Brett Berson is a Partner at First Round Capital, the early-stage venture firm behind Uber, Square, and Notion. Starting as a college intern in 2008, he spent over 15 years rising through the ranks to co-lead the firm. He is the architect behind the First Round Review (the firm's widely-read editorial publication), the In Depth podcast, and Angel Track — a program that trains operators to become better angel investors. Named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Venture Capital in 2015, Berson holds NYU degrees in economics and film, and credits studying filmmaking with teaching him to notice the thousands of micro-decisions that compound into company-defining outcomes. His key portfolio bets include Clay, Persona, and Stedi.
David Cahn is a Partner at Sequoia Capital and one of the most closely-watched voices in AI infrastructure investing. A former General Partner and COO of Venture at Coatue Management, he backed foundational AI companies including HuggingFace, Runway, and Supabase before joining Sequoia in 2023. Known for his sharp, data-driven essays — most notably 'AI's $600B Question' — Cahn argues that the durability of the AI wave depends not on clever applications but on who controls the physical stack: servers, steel, and power. A University of Pennsylvania graduate, NYC native, and self-described iterative thinker, he is backing the next generation of AI-native companies from Sequoia's Menlo Park headquarters.
Mike Vernal is a General Partner at Conviction Partners, an AI-native venture firm led by Sarah Guo. Before that he spent seven years as a Partner at Sequoia Capital, where he backed companies like Rippling, Clay, Notion, and Statsig. His investor instincts were forged at Facebook, where he spent eight years rising to VP of Product and Engineering - co-creating Facebook Login and the Graph API, managing the platform's pivotal mobile transition, and helping invent the modern 'growth team' playbook. A Harvard computer scientist turned operator turned investor, Vernal is known for his 'Market Curve' framework, his early-morning discipline, and a blunt skepticism about data moats.