"Turpentine VC" | Venture Capital and Investing · Erik Torenberg

E83: Chad Byers on Why Susa is a Purpose-Built Seed Specialist [Classic Interview]

·54 min·3 clips

Susa is splitting into Susa, KIVU Ventures, and Humba Ventures.

1. Turpentine VC’s E83 features Chad Byers on Susa Ventures and its purpose-built seed strategy. 2. Chad Byers is Susa Ventures’ co-founder and general partner, and he explains why the firm is reorganizing around separate products. 3. The episode asks what Susa is for now that it is splitting seed, opportunity, and frontier-tech investing into distinct brands. 4. Chad says Susa started in 2013, when venture had far fewer seed firms and a more collaborative early-stage market. 5. He says the first fund was $25 million, followed by a $50 million fund in 2016 and a $90 million fund in 2019. 6. He describes the 2019 opportunity fund as a $50 million vehicle meant primarily to invest into Susa’s own winners. 7. He says the 2021 opportunity fund grew to $250 million and began leading or co-leading deals beyond pure follow-on investing. 8. He says LPs also wanted exposure to climate, hardware, robotics, crypto, and space, which led to the pre-seed discovery fund Humba Ventures. 9. He says the three-strategy setup created confusion about what Susa was and required different skill sets than a single team could deliver. 10. He says the new model gives Susa, KIVU Ventures, and Humba Ventures their own brands, investment committees, and dedicated teams. 11. Chad says the change improves brand clarity for founders and LPs because each product has a clear job. 12. He says Susa’s North Star is concentrated seed investing, with about 35 companies per fund and relatively low platform overhead. 13. He compares that target to Benchmark and IA Ventures, while saying Susa wants to keep the early-stage business small and focused. 14. He says Thrive is unusual because it has executed incubations effectively and can flex into growth rounds, while Susa will not move into $100 million checks. 15. He says Susa’s incubations begin at day zero or negative one, but the firm still owns only about 15% and treats the founders as the operators. 16. He says taking 40% to 50% of a company as a non-operating CEO would be a red flag in his view. 17. Chad says the best companies needed the least help and that investors should intervene mainly in “crux moments.” 18. He says investors should provide frameworks and historical data rather than day-to-day operating advice. 19. The interview is a direct VC-to-VC conversation with specific fund math, portfolio construction, and firm-architecture examples. 20. Listeners who care about seed-fund strategy and venture structure will get the most from it, while people wanting founder stories may skip it.

As heard by us

A clear case for seed discipline, firm design, and staying intentionally constrained.

This episode centers on a simple but useful question: what happens when a seed firm decides to remain sized for seed instead of chasing scale?

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Why you'd press play

If you want the logic behind a purpose-built seed specialist, this is a clean listen.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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