The podcast for angel and seed investors
First Funders is a podcast for angels and seed investors who are the first believers in early-stage technology startups. We hope you'll join us as we learn from the best, boldest angel investors and seed investors - those who first fund companies and write the elusive first check.
On this show, you can expect an experienced point of view from two operators turned technology investors. You'll hear how they assess companies and founders while interviewing successful angels and seed investors from Silicon Valley and beyond.
Hosts who actively do seed investments
Shaherose Charania is a Venture Partner at Cake Ventures. For nearly two decades, she has helped founders and startup companies get off the ground through Women 2.0 and Founder Labs. More recently, she built Nike's first Incubator, working with founders to define and launch new digital business ideas across wellness, sustainability, and commerce. She began Angel Investing around this time and realized how her experiences to date would make her a great VC. She started her career as a Product and Marketing leader at three early-stage, venture-backed startups.
Shaherose is focused on three investing themes: aging and longevity, the female economy, and cultural minorities as end consumers (B2B and B2C).
Aamir Virani is an angel investor in the SF Bay Area. He was Co-Founder and Head of Product for Dropcam, initially coding while interviewing audiences to determine the right way to message and sell a mass-market consumer product. As the company grew, he built the executive and product management teams until its acquisition by Google Nest. While at Nest, he served on Tony Fadell's product team and helped integrate the rebranded Nest Cam and the Nest Aware Cloud Service into the overall platform offering. He began angel investing around this time and later joined Felicis Ventures as a General Partner focused on seed investments. After realizing he hated that side of the table, he returned to operating and advising while continuing to angel invest.
Aamir invests in four areas: AI co-pilot ideas for industries outside software development, consumer hardware, SMB tools and services, and climate technology that is not financial instruments.
Why Listeners Love the First Funders Podcast
Investors Learning Together
Shaherose and Aamir like to learn from their broad network of angels and seed investors. Everyone has their theses and strategies for success, so you'll hear how they approach each investment through real-life examples and results. Conviction and bet-sizing differ between investors, and you'll hear other opinions as you form your seed-stage investment strategy.
Valuable Insights for Founders
If you're a founder, you'll get to hear how investors talk about you and your company in closed meetings. First Funders is a podcast where you'll get details on why an angel investor may say no, why a seed investor may ask for a different valuation than you expect, and why your success needs to align with their success for a first check to arrive.
Say hello and suggest topics at team@firstfunderspod.com.