Catrina

How I Source & How We Invest I get asked these questions a lot and figure putting this out in the open can help save everyone's time. 1. We only lead/co-lead and exclusively focus on the first round/pre-seed 2. I read all deal-related DM on here on X & LinkedIn. You don't need to get an intro through a mutual to reach me. Yes cold DM here works: some of my favorite portfolio companies were actually from cold DM on X/LinkedIn. I don't read cold emails as much. 3. I (ofc) will respond if it could be a fit for us. 4. The best format to DM is: blurb on what you are building + why + who you are (add LinkedIn/X) Nothing is too early: it's okay if you don't have a deck or website. What we look for is the right founder with the right insights in net-new sectors. 5. One per category: once we invest, we are all in to support the company for their entire lifecycle — the main reason we don't back competitors. 6. What we look for: weird stuff that I haven't heard of or thought of before. Or, to put it more bookishly, "disruptive" versus "sustaining" innovation per The Innovator's Dilemma. 7. I don't take calls lightly because founders' time is as valuable as my own. I rarely get on calls just out of curiosity—that's a waste of everyone's energy. Hope this helps clarify things. Will add to this thread as more come up

A trap for investors after a deal call is getting sucked into a founder’s projection. Intuition is an unspoken gift of some of the most goated early-stage VCs in history. But that same gift also makes them susceptible to mistaking a founder’s infectious earnestness for their own conviction. The cure is forcing at least a 24–48 hour cooldown period and letting the analytical mind step in. Often, the calm mind talks you out of the deal. But the best founders haunt you. For days, weeks, months — sometimes even after you initially passed. When you can’t stop thinking about it, just do it.

@ATH1001 @Saram_ath Not 80 yet 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Saram_ath @dotcuriouscat update?

Look Catrina - it aged like milk in a Dubai summer. $HYPE won't do 2x? Correct, more like 10x. Your sell pressure math assumes team behavior = VC behavior. No VCs. No dump pressure. 99% of all trading fees flow into the Assistance Fund - bought back +$1.16B already. The unlock you are worried about has a $1B natural buyer built into the protocol.

@StealthQE4 x.com/dotcuriouscat/…

This is awesome. PTJ is a legend. Beware of all of these IPO’s that are coming. Exit liquidity. Unprecedented times

@liquidated_hl To first know what you want.

@dotcuriouscat How do you start

The key to achieving anything you want in life is to increase your own gravity. Like a black hole — when you are dense enough in knowledge, confidence, self-belief, and kindness, your gravity draws everything effortlessly. Do the hard work. Do the inner work. Let the universe bend to you.

@CurtisCrimmins love this!

My mom was fired from her hotel housekeeping job in 1998, and we ended up living in her car. What did she do wrong? Missed work due to my grandmother’s untimely death at 54. Brutal. I was 10 years old and I told her I was going to own hotels of my own someday and that I’d never treat my people like that. That I was going to get back at those people who mistreated her by exposing them. Then, in the back of her leaky, rusty, Toyota I promised her a new car in the same breath. Delusional. Today Roomza.com tracks hotel room quality data for more than 6,000 hotels. My mom has stayed in hotels I owned, and here’s the new car I bought her for Mother’s Day. Like I said… delusional, but possible.

The alpha in venture is an investor’s ability to spot a founder on a revenge arc Explosive success comes from accumulation in discomfort, extreme life imbalance, and “beast in a cage” energy Then sprinkle some delusions on top - you got my favorite founder type

@degenrsc "chip on shoulder put chips in pocket"

@dotcuriouscat Is that so? All of them have chips on their shoulders?

@mjzellinger Even better! Soft is mid

@dotcuriouscat A revenge arc? How about a destruction arc??? You guys are way too soft for the harsh coldness of reality!

@MaksimXBT Hence you gotta sprinkle not pour

@dotcuriouscat delusions can also sink a company just as fast as they propel one

@dSamKingston Ya I’d say it’s 1. Show you have outlier aptitude 2. At least choose a viable sector I underwrite founders expecting product to change. But their sector/insight shouldn’t

@dotcuriouscat Man this is the most honest thing I’ve read about preseed recently. I realized the burden isn’t only building something great; it’s also about making sure the talent reads clearly even when the idea is still finding itself. Thats the part to work on.

Here’s a glimpse into why preseed is really hard. You meet founders in the midst of their original idea — which can easily range from crowded, hyped, or not making sense all together. Think EigenLayer starting as an NFT marketplace at inception, Plasma being a BTC L2 at seed, and the list goes on. But alpha is alpha — you can still tell when a founder is out-of-distributionly strong. HOWEVER — when their idea/product/insight falls short, you start questioning your own talent read. “How can such a strong founder pick this idea?” Then they pivot — and grow into a beast. All of a sudden, you end up with a big anti-portfolio. You start getting cognitive dissonance like: “oh man, I should have just backed & trusted my intuition on the talent read.” But guess what — if you start backing everyone with strong founder attributes but ideas/products you don’t believe in, you’ll find yourself blowing through your fund fairly quickly with a lot of 0s. Ya. It’s def not for everyone.

Yes we are going higher for longer. But these stats around AI now accounting for ~50% of investment-grade bond issuance and 87% of all VC funding still gives me the yips Maybe just sth I need to get used to.

@Kalshi It already happened — a portco founder found a clinical trial for his mom’s terminal cancer on @ChatGPTapp @OpenAI, and saved his mom.

JUST IN: JPMorgan CEO says AI will "cure cancer"

@victory_esi 🫡

@dotcuriouscat I think this advice applies beyond founders. Really good stuff 💕

Your cheat sheet for handling us VCs IRL

@PeterDAmbrosio @joelimmmmm Very much so

Joe has always been ahead of his time

@dan_uptop 🤝

@dotcuriouscat great advice. definitely applicable more broadly.

@gumdropsteve Im gonna steal this

Specifically i say that because at an event before my cofounder got fed up and walked up to a VC, gave them an update and was told “we can talk about this later.” He responded “Winston doesn’t feel like talking to you later.” We got a term sheet 2 weeks later.

Usually right Does not matter if you just win

@gumdropsteve Just easy fixes so the best founders don’t trip over small but importantly stuff that no one talks about