Bilal Zuberi spent 18 years investing hard tech, most of it as a GP at Lux ($7B AUM), before starting @RedGlassVC in 2025 to bet on AI that touches the physical world.

Bilal was making defense tech investments 15 years ago, and he led the Series A in Applied Intuition, now a $15 billion company.

We hung out for a few hours and he shared everything he's learned investing in hardware, why hardware is still hard, why the deployment layer is the most attractive area of physical AI, taking a 90% pay cut to start Red Glass, "AUM as a moat", how to become a billionaire off management fees, and why consensus investing is mostly a circle jerk.

Thanks to this episode's sponsors:

Monaco: The revenue engine for startups https://monaco.com

Flex: Premium banking, 60-day credit, 0% APR https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapital

Clerk: Everything you need for authentication https://clerk.com

Numeral: Sales tax on autopilot https://numeral.com

Timestamps:

(0:00) Leaving $7B to bet on physical AI

(0:51) What most people get wrong in physical AI

(4:17) Why a startup has to become a business

(11:31) Hardware is still hard, so what changed?

(15:40) How government went from SBIR mills to real customer

(17:48) Robotics goes from hard-coded to probabilistic

(23:34) Where value accrues: full stack, then wedges

(25:24) How Applied Intuition became a $15B company

(28:03) The deployment layer is the real prize

(32:22) OpenAI and Anthropic hint what will happen in physical AI

(36:14) Why customers have all the downside

(37:56) The best founders paint a picture and execute

(40:53) Why it's called Red Glass (founders chew glass)

(42:17) Every founder hates fundraising, even Travis

(44:29) Red Glass's four core values

(50:49) Why founders really take your call (the $250k effect)

(53:28) What Bilal looks for in a founder

(58:44) Why technical founders underrate fundraising

(1:00:26) The Tiger Global era

(1:04:02) From $10B to $100B, the goalposts moved

(1:06:21) Is this a bubble? Portfolio construction

(1:08:55) Building a firm that outlasts him

(1:12:13) From Nobel-lab chemist to Zero-to-One investor

(1:13:45) Are small funds just outsourced associates?

(1:16:35) When AUM becomes the moat

(1:18:34) How big funds choke off SPV money

(1:21:24) The risk of VCs backing competitors

(1:23:31) Why fund economics push everyone bigger

(1:26:20) Consensus investing is a circle jerk

(1:29:51) You can be a billionaire on fees alone

(1:33:09) Equal carry and the right to win

(1:35:55) Why good ethics in VC matter

Check out Red Glass VC: https://www.redglass.vc/

Follow Bilal

Twitter: https://x.com/bznotes

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bzuberi

Follow Turner

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak

Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Why a Chemist Left $7B to Bet on Physical AI Before Everyone Else | Bilal Zuberi, Red Glass Ventures

The Peel with Turner Novak

Why a Chemist Left $7B to Bet on Physical AI Before Everyone Else | Bilal Zuberi, Red Glass Ventures