Mercedes Bent spent six years as a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, worked at the Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crisis, and founded her own startup. Now she's building Premise, the early-stage VC firm she co-founded with Vanessa Larco, as a deliberate rejection of what venture capital has become.

"We have become an index play," Mercedes said on VC Uncovered. "And I'm basically doing the anti of that."

Premise focuses on pre-seed and seed investing in the AI ecosystem, small by design and deliberate by strategy. Mercedes believes the technology is real but the market is running ahead of itself. "We're in a hypey moment of AI, but in the grand scheme of things, this is such early innings. More akin to when mobile was coming out than it is to the end of the mobile cycle." She pointed to potential IPOs of OpenAI and Anthropic as the likely correction point, when public market investors apply fundamentals-based scrutiny private markets have avoided.

At the center of Premise's sourcing is Surreal, a community Mercedes started as a dinner series for engineers and AI researchers. The first gathering happened in her living room. It has since moved to art galleries, drawing over 5,200 applicants in the past year. Most attendees don't know there's a VC behind it. "The minute you're saying, hey, here's office hours for VCs, now people are posturing. I wanna get to know the real you."

Mercedes also applies behavioral economics as both a diligence lens and personal discipline. She looks for founders who understand the emotional architecture of their product. On the personal side, she flags the risk of getting captured by a founder's energy and letting excitement override judgment. "I get so excited about founders sometimes on the very first meeting and I think it through and I'm like, well, it's a terrible deal. Maybe they're just good at talking." The training is to make sure the founder, product, market, and deal terms all earn conviction independently.

Her bet is that firms built on relationship density rather than deal volume will survive cycles better. "I wanna see that whole journey with you. And have you naturally come to it."

This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC. SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders, pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.

Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.