Good morning 👋
Today we’re breaking down a conversation with Zoe Weinberg (@zweinberg), (GP @ ex/ante).
Zoe is one of the smarter investors I know, and I have multiple LP friends who have backed her fund I which is focused on increasing human agency.
I asked her for thoughts around:
The dark sides of tech
Pre-seed capital, signaling risk, and what changes as it becomes easier to spin up an MVP
The threats and opportunities in AGI (and why a lot of the noise is overhyped)
How alpha is created through unique lived experiences
We talk about all of that in more in today’s piece - let’s get into it.
Zoe Weinberg
GP @ ex/ante
What was your path to understanding the dark sides of tech?
"I spent time in conflict zones like Iraq, South Sudan, and Somalia. Seeing how tech was used both to empower people and suppress them shaped my investment lens."
"I noticed that traditional defense investors were overly focused on hardware. The biggest challenges I saw were in software, security, and privacy—and nobody was investing with that focus."
"I couldn’t find a firm investing in this space—so I decided to build one."
How do you think about the elimination / reduction of product risk for pre-seed companies? Companies used to require pre-seed capital to build an MVP; now you can build one in a day using Replit or Cursor.
"It’s never been easier to spin up an MVP—which means founders don’t always need pre-seed capital like they used to."
"This might change the bar for pre-seed investing—it could mean fewer pre-product raises and more traction before taking outside capital."
"For things like deep tech, security, and cryptography, pre-seed still makes sense, but for consumer apps? Not as much."
What does your day-to-day look like as a thesis-driven investor? How do you think your work differs than most other VCs?
"Being a thesis-driven investor means I spend more time talking to practitioners, researchers, and academics—not just founders."
"We co-author research papers and engage deeply with the academic side of our fields—that wouldn’t make sense for a generalist fund."
"If you have a strong thesis, you don’t just react to inbound—you proactively map out opportunities years ahead of time."
Everybody is thinking about the secondary effects of the AI adoption curve, but we’re spending more time thinking about the secondary effects of AGI. As somebody who has spent more time thinking about this, how should we be thinking about AGI?
"I don’t find AGI to be a particularly helpful concept when evaluating risks and opportunities. It’s more useful to think about practical deployment risks today."
"Instead of existential fears, I focus on: How do we make AI that makes humans more human? How do we use AI to elevate our creativity, introspection, and higher-order thinking?"
"One of the biggest risks of AI isn’t extinction—it’s garbage content flooding the internet. If we automate everything, does it give people more control—or less?"
Knowing what you know now, what do you wish you would have know when you first started ex/ante?
"Early on, I had anxiety about staking out such a strong, contrarian thesis. Most venture funds try to be everything to everyone."
"In hindsight, I wish I had doubled down sooner—being different is a feature, not a bug."
"There’s no value in diluting your perspective to appeal to everyone."
What is the worst part about venture that nobody talks about?
"Venture rewards extroverts. Some of the best investors I know are introverted, but the industry often overlooks them."
"In public markets, you can be brilliant and never say a word—but in venture, the loudest voices get the most attention."
"There’s an opportunity cost to not sharing your thoughts publicly, but doing it well takes a lot of effort."
Are there any other emerging managers that have really impressed you over the past few years?
Maya Baki (Spice Capital): "She has a unique perspective and a sharp anti-consensus approach."
Ashley Smith (Vermilion): "Just launched a fund focused on developer tools—came from GitLab and GitHub, and has a killer LP base."
TWEET
GP / LP Mastermind
The “anti-conference” for fund managers 🌴
We don’t like conferences, so we created our own version that we would actually look forward to going to.
📆 Dates: April 24-27, 2025
📍 Location: Miami, FL
ℹ️ Other details:
Small group of 6-10 LPs, GPs, and partners
Golf and padel
Boat charter
Private dinners
No outside sponsors
We only have space for 6-10, and applications close in ~three weeks.
If you’re interested, we’d recommend letting us know sooner rather than later …
Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.
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- Clay
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