Sheel Mohnot, co-founder and GP of Better Tomorrow Ventures, has deployed $450M across three dedicated fintech funds and says the VC obsession with contrarianism is overrated — "you just have to be right." In this episode, Sheel breaks down BTV's accounting shortage thesis (3 bets from 3 different angles), how he competes with multi-stage funds at pre-seed, why he intentionally shrank Fund III, and what "no moats" means for AI-era fintech investing.

Chapters:(0:00) Introduction and Sheel's background(2:06) How Sheel and Jake went from fintech operators to fund builders(4:39) The BTV journey: Fund I ($75M) to Fund III ($140M) through boom and bust(9:39) "Everything is fintech" — why 20% of GDP is up for grabs(14:36) How a sector-focused pre-seed fund beats multi-stage competitors(24:41) The accounting shortage thesis: 3 bets, 3 distribution models(28:29) "There are no moats anymore" — defensibility in the AI era(33:05) Why BTV hasn't backed a single college dropout in fintech(39:16) Building 200K followers on X by posting about Taco Bell(48:43) Hot take: "You don't have to be contrarian — just be right"(56:42) The Taco Bell wedding story

Where to find Sheel Mohnot:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/smohnot/
• https://www.btv.vc/

Where to find Sierra Ventures:

• www.sierraventures.com

Sunil Nagaraj is the solo GP of Ubiquity Ventures and a 9-year pioneer of what he calls "software beyond the screen." He backed Rocket Lab at a $30M valuation, led Halter's seed after a 45-minute meeting at Il Fornaio (Halter just raised $220M at a $2B valuation from Founders Fund), and has one of the highest seed-to-Series-A graduation rates in the business. In this episode, he breaks down why "moonshot culture" is strangling deep tech, pushes back on Bessemer's new AI revenue benchmarks, and explains why every one of his top 45 investments was a yes within 24 hours.

A must-listen for investors sharpening their pre-seed craft and founders trying to understand how the best early-stage investors actually build conviction.

Chapters:(0:00) Intro and welcome

(1:20) Origin story: the Rocket Lab Pelican case moment

(5:30) Why solo GP + deep tech was non-consensus in 2017

(13:08) How Halter got a yes in 45 minutes at Il Fornaio

(16:38) Moving at founder speed: the 24-hour clock

(27:35) Moonshot culture is strangling deep tech discipline

(40:06) Why Bessemer's "Supernova" benchmarks mislead founders

(46:50) Mistakes founders make when capital floods a category

(51:44) Ubiquity University and the DRY principle applied to VC

(56:30) The future: data centers in space and life beyond Earth

Where to find Sunil Nagaraj:

• LinkedIn
• Ubiquity.vc

Hosted by Vignesh Ravikumar and Brendon Schmidt at Sierra Ventures.

Nic Poulos asks every vertical AI founder the same question: "Imagine Claude 14 — it does everything seamlessly. Why do you still exist?" With $611B wiped from SaaS market caps in 2026, that's no longer a thought experiment. Nic is the Founder and GP at Euclid Ventures, a pre-seed fund focused on vertical AI, and has been writing first checks into vertical software for 15 years across Bowery Capital, Fifth Wall, and now Euclid. We break down his authoring layer thesis, why he thinks speed isn't a moat, the quiet death of founder-VC alignment, and where contrarian alpha actually lives at pre-seed.

Chapters:(0:00) Introduction — welcome to the first DPI episode(1:02) Nic's journey from AOL Ventures to founding Euclid(3:06) Why vertical AI is the next evolution of vertical SaaS(5:18) Evaluating deals at inception stage with zero traction(8:25) How AI is reshaping founder profiles and geographic gravity(16:20) The authoring layer thesis — owning where the workflow begins(22:32) Will horizontal LLMs eat vertical AI?(29:03) Why speed is not a moat(50:56) Consensus investing and where contrarian alpha lives(1:00:22) Biggest founder mistakes in the first 12 months(1:07:22) The quiet death of founder-VC alignment(1:11:25) Is SaaS really dead?

Where to find Nic:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/npoulos/
• Euclid Ventures: https://www.euclid.vc/

Where to find Vignesh/Brendon:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vravikumar1
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendonschmidt/
• Sierra Ventures: www.sierraventures.com