A.Capital built its pitch around a Silicon Valley heresy: a venture firm does not need a fixed ownership target to matter. Its wager is that recruiting muscle, technical judgment and the right introduction can make a small slice unusually consequential.
Vinod Khosla left a top-tier partnership to write checks nobody else would. Two decades and one $50 million OpenAI bet later, the willingness to be wrong looks like a strategy.
Felicis built a $4.1 billion venture platform around an unusual wager: founders perform better when their investors fund the human being, surrender a little control and show up before the outcome looks inevitable.