Top Decile Podcast

Varun Turlapati spent 16 years as a software engineer before founding Chaanakya Capital, a $2M pre-seed fund backing US neurotech and medtech startups. His edge is his master's in electrical and computer engineering. He can evaluate the science-heavy deals most VCs don't even understand.

Find out why neurotech is at the same inflection point AI was in 2016. Hear how one company puts a bionic hand on both amputees and robotic arms for hazardous industrial environments. And discover why Varun is focused on entering early in a field where others prefer to wait for de-risking.

Doug Griffin has founded four companies in computer vision and spatial AI. Three exited, including acquisitions by Apple and Roblox. Now he's running Spatial Capital, backing early-stage physical AI and spatial computing founders tackling the problems nobody else wants to touch.

We get into why he only bets on unsexy problems, how AI can compressing 13-year mining timelines down to three, and what it actually takes to build a VC fund when you've already lived in your founders' shoes.