Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

Welcome back to Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you inside the business of venture capital. I’m your host, Samir Kaji.

My guest today is Micah Rosenbloom, Managing Partner at Founder Collective, one of the longest standing and respected seed firms in the industry, with early investments in companies like Uber, The Trade Desk, and Coupang. What makes Founder Collective atypical to most successful firms is their decision to keep fund sizes small. In fact, despite their success, they’ve never raised a fund over 100 million dollars, in a market where nearly every one of their peers has scaled up.

In this conversation, Micah and I dig into why they’ve stayed small, and the data behind it, including a study his team ran on 25 years of venture exits that found the median outcome of the top 500 exits is about 2.7 billion dollars. We also spent time on his post that described why the industry may have lost the plot by obsessing over fund and firm strategy instead of simply focusing on the core of finding unique opportunities that early, priced appropriately, and led by great operators.

Micah is a two time founder himself, a clear thinker, and someone who’s willing to say what a lot of investors only think. I think you’ll get a lot out of this one.

Thanks for listening to another episode of Venture Unlocked. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Micah. If you’d like to get Venture Unlocked content straight to your inbox, go to ventureunlocked.substack.com and sign up, or head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and subscribe. Thanks again for listening.

Micah Rosenbloom is a General Partner at Founder Collective, a seed-stage venture capital firm built by founders for founders. Before becoming an investor, Micah co-founded multiple technology companies, including Brontes Technologies, which was acquired by 3M, giving him firsthand experience building and scaling startups. Today, he invests in early-stage companies across enterprise software, healthcare, and frontier technologies, and has backed successful startups including Verkada, Lovevery, Talos, Plated, and Trusted. Known for his founder-first philosophy, Micah is a respected voice on capital efficiency, venture strategy, and building enduring companies.

Timestamps:

Topics in this conversation include:

* Seed Capital Scarcity in Boston and Birth of Founder Collective (5:18)

* Why Small Funds Create Optionality and Better Multiples (9:02)

* Capital Efficiency vs Growth Treadmill and Founder Psychology (13:08)

* Data on Billion Dollar Exits and 2.7B Median Outcome (18:20)

* Can AI Change the Exit Math or Just Inflate Valuations? (23:59)

* Profitability, Durable Growth, and Non AI Winners (30:28)

* What Founder Collective Refuses to Chase in This Market (34:47)

* Saying No to Great Founders at Misaligned Terms (38:10)

* Has Venture Lost the Plot? Multiple VC Business Models (41:45)

* Biggest Lesson Learned: Betting on Who, Not Just What (46:24)

Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on X.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Why $100M Exits Matter More Than Trillion-Dollar Dreams

Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers

Why $100M Exits Matter More Than Trillion-Dollar Dreams