if he would’ve heeded the warnings of fellow investors about a deal. However, he learned his lesson and now he doesn’t invest unless he thoroughly vets the founder through someone else in his network.(00:00) - FIFU 16 - Sheel Mohnot (01:25) - Sheel's early days as a founder and consultant (09:58) - Why invest and why invest in fintech (12:09) - Ideal Founder Profile: Who and what Sheel is looking for (14:43) - Lessons From the Worst Investment: How to spot a fraud (21:10) - Lessons from the Best Investment: Knowing when to take chips off the table (34:03) - Sheel's thoughts on the expansiveness of the fintech market (38:00) - Speed of execution is one of Sheel's favorite traits to find in founders (43:31) - Speed round

October 16, 2024Episode 151 hr 4 min

14: First checks for dropouts, students, and deep tech sci-fi founders - Danielle Strachman, 1517 Fund

One day soon when you see a robot squirrel on a 10-foot unicycle, think of Danielle Strachman. These are the types of ideas Danielle Strachman sees and backs on a regular basis at her VC fund, 1517. The fund, which proudly backs “dropouts, students, and sci-fi,” has had several fund multipliers in their portfolio, including Loom (Acquired by Atlassian) and Luminar Technologies (IPO 2020). Plus, her star-studded community includes Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum, Laura Deming of The Longevity Fund, and Dylan Field of Figma – all of whom she first met when they were teenagers. Danielle’s commitment to bringing freedom and autonomy to young people is much of the reason behind 1517’s work with upcoming founders — which includes children as young as 10 years old! We talk to Danielle about why her firm hands out cash grants to kids, where she sees the future of deep tech headed and how she’s helping it get there, the right characteristics (and anti-characteristics) to look for in founders. Danielle invests $100k angel checks and $500k pre-seed checks out 1517 Fund focusing on dropouts and sci-fi / deep tech founders.Highlights:1517 exists to address the lack of capital for young people and for the deep-tech sci-fi space. Danielle is particularly drawn to “dropouts” who skipped the higher education path to focus on their work and start their companies. Danielle likes to think of her fund as Grand Central Station, a place that helps people get to where they want to go next. She uses her relationship building skills to stay in touch with founders and connect them with new opportunities. Danielle loves meeting “crazy scientists” and people who are working on solving the future’s problems. 1517 is unique because it makes two investments in these types of companies: a $100k angel check for R&D and a $500k pre-seed follow-on check. Danielle understands the power or relationships and mentorship in a space that can often feel impersonal and transactional. She’s kept in touch with many founders over the years, including the founders of Loom and Luminar Technologies – whom she met back when they were teenagers! (00:00) - FIFU 15 - Danielle Strachman (06:41) - The 1517 Differentiator: An anti-establishment fund for dropouts (08:15) - The Why: Bringing freedom and autonomy to young people (18:49) - 1517 as Grand Central Station: Helping people get to their next destination (26:35) - Lessons from the Worst Investment: Listen to your gut (35:24) - Best Investments So Far: Loom and Luminar Technologies (37:54) - The Fund Formula: 85% dropout and 15% sci-fi (51:47) - Nurturing Young Talent: How Danielle sources next gen founders (57:34) - Speed round

October 8, 2024Episode 141 hr 0 min

13: Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund has seen over 50,000 companies and made 800 investments – usually in just 30 minutes

Elizabeth Yin realized she had a problem. She wanted to be a founder, but couldn’t think of a problem she wanted to spend decades of her life working on. After soul searching, she remembered the one thing she did care about: helping other founders.She took that passion and turned it into Hustle Fund, which focuses on offering capital, knowledge, and networks to “hilariously early-stage” software startups. She also angels invests in non-software D2C companies. She’s invested in over 800 startups, with two of her most notable being Webflow and Mejuri. We chat with Elizabeth about why valuation matters if you have a smaller fund, why she thinks certain hot spaces like AI might not yield the types of returns investors think they will, and what happens when founders misbehave (and commit fraud and flee to Russia). Elizabeth invests $150k checks into idea-stage B2B software, digital health, and fintech companies through Hustle Fund. Highlights: When Elizabeth says she invests at an early stage, she means it. Hustle Fund invests in founders who have an idea and are pre-revenue.Elizabeth talks about the difference between small sub-$100M funds and large multi-stage funds. As a smaller fund, you need to make your checks count by deploying them into startups where they’ll make a true difference. Multi-stage funds are investing early to have the option to write a bigger check in later stages. Higher exits usually mean higher entry points for investors. If you’re not a multi-billion dollar fund, you probably want to focus on investments with lower entry points and in return, lower multiples. In the end, both lead to similar quantified outcomes.You don’t want to invest in overcrowded spaces because your chances of realizing alpha decreases when there are more hands in the pot. Finding unpopular spaces with less competition is where Elizabeth likes to focus.(00:00) - 13: Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund has seen over 50,000 companies and made 800 investments – usually in just 30 minutes (01:36) - Launching LaunchBit: Getting started as a founder and helping others at the same time (09:30) - The first investment: Lessons in customer acquisition (11:48) - Valuation: Why it matters at every fund size (18:43) - Making checks count: Are you an option or an investment? (28:37) - The best investment: Lessons in learning to play the long game (30:59) - Entries and exits: Elizabeth's framework for evaluating investments (39:39) - Ignoring the crowd: Staying out of too-hot spaces like AI (49:52) - AI: What’s Elizabeth doing in this space? (53:23) - Speed round