Aviato

When I met @ericzhu (thanks to @LizPullman1 for the intro), I told my karman.vc partners it was like meeting a Thiel fellow x10. His resume: - Raised VC money from his Carmel, Indiana high school bathroom (until the principal banned him using it.). - Manages a $20m VC fund. - 17 years old. One of my exact notes from that meeting: “Mind blown.” We jumped at the chance to invest in Eric’s 3rd company: @joinaviato (yes, like the TV show) - It’s a data engine for CRMs—though primary use case is for VCs to research potential deals and speed up deal flow. - VCs can cut the line and get eyes on interesting founders/companies much earlier than they could in the past by tracking historical macro data, site traffic, social media data, etc. - Founding team (David Razavi and Harrison Kessel) are also impressive. In short: the product is great. We’ve even been using/testing it at Karman, and it beats every competitor on insight and sophistication. Been called a “PitchBook on steroids.” But if I’m being totally honest: We didn’t just invest in Aviato, we invested in Eric. As an investor, it’s not just about product. I’m always looking at the founder and team. Do they have hustle? Are they high-trajectory (meaning they’re going places, with or without us)? Eric has had hustle since he was 13 - when he started his first company. He’s self taught (learned the landscape via discord group chats), fearless (those bathroom VC pitches), and incredibly smart (created Aviato when he saw that the PitchBooks of the world had tracking but limited analytical layers.) Those are the hallmarks of a founder who’s teed-up to solve big problems. Good investors fund people they believe in. Eric checks that box, and then some.