Ashmeet Sidana is the solo GP of Engineering Capital. He discusses maintaining fund discipline and strategy across multiple market and technology cycles.
“My portfolio construction is identical. Nothing has changed since then I started engineering capital. In fact, as we were chatting earlier, you know, I closed fund five late last year, and I use the exact same slides that I used in fund one, just in terms of describing what I do at engineering capital.”
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More from Ashmeet Sidana
Opinion
Sidana: The x86 computing architecture is effectively dead
“These days I'm primarily focused on AI. Cybersecurity, data, and then I have a small practice in an area that I'm calling the depth of the x-ray six. So because the x-ray six architecture is now effectively dead that's going to create some opportunities, and I…”
Ashmeet SidanaMar 26, 2026▶ 43:03Why Rule-Breaking Is the Only Rule in Venture Capital | Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital
Opinion
Sidana: LP risk is higher in venture partnerships than in solo GPs
“Obviously your risk is much higher in a partnership. In a partnership, by definition, there is someone who is a good investor and someone who's a little bit less good investor. So you're getting an average. So as it is, you're getting slightly lower. And then …”
Ashmeet SidanaMar 26, 2026▶ 55:18Why Rule-Breaking Is the Only Rule in Venture Capital | Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital
Insight
Sidana: Venture returns are maximized by writing the largest check upfront
“And by definition, you maximize carry or you maximize multiple by making your largest investment first. And so that is very much the strategy of engineering capital. The first check is always the largest.”
Ashmeet SidanaMar 26, 2026▶ 6:41Why Rule-Breaking Is the Only Rule in Venture Capital | Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital
Insight
Sidana: AI is the first cycle disrupting every tech stack layer
“The second thing that has happened with AI is that for the first time, we have the entire technical stack being innovated on at the same time. This has never happened before. So, you know, in the PC era, all the innovation was the PC. In the mini era, all the …”
Ashmeet SidanaMar 26, 2026▶ 14:58Why Rule-Breaking Is the Only Rule in Venture Capital | Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital
Opinion
Sidana: Kubernetes is not how AI inference and training workloads deploy
“We had Kubernetes in the cloud, but Kubernetes is not how you deploy your AI imprints and your AI training workloads.”
Ashmeet SidanaMar 26, 2026▶ 15:54Why Rule-Breaking Is the Only Rule in Venture Capital | Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital
Insight
Sidana: Technical founders fail by 'playing house' rather than finding traction
“One of the very common failure modes of founders, especially technical founders, is what I call playing house. What I mean by playing house is that in any company, and this is related to that prioritization point, in any company, there's a large amount of work…”
Ashmeet SidanaMar 26, 2026▶ 36:23Why Rule-Breaking Is the Only Rule in Venture Capital | Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital
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