Venture with Grace Aditya Naganath from Kleiner Perkins on AI, Infra & Security
Nov 19, 2025
Aditya Naganath, a venture investor at Kleiner Perkins, has an impressive background with experience at Google, Palantir, and Twitter. He dives into the importance of technical rigor in AI startups and shares insights on building trust with repeat founders. Aditya highlights the critical areas for AI innovation, especially in infrastructure for high-paid professionals. He also discusses what investors often overlook, like team dynamics, and predicts future opportunities in data centers and reasoning clouds. Tune in for gems on investing and startup success!
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Customer-Driven Engineering At Palantir
- At Palantir Aditya worked as a forward deployed engineer who both built software and iterated directly with customers.
- That role taught him to distinguish custom work from platform-generalizable features to create product flywheels.
Long-Term Relationship Building With Founders
- Aditya described building long relationships with founders like Soham and Kapil before leading investments.
- He earned trust by offering product feedback and making valuable introductions over years before investing.
Track Founders With Quarterly Value
- Track promising founders with quarterly check-ins and offer concrete help like intros and market feedback.
- Build trust by demonstrating domain understanding and giving value well before asking to invest.