"At just 29, Brian Zhan, who practices what he describes as "nerdy investing," has already made early bets on buzzy AI companies now valued in the billions. After quietly leaving Silicon Valley VC firm CRV this summer, Zhan recently joined Striker Venture Partners, where he and veteran investor Max Gazor plan to upend traditional VC playbooks with a $165 million fund that aims to make massive seed bets on the next generation of AI startups."
""We're only investing in 10 companies per fund, and we're going to show up with checks up to $30 million," Zhan said. "That takes conviction." $30 million is what companies typically raise in a later funding round once they have achieved product-market fit, but Zhan believes VC is undergoing a radical transformation that requires firms to pounce with big checks when an early kernel of an idea presents itself."
""Seed-stage investing is moving earlier and earlier," he said. "Seed rounds today are often just 22-year-old founders with a great idea." Zhan, who studied computer science at Northwestern University and started his career writing code at Facebook, is emblematic of a shift taking place in venture, where investors switch firms more often and technical backgrounds are prized above MBAs because many of the most promising new startups have few business metrics to evaluate."
Brian Zhan, 29, left CRV to join Striker Venture Partners and will co-manage a $165 million fund with Max Gazor focused on AI startups. The fund plans to invest in only ten companies and deploy checks up to $30 million at seed stage to capture promising ideas before product-market fit. Zhan contends that seed-stage investing is moving earlier, often involving very young founders, and that large early capital is necessary to secure technical teams. He emphasizes technical expertise, conviction-driven investments, and a belief that traditional venture playbooks must change to compete.
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