
Layer Zero Spotting Outliers with Niko Bonatsos: Snap, Discord & Mercor
Dec 2, 2025
24:22
I sat down with Niko Bonatsos, one of the most respected early-stage investors of the past decade and an early backer of companies like Snap, Discord, Mercor, and many more breakout successes. Niko has built a career on finding unconventional founders long before the rest of the world sees what they’re capable of and helping them scale from the earliest days.
In this episode, we talk about how he evaluates founders with non-traditional backgrounds, his philosophies on life and his journeys, and the patterns he’s seen across the biggest winners of his portfolio.
If you want to understand how legendary early-stage investors spot generational companies before they break, this conversation is full of insights.
