Building High-End Tech Teams Outside Silicon Valley

Episode 419 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Chip Hazard, General Partner at Flybridge. Before we get into the details of Chip’s career, I have to call out a random fun fact: Chip is the only VC with his own action figure, yes – it’s true. There’s a DreamWorks animated movie called Small Soldiers. The lead character is named Chip Hazard, voiced by Tommy Lee Jones. As you’ll hear in this episode, there’s a great story suggesting that the character’s name was actually inspired by Chip himself, which absolutely makes sense once you hear the story. But beyond the fun facts, as you’ll hear, Chip has a major leg up on most investors because he’s successfully navigated multiple platform shifts – from the internet and mobile to the cloud and now AI. What’s impressive is that Chip and the team at Flybridge saw this latest AI shift coming long before the hype. For proof, you just have to look at his blog post titled “Applied AI: Beyond the Algorithms” which he published all the way back in 2019. Chip has backed some of the most impactful companies in tech, like MongoDB back when it was still called 10Gen. Today, it’s a public company with a $20B+ dollar market cap, and Chip still serves on the board. His portfolio also includes Nasuni which was valued at $1.2 billion following a strategic investment led by Vista Equity Partners in 2024. If you aren’t familiar with Flybridge, they are a seed-stage firm investing in ambitious founders leveraging the power of AI. Last September, they announced their latest fund, a $100M seventh fund. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 04:15 A movie character named after Chip in Small Soldiers 05:39 The Current AI Platform Shift & Patterns he has seen 09:48 Decades of blogging experience and how they stayed ahead of the curve 11:23 Chip's background 12:49 Stanford and Athletics 14:00 How Chip got his career started 15:29 Discovering Venture Capital and Landing at Greylock 19:27 A Walk Through His Investments at Greylock 24:50 Starting Flybridge 28:18 The Details about Flybridge 29:46 What gets you to the point of saying YES to entrepreneurs 32:20 Company storytelling at the seed stage 34:11 Investing in MongoDB 36:46 Key Decisions for MongoDB 42:38 Investing in Nasuni 43:41 Other company investments 46:05 Why They Invested in VoiceRun 48:38 Details on xfactor ventures 51:12 Advice for Entrepreneurs on Conducting Due Diligence on Investors 53:01 How VCs Handle an Investment Post-IPO 55:12 Three apps Chip can't live without 57:08 Podcast Recommendations Podcast Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by one of the strongest longtime supporters of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors and $44B in loans as of Q4 2025 – SVB delivers expert guidance, specialized products and a team that knows the innovation economy inside and out. Learn more at SVB.com.