Equity · Friday, July 3, 2026
Ross Fubini of XYZ Ventures emphasizes his firm's role in helping founders raise their next round by understanding both their company and the broader venture ecosystem, particularly in a challenging market like the current AI focus. Leslie Feinzaig of Grem and Walker highlights her value as a builder with a high tolerance for the messy reality of startups, contrasting herself with financiers and deal makers.
“our job is to raise the next round of funding for the founders. And because my lived experience now years in is that the founders are always experts in their company. But having a unique voice at the table that both understands what's going on in the company, but then is intimately what's happening in the venture ecosystem.”
“And I like to take a very similar approach to Ross and that like having a VC on your cap table that is a founder, is an operator, is like well plugged in, but has a really high tolerance for the ugly, messy business of building a company and like what it actually looks like and feels like to have the sausage made.”
“I almost feel like that has been my school of venture capital is like seeing market behavior at the tippy tippy tippy of the market. And seeing what happens like, you know, a month later when the vibe has changed.”