Ron Conway is the Founder and a Managing Partner of SV Angel. He has been an active angel investor since the mid-90s and has received wide recognition for his role in the tech ecosystem. He has been included on Vanity Fair’s 100 most influential people in the Information Age, awarded Best Angel at the TechCrunch Crunchies Awards, and has been named on Forbes Magazine's Midas list of top “deal-makers” since 2011. Prior to founding SV Angel, Ron was with National Semiconductor Corporation in marketing positions (1973-1979), Altos Computer Systems as a co-founder, President, and CEO (1979-1990), taking the company public on Nasdaq in 1982.
Ron reflects on decades of investing, from semiconductors to AI, and what it really means to be an “all in” partner to founders. He shares how relationships compound into an unfair advantage, why the best investors show up at inflection points, and how being willing to fight, whether in boardrooms or Washington, can change outcomes.
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Intro
(1:50) From semiconductors to AI
(8:39) Two investments that changed everything
(11:46) Nonpassive angel investing
(14:57) Becoming a relationship broker
(18:00) Building authentic relationships
(24:48) Going deep with OpenAI and Airbnb
(29:19) Fighting for founders
(31:39) Remarkable returns at seed
(33:20) The state wealth tax
(37:17) Tech and politics
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Links:
https://x.com/RonConway
https://x.com/jaltma
https://svangel.com/
https://uncappedpod.com/
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