First Funders

05: Discovering hidden baseball talent to leading Sales at Stripe all applied to finding outliers in tech - Meka Asonye, First Round Capital

Apr 2, 2024

Meka Asonye, a Partner at First Round Capital, shares his journey from uncovering baseball talent to leading Sales at Stripe and now angel and venture investing. He invests in B2B SAAS and audacious founders, exploring Space and GovTech. Meka values honesty in supporting founder friends and emphasizes learning from partners, retros, and reviews in VC. He writes checks of $2M to $5M, focusing on finding true outliers in tech.

01:08:18

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Meka Asonye

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Focus on audacious founders and unconventional industries for investments.

Supporting founder friends authentically to drive meaningful success in ventures.

Learn from collaborative decision-making and continuous improvement processes in venture capital.

Deep dives

Assessing Unique Market Opportunities

In one instance, the founder of K2 Space highlighted a distinctive approach of building larger satellites capable of more advanced capabilities in space due to decreased launch costs. This insight into tapping into new opportunities with large satellites aligned with upcoming advancements in space travel, such as SpaceX's Starship program. Thorough research into the feasibility of these advancements and potential market demand helped in evaluating the investment potential.

Introduction

3min

Navigating Roles in the Bay Area and Transitioning to Venture Capital

11min

Investing in Hidden Talents and Overcoming Missed Opportunities

20min

Exploring Success Stories and Strategic Investments

19min

Learning and Improving as an Investor Through Intentional Practice and Analysis

3min

Innovating and Staying Ahead in Venture Capital

11min

Importance of Understanding Customer Needs and Unique Insights in Startup Pitches

2min

Meka Asonye, a Partner at First Round Capital, started angel investing in 2018 while working at Stripe and joined First Round in 2021. He has made dozens of Angel investments and 13 Venture investments, and he's just getting started! While he focuses on B2B SAAS, he has not shied away from investing in audacious founders, from modernizing 911 call centers to putting the biggest satellites in space. Meka shares his approach to finding true outliers, a practice he began while uncovering hidden talent for the Cleveland Guardians.

Meka writes checks of $2M to $5M as the lead at pre-seed and seed.

Highlights from the discussion:

Meka's unconventional path to VC: from discovering high-potential baseball talent to leading sales at startups to VC
Meka's first angel investment came from Craiglist!
Exploring the frontiers: investing in Space and GovTech
How Meka supports founder friends, honestly
Leveling up in VC by learning from partners, retros, reviews, and reflection powered by process and data

This is for information purposes only. This is not investment advice.

Topics

(00:00) - Kicking Off the First Funders Podcast with Meka Asonye
(03:52) - First Round Capital's role in Meka and Shaherose's transition from Angel to VC
(05:53) - Meka's Unconventional Path to Venture Capital: from baseball talent to management consulting to startups to VC
(10:54) - Meka's purpose is rooted in being a part of the founder's village
(13:55) - The Art of Angel Investing: Meka's First Investment Story came from a person he met on Craiglist!
(18:37) - Thoughtful reflection: outliers can't be discovered via pattern matching
(20:15) - How Meka assesses for money smells and hustle in a founder
(23:16) - Missed deals like Anthropic keep Meka up at night.
(28:10) - How Meka supports founder friends
(33:42) - Outcomes and up rounds thus far: Rimeto, CODA, K2Space, Prepared
(36:16) - Exploring the Frontiers: Investing in Space and GovTech
(37:42) - Meka's betting on a pair of brother's putting big satellites in space
(39:04) - Unexpected VC bet: Integrating tech into every 911 emergency call
(43:31) - Meka is a generalist investor with a focus on B2B SAAS, Fintech and hard tech
(44:54) - Investing in YC companies and maintaining an orientation towards prioritizing ownership over valuation
(49:28) - First Round Capital's approach is rooted in consensus not conviction, they invest as team
(52:17) - Leveling up in VC by learning from partners, retros, reviews, reflection powered by a process and data
(01:07:47) - Outro