Venture with Grace Conrad Shang, Ensemble VC GP on AI, Deep Tech, Healthcare & Infra
27 snips
Jun 13, 2025 Conrad Shang, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Ensemble VC, shares his insights from a seasoned career in venture capital, having backed seven unicorns including Zoom. He discusses the innovative Unity platform, which acts as an AI copilot for VCs, revolutionizing how startups are sourced and evaluated. Conrad dives into the importance of team dynamics in selecting talent and shares his strategy for investing in sectors like AI and defense. He also touches on the implications of talent flow and the need to address AI challenges in today's market.
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Founding Lessons From Longhorn Auctions
- Conrad started Longhorn Auctions in college and learned the most important lesson was who you start a company with.
- His co-founders later became a CEO of Casper and a CFO at Ro, showing long-term network effects.
Team Over Solo Founder Myth
- Ensemble evaluates the entire team, not just a headline founder, using data to avoid shallow 'vibe' investing.
- They believe first hires and the broader team predict a company's long-term potential.
AI-Native VC As The Next Paradigm
- Conrad argues the next big VC innovation is AI-native firms that scale beyond human-limited services.
- Ensemble built a data-heavy firm before ChatGPT to increase the slope of innovation in VC.
