EP 79: The “Why Now” Test for AI Startups | Vanessa Larco, VC & Formerly NEA Partner

Vanessa Larco has sat on both sides of the table. She built products at Microsoft, Disney, Twilio, and Box, then led investments at NEA, including Mejuri and Kindred, and watched Robinhood scale to its IPO as a board observer. Sam and Mac talk with her about what actually holds up once the pitch deck closes.

Topics covered:

• Why a founder’s roadmap, and what’s missing from it, shows how they make decisions
• Skill, luck, and the dynamics no investor can predict
• Product market pull: users who would be upset if you took the product away
• Why enterprise AI gets the capital, and where consumer AI is still open
• The hybrid go-to-market challenge of selling AI to small businesses
• AI-native companies vs. companies that use AI behind the scenes without selling it
• The “why now” framework behind Mejuri and Kindred
• Lessons from Robinhood’s founders on urgency, obsession, and speed
• Agent traffic vs. human traffic, and why product teams will need agent metrics
• How a venture firm uses AI agents, and why conviction in diligence stays human

Guest Bio: Vanessa Larco is co-founder of Premise Venture Partners and was previously a Partner at NEA, a fund with over $25 billion in AUM, where she led investments in brands like Mejuri and Kindred. Before venture, she built products at Microsoft, Disney, Twilio, and Box. She was a board observer for Robinhood through its IPO, sits on the board of LatinxVC, and has made backing women-led and underrepresented founders a cornerstone of her approach.

Connect: Find Vanessa on LinkedIn, where she says she’s most responsive. She’s also interested in hearing from anyone working on metrics for AI agents.