#venture-capital

SaaStr published takeaways from a recent 20VC x SaaStr podcast episode with Harry Stebbings and Rory O’Driscoll. The discussion covered Washington lifting the Fable 5 ban, Sam Altman floating a 5% government stake, and China owning top open models, according to [SaaStr](https://www.saastr.com/my-takes-on-this-weeks-20vc-why-openai-giving-the-govt-5-might-make-sense-the-death-of-block-risk-and-why-frontier-models-are-the-cheapest/).

A 5% stake can buy alignment with the number one partner in a...

Vanessa Larco left a nearly decade-long Partner role at NEA to co-found Premise, a new venture fund that backs technical founding teams building category-defining companies.

At NEA she backed Robinhood through its 2021 IPO and led the firm's investment in Greenlight. She held board seats at Mejuri, Assembled and Cleo. Earlier she worked as a product leader at Box, Microsoft and Twilio and founded and sold her own startup.

Premise uses an "OpenAI won't kill it" framework.

A founder departure shortly after a startup closes venture capital funding occurs more commonly than expected. The recommended first step is to notify investors immediately and state that a solution is being developed.

According to [SaaStr](https://www.saastr.com/dear-saastr-what-happens-if-one-founder-wants-to-quit-when-the-startup/), founders must inform investors without delay.

Ben Lerer, Managing Partner and Founder of Lerer Hippeau, discussed his early-stage investment approach in an interview published by Sales Hacker. The firm has raised nine funds totaling nearly $1.5B in AUM.

Lerer previously built Thrillist, which later merged into Group Nine, before transitioning to venture capital and making early investments in Warby Parker and Casper.

Lerer Hippeau makes decisions based on conviction rather than consensus.