Jason: Thanks a ton for doing this guys! To get started… can you two give me the quick rundown of your funds?

Julia Lipton: At Awesome People Ventures, we invest 250k checks into web3 companies. This includes everything from DAOs to blockchain security projects.

Daniel Gulati: My fund is called Treble Capital. We write checks of up to $2M into consumer internet companies, really backing founders as early as we can find them.

Right now, we are investing out of Fund 1 and have a pretty broad range of investments, which include marketplaces, climate tech, fintech healthcare, some gaming, and social platforms also.

Jason: It’s been rocky this last month in the startup world. What advice have you been giving founders to help them weather the storm?

Daniel Gulati: I can go first. Over the last month, I've really been encouraging founders to not get too caught up in all the noise. It's just super easy to get sucked into all the macro headlines.

Yes, you should be smart about making all the adjustments you need to make, but I've just learned that at the early stage, it's incredibly important to keep creating value for your customers and really keep marching the company everyday towards your long-term vision.

Jason: Julia?

Julia Lipton: During this bear market, I've been telling founders that the number one rule is don't run outta money. This means you either need to hit the milestones attractive to investors or become profitable.

If you're planning on raising more money, make sure you've talked to upstream investors to understand the milestones you need to hit because they've changed.

Jason: Both really good.. You both have a “don’t overcomplicate things” tone to your advice. I like that!

This next question is one of my favorites because it’s such a fun window into the minds of investors…

Jason: Can you two tell me what you love seeing in founders that you invest in? Like what is a profile of a founder that consistently gets you excited?

Julia Lipton: For me, one of my favorite things to see in a founder is meeting someone who believes something that the rest of the world doesn't believe. Someone who has a unique insight with strong conviction.

Daniel Gulati: I really like it when founders clearly have deep knowledge about a particular topic and it can be any topic. It doesn’t even need to be anything business related. Seeing this immediately says three things to me.

Firstly, they have this intellectual resiliency to be able to work through a problem space over time.

Secondly, it tells me that they have a real appreciation for attention to detail and nuance. Which I think is so important in today's world.

And lastly, they probably know a bunch of stuff that a lot of other people don't know. As a VC, I find that these three things are pretty common amongst successful founders who go out and build really large companies.