Sarah Smith, founder and managing associate of the eponymous Sarah Smith Fund, introduced Thursday the ultimate closing of a $16 million Fund I.
Smith launched her eponymous fund in 2022 and is a solo GP. She mentioned she’s “shocked” by what AI can unlock for companies like hers, solo and next-generation. “I can’t think about doing enterprise some other means now,” she mentioned. “Whereas I imagine firm constructing nonetheless requires a workforce effort, I imagine early-stage investing is finest completed solo.”
She appreciates how she will make quick choices that don’t require committee approval. She’s additionally taken to utilizing AI to assist her all through this journey.
“Day by day I’m dreaming of extra methods to help my founders, combining my expertise and community with AI,” she mentioned.
“For instance, simply final week, I led a values articulation mission for one in every of my founders,” Smith continued. “It took me 2-3 hours of time when it beforehand would have taken 20. When you might have an AI-native agency that may ship 10x worth in 1/10 of the time, you may scale up a big portfolio with only one individual.”
She mentioned she beforehand had a $3 million rolling fund, and spent a 12 months elevating this Fund I. Fund I hopes to spend money on 50 corporations and has already backed 17, with the common test dimension standing at $250,000. Restricted companions embody Pear VC, Ulu Ventures, and Verdis Funding Administration.
Fund I focuses primarily on startups within the Stanford ecosystem (Smith is an alumna of the college). She has analysis there, too, to again up her focus.
“It has produced extra unicorns and exit worth than some other college on this planet,” she mentioned, citing the research done by Ilya Strebulaev that exhibits that 11% of unicorn founders have an affiliation with Stanford. “Whereas a lot of the legacy Sand Hill companies spend of of their time up in SF, 45 minutes north, I’m doubling down on Stanford campus.”