Lee Edwards of Root VC: "Let's get Technical!" -- An Engineer Becomes a VC
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Release Date: 11/11/2025
Lee Edwards of Root VC: "Let's get Technical!" -- An Engineer Becomes a VC
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Lee Edwards is a General Partner at Root VC, a San Francisco-based deep tech seed fund. They recently raised their 4th fund of $190 million. But before he became a venture capitalist, Lee was an engineer. He was most recently CTO at Teespring. Previously, Lee was a mechanical engineer at iRobot, a software engineer at Pivotal Labs, Lead Engineer at SideTour (acquired by Groupon in 2013), and engineering manager for GrouponLive. He graduated from Olin College of Engineering with a degree in Systems Engineering. So not the type of person you’d expect to become a venture...
info_outline
1517 Fund: The Maverick VC Betting on Teens to Outbuild Ivy Leaguers
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
In this episode of the Something Ventured podcast, I spend time with Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson, the people behind 1517 Fund. 1517 is a venture capital firm that defies Silicon Valley’s fixation on elite credentials from Stanford, Harvard and the like. Their paths to venture capital are anything but typical. Danielle shares how her 20 years in alternative education, from founding a tutoring company to launching a San Diego charter school rooted in homeschooling principles, shaped her belief in lifelong learning for all. Michael, a former philosophy PhD ‘dropout’,...
info_outline
Frank Rotman: The Midas List Veteran on Building Fintech Empires at Capital One and QED Investors
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
In this episode I talk with Frank Rotman, Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer of QED Investors, a leading fintech-focused venture capital firm managing $4.3 billion that has backed over 200 companies. A seven-time Forbes Midas List honoree, Frank shares his remarkable journey—from shaping Capital One’s groundbreaking, data-driven strategy during his 13 years there, to co-founding QED Investors, which has since become a global powerhouse in the fintech ecosystem. Frank is also a widely respected thought leader—you may know him as @fintechjunkie on X—where his essays and...
info_outline
Eric Ries: The Lean Startup Revolution in an AI-Driven World
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Eric Ries, entrepreneur and author of the bestselling book "The Lean Startup," ignited a movement that reshaped how founders and corporations build and scale businesses worldwide. Drawing from his experiences in Silicon Valley startups, Ries introduced a methodology centered on rapid experimentation and iterative development that encouraged entrepreneurs to create minimum viable products (MVPs), test assumptions with real customers, and pivot quickly to maximize success. He is host of The Eric Ries Show where he discusses with founders and business leaders how to build profitable...
info_outline
Kobie Fuller: Upfront Ventures Partner’s High-Speed Sprint from Track Star to Venture Capital Powerhouse
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Kobie Fuller is a partner at Upfront Ventures. He came to the firm after investing at Accel and leading marketing efforts at EVOLVE, the large global fashion ecommerce platform. Highlights from our conversation. -- we covered a lot of ground, so this is just a small part: Kobie’s Athletic Background and Vision for Track and Field: Kobie, a former track and field athlete who competed in the 400m and 200m, believes the sport deserves greater mainstream attention due to its purity and universal accessibility. He discusses a new professional track...
info_outline
David Anderman: Space (Investing) is Big. Really Big. From Lucasfilm’s Star Wars to SpaceX to…The Final Frontier
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
David Anderman is co-founder and General Partner of Stellar Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage space technology startups. He spent 16 years at Lucasfilm Ltd., creator of the Star Wars franchise. As Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, he notably negotiated Lucasfilm’s $4 billion sale to Disney in 2012. Moving from imagined space to real space: David became General Counsel at SpaceX, where he played a key role in landmark projects like the launch of Starlink and the first private human spaceflight to the International Space Station. David is also founder of...
info_outline
Cyan Banister: The Future is Cool Again / Falling in Love with Technology / A Brush with Star Wars
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Cyan Banister of Long Journey Ventures is truly one of the most successful and interesting early stage venture investors. And by ‘successful investor’, I mean “invested early in Uber and SpaceX” kind of successful. She overcame a challenging childhood that included periods of homelessness (a surprisingly uplifting story, covered deeply in Tim Ferriss’ interview with Cyan). Here we discuss Cyan’s journey from these early struggles to becoming a prominent figure in . Along the way she learns to program computers, and co-founds Zivity – an early social networking site one might...
info_outline
Roger Ehrenberg: From IA Ventures to Eberg Capital – A Top Silicon Valley Investor Turns to Sports
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Roger Ehrenberg's career spans three remarkable acts, each of which would be impressive on its own. He founded IA Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital firm, in 2010. IA Ventures invested in numerous successful startups, including Datadog, Digital Ocean, The Trade Desk, and Wise. His work with IA Ventures has earned him recognition as a three-time winner of the “Midas Award” – the coveted ranking of venture capitalists by Forbes. Before founding IA Ventures, Roger spent 17 years on Wall Street at Citibank and Deutsche Bank, specializing in derivatives and quantitative...
info_outline
Mark Scianna: From Palantir Engineer to Venture Capitalist / Inside Palantir’s Early Days / VC Discovers Defense Tech
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Mark Scianna, the founder of venture firm "Forward Deployed," which targets sectors like Defense, Energy, and A.I., was spotlighted as a 'top emerging manager' in 2022. Starting his journey as an engineer and an early investor at Palantir, Scianna offers an insider's perspective in this episode, unraveling the enigma of Palantir's inception and meteoric rise. Scianna delves into what makes Palantir so unique, shedding light on how its unconventional management style has been a cornerstone of its success. He doesn't shy away from the intense realities of being 'forward deployed'—a term that...
info_outline
Winter Mead: How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund (and more!), From Coolwater Capital’s Founder
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Winter Mead is the author of How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund: The Essential Guide on Fundraising and Understanding Limited Partners. He is also founder of Coolwater Capital, a new model that helps launch, build, and scale emerging fund managers While there are a lot of investors (known in the parlance as “LPs”), and certainly a lot of funds – the set of people who sit at the intersection of these two is much smaller. So Winter has an unusual perspective and point of view to share. Winter shares his journey from Harvard and Hall Capital to Sapphire Ventures and ultimately to...
info_outlineLee Edwards is a General Partner at Root VC, a San Francisco-based deep tech seed fund. They recently raised their 4th fund of $190 million.
But before he became a venture capitalist, Lee was an engineer. He was most recently CTO at Teespring. Previously, Lee was a mechanical engineer at iRobot, a software engineer at Pivotal Labs, Lead Engineer at SideTour (acquired by Groupon in 2013), and engineering manager for GrouponLive. He graduated from Olin College of Engineering with a degree in Systems Engineering.
So not the type of person you’d expect to become a venture capitalist. In this episode he talks about unconventional leap from hands-on engineering at Pivotal Labs and Teespring to the high-stakes world of seed-stage investing in devtools, AI, and hard tech.
We discuss – it gets a bit technical -- the magic of pair programming (and why it's the ultimate anti-slacking hack), the ADHD-fueled superpowers of VC life, and Lee's early days tinkering with QBASIC on a Gateway 2000. We also cover AI's overhyped (yet underappreciated) revolution, the wild west of Web3 engineering, and why San Francisco remains the epicenter for autonomous dreamers (shoutout to Waymo dodging NIMBY drama).
Plus, we take on fake "AI-native" posers, the next Bill Gates hacking LLMs in their basement, and why technical VCs are the real unicorn hunters.
An AI suggested I end the description of the podcast with “Whether you're a builder, investor, or just love origin stories that skip the Ivy League script, Lee's chill vibe and sharp takes make this a must-listen. Tune in for laughs, lore, and lessons on staying hands-dirty in tech.”
AI has a way to go. Oh – we also discuss the perennial favorite question around AI: Will we have to blow up the data centers?