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.

Conor Brennan-Burke and Manu Ebert are the co-founders of Hyperspell. Hyperspell provides a memory and context layer to AI agents is one of our portfolio companies at Seaplane Ventures. I (Joe here) was trying to explain to some friends at a BBQ recently Hyperspell what did and learned pretty quickly that most people aren’t familiar yet with AI agents. Given that and the sudden explosion in interest in AI agents, I thought it would be great for listeners to have Conor and Manu to come on to talk about AI agents, the evolution of AI, context, Y Combinator, and how Manu once bought a .AI domain name via fax machine.

From chatbots to true agents – Conor breaks down where tools like ChatGPT stop and AI agents begin, and why the key shift is agents taking actions autonomously across your tools, not just answering questions.

Why context is the real bottleneck – Manu and Conor share how building their own “chief of staff” agent led them to Hyperspell, a memory and context layer that plugs into tools like Slack, Gmail, and Notion so agents can actually understand your customers, org chart, and tech stack.

The three bottlenecks to agent adoption – Manu explains why verification, capability, and context each limit what agents can do today, and why decoupling these layers (rather than relying on a single big lab) gives companies more flexibility and avoids platform lock-in.

Why workers aren’t using AI (yet) – Conor reacts to studies showing most desk workers rarely touch AI, and argues that fear, bad framing (“AI will replace you”), and lack of personalized context are holding back adoption despite models already outperforming humans on many benchmarks.

AI as global leapfrog, not just US office automation – Manu highlights under-discussed upside: primary care in Africa, McKinsey-grade advice for small businesses, tailored guidance for farmers, and always-on tutors that could reshape opportunity in developing markets.

Let machines be the cogs, not people – The pair paint a future where AI agents handle status updates, follow-ups, and information shuffling inside big orgs, freeing humans to do creative, high-leverage work instead of feeling like dehumanized “TPS report” machines.

Building SuperMe and all-star AI teams – Conor shares a favorite customer use case: cloning experts (or even yourself) as agents using your own docs, email, and notes, so a solo founder can effectively “hire” an AI team of world-class operators and advisors.

YC, rejection, and founder stubbornness – Conor and Manu talk about finally getting into Y Combinator after nine applications between them, why persistence is a superpower for founders, and how YC has shaped Hyperspell’s trajectory.

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

Courtney McCrea is the Cofounder and Managing Partner of Recast Capital. Courtney and I dove into the intricacies of investing in emerging managers and building those firms. We talked about why Courtney is so enthusiastic about emerging managers, the challenges emerging managers face and how to overcome them, how LPs can better evaluate emerging managers, and why LPs aren’t racing to adopt AI as fast as their VCs.

We also discussed:

How LPs really evaluate first-time fund managers: beyond pedigree, what creates conviction in sourcing, selection, and portfolio construction.

Fund I fundraising strategy: why “spray-and-pray” outreach fails—and how to identify the right-fit LPs instead of chasing every allocator.

Where to start if you’re raising your first venture fund: go “off the beaten path” rather than leading with mega-institutions and public pensions.

LP diligence that actually matters: Courtney’s framework for reference calls, risk lists, and finding the “fatal flaw” early.

Solo GP vs partnership risk: why “GP divorce” can be a bigger underwriting risk than the classic “hit-by-a-bus” concern.

AI in the LP workflow: what Courtney is seeing (and experimenting with) in diligence and decision-making as venture processes modernize.

Joe Magyer is the host of Investing in Startups, which is a Seaplane Ventures production.