Sarah Smith, founder and managing partner of the Sarah Smith Fund of the same name, announced the final closing of Fund I of $16 million on Thursday.
Smith launched the fund of the same name in 2022 and is a solo Grand Prix. She said she was “unstood” that AI can unlock it for companies like her, solo, and the next generation. “I can't imagine ventures any other way right now,” she said. “I think it still requires team effort to build a company, but I think early stage investments are most common solo.”
She appreciates how quick decisions can be made that do not require committee approval. She also depends on using AI to help her throughout this journey.
“Every day I dream of how to combine my experience and network with AI to support our founders,” she said.
“For example, last week I led a valuable joint project for one of the founders,” Smith continued. “It took 20 times before and it took two to three hours. If you have an AI native company that can offer 10 times more value in 1/10, you can expand your large portfolio with just one person.”
She said she previously had a $3 million rolling fund and spent a year raising this fund. I want to invest in 50 companies and hope for an average check size of $250,000. Limited partners include Pear VC, Ulu Ventures and Verdis Investment Management.
Fund I focuses primarily on startups in the Stanford ecosystem (Smith is a university graduate). She has research there too to support her focus.
“It created more unicorn and exit value than any other university in the world,” she said. He cited a study conducted by Ilya Strebulaev, showing that 11% of Unicorn founders have a relationship with Stanford. “Many of the Legacy Sand Hill companies spend their time in sci-fi 45 minutes north, but doubled on Stanford campus.”