Podcast Summary: How I Invest with David Weisburd

Episode: E240: The Edge: Risk, Discipline, and Judgment in Venture
Date: November 11, 2025
Host: David Weisburd
Guest: Mike (Solo GP at Also Capital, former Cornell Endowment allocator)

Overview

This episode explores the elusive qualities that separate top-decile investment managers and generational founders, with a focus on risk management, talent assessment, and building edge in venture capital—particularly in hard tech. Mike shares wisdom from his time allocating capital at the Cornell Endowment and details his current approach as a solo GP at Also Capital, investing at the inception stage in fields like aerospace, robotics, and advanced manufacturing. The conversation is rich with practical heuristics for evaluating exceptional people, building winning cultures, and balancing ambition with discipline.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Lessons from the Cornell Endowment

• Exposure to World-Class Firms: At Cornell, Mike allocated over a billion dollars and observed how top managers operate—how they manage risk, articulate strategy, and develop talent.
• Early Understanding of Excellence:

  “Common theme throughout my entire career is really understanding where's the bar for talent? And getting that very early in my career was something that was a very unique opportunity.” (Mike, 00:08)

• Learning What Good Looks Like: Took ~18 months to identify the properties of enduring excellence in managers—usually risk taken early, being right about a theme, and consistent outperformance. (02:03)

2. Case Study: Bain Capital Life Sciences

• Backing Early and Unique Strategies:
  Mike cites Bain Capital Life Sciences as a prime example. Adam Koppel’s credibility, early insight, and ability to build a team of “unicorns” led to exceptional results.

  “Adam has done an exceptional job hiring unicorns on his investment team… You're looking for these unique investment talents to execute a unique investment strategy.” (Mike, 02:09)

• Execution and Credibility: The ability to set and exceed expectations is critical to building a durable franchise. (03:39)

3. Competing with Incumbents: Choosing the Right TAM

• Go Where Incumbents Aren’t: Success often comes from targeting a different or emerging segment, then compounding into a new incumbent.

  “If you're just number one in a small market [that] never grows, you just have a small firm.” (David, 04:24)

• Ambition Matched with Credibility: The best founders (and fund managers) are those who can sell a wildly ambitious idea but back it with credibility and substance.

  “It's about the marriage between the idea's ambition and the credibility of the person pitching it.” (Mike, 05:01)

4. Defining ‘Edge’ in Venture

• Edge = Willingness to Take Informed Risk:

  “Edge is the risk we're willing to take that most others aren't. Edge is not a free lunch. Edge is informed perspective on a risk…” (Mike, 06:45)

• Sector and Generalist Specialists: Edge can come from deep sector expertise or from a generalist’s ability to spot cross-cutting themes. (07:50)

5. Risk, Volatility and Manager Selection

• Venture Requires Comfort with Volatility:
  Consistent investment through cycles captures long-term alpha. Top outliers (“top decile” funds) often show higher volatility—sector bets and high-concentration strategies.

  “If you want top decile, you do need concentration, you do need to have more volatility in the strategies…” (Mike, 09:18)

• Portfolio Construction: Diversification is not just about fund vintage year but the dollars deployed across investment years. (09:18–12:01)

6. Also Capital’s Approach: Founder Archetypes

• Backing Burning Building Leaders:
  Mike invests in founders “somebody would follow into a burning building.” Charisma, magnetism, and leadership attract top talent—especially vital in hard tech. (12:34)
• Hard Tech Focus: Aerospace, defense, robotics, energy, etc.—fields requiring unique talent and systems engineering risk. (12:34)

7. Risk-Seeking Discipline: The ‘Amateur Pilot’ Analogy

• First Public Reveal:

  “We have this idea of starting a totally separate fund that would just back amateur pilots… an amateur pilot is actually the best characterization of a founder who is risk-seeking [but] calm under pressure, does not take extreme risks… disciplined, want to learn…” (Mike, 14:06)

• Stacking Smart Risks: Founders win by consistently taking calculated risks and adapting fast. (14:42)

8. Going Against the Herd & Non-Consensus Bets

• First Principles Thinking:
  Ability to ignore consensus and withstand ridicule/criticism is rare and crucial for world-changing founders.

  “A lot of these great companies are built on first principles thinking that goes away from consensus views on what should or should not be possible.” (David, 15:53)

• Violate Physics?:
  “Does this violate the laws of physics?” is a first-pass filter in hard tech. (16:54)
• Resource Assembly:
  Entrepreneurship is resource assembly—founders must attract, retain, and inspire scarce talent. (17:00)

9. IQ, EQ, and the Founder Concentric Circles

• High IQ + High EQ Essential:
  Non-consensus, credibility, and talent magnetism require both. (19:32)

  “They need very high IQ… and then they need to have very high EQ because they need to have this era of inevitability that they could communicate…” (David, 19:32)

• Leadership Evidence:
  Whether a solo founder or early team, leading indicators include “early signs of leadership, self-awareness, discipline, long-term vision, ambition…” (Mike, 20:32)
• Track Record as Signal: Competitive drive and discipline often appear early in non-business contexts (athletics, Olympiads, etc.). “It's very hard to teach the competitive gene.” (Mike, 21:45)

10. Competitive Drive, Fun, and Culture

• Fun vs. Play-to-Win:
  Sustained high performance comes from balancing “fun” with competitive “play-to-win” culture.

  “One can over index on fun... The way that is, you focus on playing to win. … It's about having fun. But understanding the goal we're playing towards…” (Mike, 25:30)

• Urgency:

  “Urgency as a necessary precondition to winning big in the long term. But urgency without direction […] is a recipe for burnout.” (Mike, 28:06)

11. The “Sixth Gear” and Mission-Driven Culture

• Mission Unlocks Extra Performance:

  “When you're going after something that has serious consequences for the world… your brain and your body goes into sixth gear. It unlocks another sense of drive that you can't see in a spreadsheet.” (David, 30:10)

• Second-Order Effects Appear in Data:
  Outputs—retention, faster delivery, team energy—do show up in long-term company metrics. (Mike, 31:10)

12. AI’s Impact on Hard Tech

• Three Major Effects:
  • Shorter hardware design cycles for incumbents (32:17)
  • AI-driven general control systems (robotics)
  • Edge AI boosts effectiveness of remote/IoT systems
• Net Result: More defensible positions for top companies, new avenues for innovation in hardware. (Mike, 32:17–33:44)

13. Leading Indicators in Deep Tech Startups

• Talent Magnetism is Key:
  The best founders uniquely attract other stars, and this is knowable by checking who’s willing to follow them.

  “We want to understand who's following you, why are they following you? … How do you articulate what that is?” (Mike, 34:29)

• Early Evidence in Young Founders:
  Leadership, service, and the ability to unite talent often track back to formative experiences or personality traits, even in youth. (37:19)

14. Team Construction and Momentum

• Early Team is Pivotal:

  “I think it's very hard to change team culture after the first five people. But I don't think there's only one culture that builds a generational company.” (Mike, 40:10)

• ‘RPMs and Gears’ Analogy:
  Founders can be high-RPM (iterate fast), high-gear (burn capital fast), and the challenge is matching energy and resources to company needs and risk profile. (Mike, 42:10–43:02)

15. Hard Tech vs. Software Scaling

• Execution > Invention in Hard Tech:
  Execution and market timing matter more than product invention.

  “In hard tech these things are not mysteries… What's hard is the execution, raising the capital, articulating the long term, hiring the specialty expertise…” (Mike, 43:44)

16. Timeless Advice in Venture

• Quality > Quantity in Deal Flow:

  “You don't have to be in every great deal. You just have to be in a handful of really good ones and own a lot of them. … The daily behaviors need to be magnetic to great people…” (Mike, 45:40)

• Don’t Chase Every Deal:
  Chasing leads to poor information, lack of depth, and higher prices.

  “If your model is… really wanting to understand [founders] and their track record, it's really hard to do that well if… you're chasing.” (Mike, 47:47)

17. Venture is About Network & Brand Signal

• Density of Outlier Networks:
  To access exceptional founders, optimize for quality and reputation—not volume.

  “The math says do a lot of deals, but the math also says a few number of companies… drive all the returns. … We’ve chosen to say how do we optimize to be in a network that has a high density of outliers...” (Mike, 49:35)

18. Knowing Exceptional Founders at Pre-Seed

• Not Random, But Not Always Scalable:
  Deep knowledge of people (as in David Sacks’s and Marc Andreessen’s angel portfolios) gives significant pre-seed edge—it isn’t “just the lottery.”

  “It is knowable. … There is a significant edge on doing the work and knowing the people…” (David, 51:11)

• Depth Over Market Reports:

  “If you're reading a Bain or McKinsey report at Precede, you’ve already lost. … Did you do the work on the person to understand what motivated them?” (Mike, 51:56)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Risk vs. Edge:
  “Edge is the risk we’re willing to take that most others aren’t…”
  (Mike, 06:45)

• On Founder Archetypes:
  “It's a type of founder that somebody would follow into a burning building…”
  (Mike, 12:34)

• On Amateur Pilots as Founder Analogy:
  “An amateur pilot is actually the best characterization of a founder who is risk seeking, calm under pressure, does not take extreme risks that would put their own life at risk. They want to learn…”
  (Mike, 14:06)

• On Recruiting Talent as a Leading Indicator:
  “We want to understand who’s following you, why are they following you? What is your edge in getting those people to follow you?”
  (Mike, 34:29)

• On Timeless Venture Advice:
  “You don’t have to be in every great deal. You just have to be in a handful of really good ones and own a lot of them.”
  (Mike, 45:40)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:08] – Value of endowment experience and talent evaluation
• [02:09] – Case Study: Bain Capital Life Sciences and team building
• [06:45] – Definition of “edge” and manager selection in venture
• [12:34] – What Also Capital looks for in founders (“burning building” test)
• [14:06] – The “amateur pilot” analogy for disciplined risk-taking founders
• [19:32] – Founders need high IQ, EQ, and magnetism to create world-changing companies
• [21:45] – Track record and behavioral tells of successful founders
• [25:30] – Culture: fun + play-to-win, and healthy competitiveness
• [28:06] – Urgency as a precondition, but not sufficient, for long-term success
• [30:10] – The “sixth gear” of mission-driven founders and teams
• [32:17] – Three-fold impact of AI on hard tech
• [34:29] – Leading indicators in deep tech startup founders
• [40:10] – Importance of early team formation and culture
• [42:10] – “RPMs and gears” framework for scaling startups
• [43:44] – Hard tech execution vs. software product-market fit
• [45:40] – Timeless advice: discipline, long-term partnership, selective dealmaking
• [49:35] – Network density of outliers over volume of deals
• [51:11] – Identifying exceptional founders is knowable, if not always scalable

Takeaway

This episode offers a masterclass on the art and science of early-stage venture and hard tech investing. Success centers on disciplined risk-taking, being a magnet for talent, and building deep conviction in founders whose gravitational pull is evident long before the rest of the world catches on. It’s not just about chasing deals—it’s about finding founders others would literally follow into danger, stacking the odds with discipline, and letting credible ambition compound.