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Bonatsos: Early-stage VCs should back young founder intelligence over sectors

Niko Bonatsos · Inside Silicon Valley’s VC Playbook | WTF is Venture Capital? - 2025 Edition | Ep. 24 · Nikhil Kamath · Aug 29, 2025 · at 12:46

Niko Bonatsos, early-stage investor and partner at General Catalyst, describes his philosophy of backing Gen Z and first-time technical founders regardless of their sector.

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“So honestly, I wouldn't care less about the sector. For me, it's like, if you're as smart as you sound at like, 1619, 23, 25, how much smarter can you be in five years? Because the idea will change, the product will change, the market will evolve. And what do I know? Pre-seed or seed? My own, you know, perspective on the product or the market? I'm not that smart.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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