The Best of Slice: Top Lessons From Season 3

Another season highlighting an incredible group of operator/founder turned emerging managers, and a whole year (+ some change) of building Slice.

We started the slice pod in September 2024 to create a space where emerging managers could speak plainly about their strategy, doubts, and the mechanics of building a firm. Real conversations about what it means to start a fund in this moment.

This past year, we screened 180 funds sub-$50M (most sub-$20M), reviewed 98 data rooms, and made a dozen investments. What’s become clear: the best managers have clarity, consistency, and smaller fund sizes.

The landscape bifurcated. YC’s SAFE made early capital frictionless. SoftBank’s $100B fund forced everyone bigger. The middle collapsed. What’s left: mega-funds at growth and a fragmented network writing true first checks.

That’s where we believe the alpha lives. Sub-$10M caps where the Tier 1’s don’t deploy. Managers who move first because they’re not dragging $500M funds behind them.

The managers who win are former operators and founders. They’ve lived the zero to one. They know what it takes to make your first hire, land your first customer, figure out product-market fit with six months of runway. They become the first call not because of brand, but because they actually help.

Vivek (Supercharge): product founder whisperer and first checks for technical founders using frameworks he built while building Superhuman. Sarah (Sarah Smith Fund): best-in-class systems at scale as a solo GP. Turner (Banana Capital): building top-of-funnel everywhere. Jamie (Wave Function Ventures): writing first checks into hardware companies because he’s been there as not only an operator but as a founder...twice. Ben (SuperAngel Fund): with superangel speed. Helen (Articulate): after Facebook, Dropbox, Plaid, AngelList. Jonathan (Space Capital): concentrated frontier tech before American Dynamism had a name.

Clarity means one sentence explains your unique edge. Not “strong network.” Specific advantage that’s true to you. Consistency means the math works. Fund size, check size, portfolio construction.. everything aligns. When it makes sense, it’s obvious. When it doesn’t, it’s painfully obvious.

Most ambitious managers don’t maximize AUM. They say they’ll be the absolute best at writing the very first check into a specific category with their specific skillset. Then size the fund to do that well. Take Pietro (Firedrop): sub-$15M vehicles repeatedly, oversubscribed over a weekend. He easily could have gone bigger but didn’t.

Fund size is fund strategy. Scale up and you’re churning LP base every vintage, losing compounding.

Self-awareness is a fundamental piece to laying a strong foundation. Knowing who you are, what you’re really good at, what you say no to. Most people raise because they can, not because they should. After 100+ data rooms, you see how rare it is when what the manager pitches matches what they’ve been doing and where they’re headed.

Next year we’re going in-person. New York, San Francisco, Austin, Los Angeles. Live recordings. Mini AGMs gathering the best emerging managers and the LPs who back them. THESE ARE NOT NETWORKING EVENTS, and all elephants on the table.

A sincere thank you to our guests, to every manager who joined us this season:

Sarah, Finn, Soso, Turner, Helen, Jamie, Jonathan, Vivek, Ben, Anay, Amit. For trusting us with your story. For sharing the hard parts, not just the wins. For showing up as builders.

This pod wouldn’t exist without you, and it wouldn’t be worth making if it didn’t help the next wave of managers feel a little more seen, and a little less alone (!!)

See you in season 4, which we’ve already started recording with a new host (I wonder who! ;)) HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM SLICE

To hear more, visit slicefund.substack.com