Top Decile Podcast

Anca Burke and Andrey Mikhalchuk co-founded ARTA VC around a shared frustration: 70% of enterprise AI integrations fail because companies try to attach AI to systems that were never designed for it. Their fund backs early-stage founders in the DMV who have already done the opposite.

We get into how AI-powered autofocus eyeglasses gave a retired military pilot better vision than he'd ever had, why the DMV's second-largest tech talent pool in the country is still chronically underfunded, and what two decades of combined operating experience teaches you about which AI bets are actually worth making.

Mike Keymer is an MIT-trained engineer who spent two decades commercializing deep science for U.S. defense agencies, biotech analytics, and quantum computing platforms. He launched AlphaKet Capital to back seed-stage companies building the infrastructure layer that quantum needs to scale: the quantum equivalent of modems, repeaters, and memory.

We get into why a massive capital influx in late 2024 fundamentally changed quantum's investment landscape, what it means to bet on sensors that can navigate without GPS by mapping the Earth's magnetic field, and why the four-to-seven-year horizon to utility-scale quantum puts us squarely inside the venture window right now.

Ryan Else spent nearly two decades working inside enterprise security, industrial markets, and frontier tech before launching Roadster Capital to back seed-stage founders modernizing the American industrial base. His portfolio already includes a company that received a $150 million commitment from the U.S. Department of Commerce for extreme ultraviolet lithography critical to national chip security.

We get into why Ryan believes narrative follows execution and not the reverse, why he sometimes backs founders who know nothing about the industry they're disrupting, and what it means to invest at the point of true technical risk before institutional consensus arrives.

Garrett Smith holds a PhD in bioengineering from UC San Diego and co-founded two medtech companies acquired for a combined $600 million, one before FDA approval. After spending years investing in and partnering with early-stage companies at Johnson & Johnson, he launched Reef Haven Ventures to back life science and medtech founders at the convergence of biology, robotics, and AI.

We get into why San Diego is an underserved gem for medtech seed capital, how Garrett thinks about backing AI-assisted surgical tools that could eventually move toward full autonomy, and what it means to invest in a company that can identify a patient's cancer type in real time rather than waiting weeks.

Alan Blakeborough is a military veteran and 35-year serial entrepreneur who built startup accelerator Launchpad after discovering South Carolina had no support system for tech founders. People were leaving for Atlanta, Charlotte, and Austin just to find a community. Now he's running the Launchpad Ignite Fund, which primarily invests in companies that stay on after graduating the accelerator.

We get into why South Carolina's manufacturing culture creates a blind spot for tech founders, how Alan is converting local real estate investors into their first VC checks, and why the fund's Opportunity Zone status offers a tax advantage no other tech fund has figured out.

Mike Saloio spent eight years as a sell-side equity analyst at Oppenheimer, covering Cisco, Apple, and EMC, before founding Huddle, a VC-backed marketplace that helped over 150 startups assemble design and engineering teams. Now he's launching Begin Ventures to back the founders pre-seed ecosystems routinely miss: domain experts using AI to reinvent legacy consumer industries.

We get into why AI is turning non-technical operators into weekend-prototype founders, why Mike believes the consumer AI application layer is still a wide-open blank slate, and what he'd tell aspiring VCs who think they haven't checked enough boxes yet.

Moy Aras spent over a decade running brand and innovation at Chobani, Nestlé, Nespresso, Aloha, and Applegate before betting on early-stage CPG founders the way he wished someone had bet on him. He wrote angel checks, built a 13-brand portfolio, and launched Lucinda Capital in 2025.

We get into why the consumer brands that matter most get built by founders with audacity rather than pedigree, how operational experience inside major CPG companies creates an edge that pattern-matching VCs simply don't have, and what early indicators -- velocity, retention, margin profile -- let you spot a winner before the rest of the market catches on.

Through Lucinda Capital, Aras is backing pre-seed CPG founders who have the bravery to walk into a grocery store and demand shelf space for something the world didn't know it needed.

Collette Tibbitts spent years at the intersection of music and tech, consulting for Island Records and Sony Music Nashville and working on blockchain at Universal Music Group. She co-founded Joker Deck to back the founders venture capital has consistently walked past.

We get into why music tech is a proving ground for innovations that expand well beyond the industry, how misaligned access and capital created an arbitrage opportunity that major labels can't fill on their own, and what it means to find the "joker in the deck" -- founders whose ideas are too cross-disciplinary to fit a traditional VC box.

Through Joker Deck Ventures, Tibbitts is building a pre-seed fund at the creative-technical frontier, backed by an artist's instinct for what catches fire.

Oscar Carreón and Roberto Nieves co-founded Cabra Ventures after careers spanning Mexico, China, the Netherlands, and the Middle East, including Roberto's time in institutional investment at Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. They set out to build the fund they always wished existed for founders who don't fit the traditional VC mold.

We get into why the next wave of fintech will be built by founders that mainstream venture capital overlooks, how they validated their thesis by pitching across the GCC before writing a single check, and what it takes to build LP conviction as a first-time emerging manager.

Backing the Systems Pharmacy Needs Next | Christian Tadrus, Pharmacy Innovator Fund

Why pharmacy needs new infrastructure to connect to care, payment, and clinical workflows, how economic misalignment is holding the profession back, and what it takes to build a fund from inside the industry you're trying to change.

Through Tadrus Advisory Group, Christian Tadrus launched the Pharmacy Innovator Fund to back early-stage companies modernizing pharmacy operations, economics, and clinical care delivery.