Leo Polovets
Co-founder & General Partner, Susa Ventures. On 2 shows, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorfounderengineer@lpolovets ↗LinkedIn ↗humbaventures.com ↗
Polovets is an early-stage investor who co-founded Susa Ventures and launched deep-tech-focused sister fund Humba Ventures, backing companies across enterprise SaaS, robotics, energy, and defense. Before venture investing, he was the second non-founding software engineer at LinkedIn and built engineering systems at Google and Factual.
2shows
3appearances
48statements
1resolved
1supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
8said about them ↓ Everything Leo Polovets said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Polovets: Evaluating startup technology and CTOs at seed is a waste
“I spent most of my time trying to figure out how good is the technology, how good is the CTO. And it took me a few months to realize that that was probably just a waste of time for everybody.”
Polovets: Startups dependent on capital markets must eventually reach consensus to survive
“Eventually, you have to get to consensus. If you're dependent on capital markets, it's very hard to keep the company alive if nobody wants to fund it.”
Polovets: Most successful startups originate from non-hot batches
“Most of that, like most of the hot companies end up coming from the not hot batch, right?”
Polovets: Humba Ventures paused defense investing due to inflated valuations
“We invested in defense a lot three, four years ago, and then we kept looking, we're basically paused for a year and a half or two, because after the Ukraine and Israel thing, you know, prices just went up like two, three, four times, but the company fundamenta…”
Polovets: Most of Humba's 10-12 unicorns lacked multi-stage seed leads
“I think we've invested in like 10 or 12 unicorns roughly. Maybe like a third of those or quarter of those had a series A investor at seed.”
Polovets: Solely accepting warm intros excludes non-traditional founders
“If you only meet people through introductions, you're going to be shutting yourself off from people who come from different backgrounds or spend time in their social groups or different settings.”
Polovets: Fund returns depend far more on initial seed checks than follow-ons
“Yeah, you know, I do believe, actually, that you make most of your money on the right initial bets, And the key is just to make those bets meaningful and trying to double down later helps, but I really think it's secondary.”
Polovets: Overpaying across a seed portfolio cuts overall fund returns in half
“I do believe price is important. I think everybody talks about if you invest in Uber, then the seed price doesn't matter. And I think if you invest in Uber, that's true. The seed price doesn't matter. But I think the challenge is that most investors think most…”
Leo Polovets: VC reputation is built on handling struggling portfolio companies
“There's a really great Fred Wilson quote where he talks about VCs making their money on their big winners, but the reputations on the companies that struggle. And I think building that good reputation is what gives you a chance to work with the next generation…”
Polovets: Staggered valuation caps offer minimal dilution savings over upfront rounds
“Whether you raise all of it on five, or you raise a little bit on four, seven, and 10, most people think that the four, seven, 10 approach is way better, because the valuations go up so much. But it turns out, I think it's within about half a percent of diluti…”
Polovets: Startups fail from lack of product-market fit, not technology
“It's very rare for me to see companies fail because of the technology. It's almost always the product market fit is not there, or the team isn't able to recruit as much as they'd like”
Polovets: Founders with prior unicorn exits are never non-consensus
“I'm not sure an ex-unicorn founder would ever be, not consensus really.”
Polovets: Ownership and entry valuation don't matter for top-performing startups
“Like if you're in like the best company of the year, I don't think like, I don't think ownership matters that much. I don't think like the price matters that much.”
Polovets: Most VC warm intros add friction without providing real signal
“I think the truth is most intros aren't actually that warm.”
Polovets: Relying on warm intros prevents VCs from being first check
“If you only meet people via introduction, you're Almost never going to be the first person to talk to a founder, almost by definition, because, you know, you're waiting for somebody else to talk to them first”
Leo Polovets: Multi-page pitch emails signal a founder lacks clarity
“I think there's a sync that shows that you know how to pitch your product well, and you have a really good grasp of it. And if you need three pages, I think that means that you still aren't sure exactly how to do that. And you don't know how to engage, you kno…”
Polovets: Helpful seed investors usually get follow-on investment access
“And I will also say, I think following on is not a fantasy in my experience. I think if you're helpful and you work hard and founders enjoy working with you, they'll usually give you a chance to follow on, you know, not always, but usually.”
Leo Polovets: Susa Ventures will not abandon struggling portfolio companies
“I strongly disagree with this. The first reason is, and this is actually kind of a personal reason, but, you know, my fund, Sousa Ventures, we talk about the investors and founders in our fund being a little bit like a family, and I know it's kind of corny, bu…”
Polovets: Deal picking matters more than deal access for venture returns
“I definitely think picking is more important, you know, because if you don't pick well, then it doesn't really matter if you get in or not, like you're not going to have a good portfolio, but if you can pick well, then access may or may not be important. And I…”
Polovets: Most VCs know very little about your specific startup
“VCs know a lot about businesses in general and sort of have a lot of knowledge across many companies, but it's very broad and not that deep. And they usually know very little about your specific business and industry.”
Polovets: A fund exclusively following top-tier VCs would be highly successful
“So if you had a fund that just did that, where all you did was follow on to these other top funds, like that would be an amazing investment vehicle.”
Polovets: Overpaying across a VC portfolio cuts fund returns in half
“And the problem is, you know, if you overpay by 50 or a hundred percent for one deal or two deals in a 30 deal fund, that's not a big deal. But if you do it for all of your deals, or most of your deals, now your cost basis may be doubled. And now that means th…”
Polovets: Bad VCs tarnish venture capital due to lack of public accountability
“I think most VCs are great and then a small number are not. And because there's no public repository of people, you know, saying what it's like to work with a specific investor, a lot of times, like both the good and bad investors will be able to get into roun…”
The other half of the tape: Leo Polovets's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 7 times in 2 episodes across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Ted Blosser 6Harry Stebbings 1
Statements about Leo Polovets, by other people (1)
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 7
2019 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Leo's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Co-founder & General Partner, Susa Ventures | 2 | 34 | 100% 1/1 | full record on 20VC → |
 a16zLEDGER | Co-founder & General Partner, Susa Ventures | 1 | 14 | — | full record on the a16z Podcast → |