Episode 50! Venture Strategy, Real Work, & The Myth of Overnight Success with Seth Levine

Seth Levine is a Partner at Foundry Group, a longtime early-stage firm investing in both startups and emerging fund managers. We talked about the art of working with founders, short-term-ism, knowing your own competitive advantage, why AI will create more jobs than it disrupts, and the myth of overnight success. Here's the longer of what we covered:

 

Doing the real work with founders and GPs – Seth explains why his favorite part of Foundry is deep, collaborative problem-solving with CEOs and emerging managers, not formal board meetings, and why he sees himself as “in the influence game,” working for founders rather than controlling them.

 

Fund size is fund strategy – He walks through why Foundry chose not to become a perpetual, multi-generational platform, and how everything from check size to reserves, board work, and follow-on strategy has to flow from the true size and intent of the fund—not from chasing a bigger AUM number.

 

What LPs miss about emerging managers – Drawing on Foundry’s long history backing funds, Seth argues most LPs behave like asset allocators who over-weight pedigree, underwrite theses too superficially, and don’t dig hard enough into a GP’s real edge, philosophy, and personal “why” for running a firm.

 

Under-explored fund models he loves – Seth highlights niche yet powerful strategies: Arthur Ventures’ “under-the-radar” B2B SaaS approach, roll-ups of orphaned 2019–2020 vintage funds, and hybrid revenue-based vehicles that blend debt-style payback with equity upside for founders.

 

If he were starting fresh today – From a pure performance standpoint, he’d run a much more diversified early-stage book with lots of initial positions and minimal follow-ons—Taleb-inspired barbell thinking—and, in a wilder alternate life, maybe build a Series A or growth platform in Saudi Arabia to ride frontier-market upside.

 

Capital Evolution & fixing capitalism, not ditching it – Seth shares the origin story of his new book, his evolving view on when companies should (and shouldn’t) wade into politics, the shift from shareholder primacy toward broader stakeholders, and why medium- to long-term thinking and greater economic dynamism are essential.

 

AI, entrepreneurship, and why venture’s glamor is BS – He’s long-term bullish and short-term cautious on AI, seeing it as a huge unlock for productivity and entrepreneurship far beyond tech—but also a source of disruption that needs thoughtful retraining and policy. 

 

Investing in Startups is hosted by Joe Magyer and produced by Seaplane Ventures.