Founder Traits And One Big AI Test: How Former NEA Partner Vanessa Larco Picks Winners
Crunchbase News talks with former NEA partner Vanessa Larco about how she evaluates startups based on founder potential rather than initial ideas and how she looks for teams that leverage AI to make products dramatically faster, cheaper, or easier to use. Mary Ann Azevedo In early 2025, Vanessa Larco teamed up with Mercedes Bent to found Premise VC , a firm focused on backing early-stage technical founders building durable, high-growth software. Before that, Larco had spent nearly eight years as a partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the world's largest venture capital firms.
Key Takeaways
- There, she served on the firm's investment committee and led investments across enterprise software, developer tools, and consumer technology, including Evident , Kindred , Cleo , Greenlight , and Mejuri .
She also served as a board observer at Robinhood leading up to its 2021 IPO.
- Crunchbase News recently sat down with Larco to discuss how changing founder preferences and the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse drove her to launch a specialized pre-seed and seed fund designed to make early-stage founders a top priority.
Among other topics, we also discussed how she evaluates startups based on founder potential rather than initial ideas, looking for teams that leverage AI to make products dramatically faster, cheaper, or easier to use while avoiding rigid, single-model wrappers.
- At a multi-billion-dollar fund, writing $2 million checks is never going to be a top priority.
They invest across all stages, but when you have to deploy between $3 billion and $6 billion depending on how you look at it, it's impossible to do that $2 million at a time with standard team sizes.
- That frank conversation put a lot into perspective.
- Depending on portfolio size, you can't help everybody or be on the phone with every single company.
Stats & Key Facts
- #Mary Ann Azevedo In early 2025, Vanessa Larco teamed up with Mercedes Bent to found Premise VC , a firm focused on backing early-stage technical founders building durable, high-growth software.
- #At a multi-billion-dollar fund, writing $2 million checks is never going to be a top priority.
- #They invest across all stages, but when you have to deploy between $3 billion and $6 billion depending on how you look at it, it's impossible to do that $2 million at a time with standard team sizes.
There, she served on the firm's investment committee and led investments across enterprise software, developer tools, and consumer technology, including Evident , Kindred , Cleo , Greenlight , and Mejuri . She also served as a board observer at Robinhood leading up to its 2021 IPO. Known for her sharp product intuition and hands-on operational experience, Larco focuses heavily on helping founders evaluate market dynamics, navigate product-market fit and scale resilient teams.
Before transitioning to venture capital, she built a career as a product leader and founder. After earning a degree in computer science with honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology , she began her career at Microsoft working on Xbox and Kinect V1 , before leading core product teams at companies like Twilio and Box . She also founded an app development startup that she successfully ran and sold before joining NEA.
Crunchbase News recently sat down with Larco to discuss how changing founder preferences and the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse drove her to launch a specialized pre-seed and seed fund designed to make early-stage founders a top priority. Among other topics, we also discussed how she evaluates startups based on founder potential rather than initial ideas, looking for teams that leverage AI to make products dramatically faster, cheaper, or easier to use while avoiding rigid, single-model wrappers. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
For more details please read the original article at Crunchbase News.
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