James Luo

Nothing inspires me more than founders taking on hard problems others have written off as too difficult. The founders I partner with share a common thread: the ambition to build products and companies that make possible what wasn't possible before.

My attraction to hard technical problems started when I was young. I spent much of my teenage years in a university physics lab researching superconducting materials, and later studied economics and computer science in college to understand how new technologies emerge and create value in the world. That fascination has never faded, and it's why I'm drawn to founders willing to bet years of their lives on ideas the world hasn't yet caught up to. I also believe there has never been a better time to make that bet: AI has dramatically accelerated the pace of technological progress and is demanding foundational breakthroughs at every layer of the stack, from silicon to software.

Companies built on those kinds of breakthroughs rarely have simple stories. The technology takes time to understand, the product takes patience to develop and mature, and the path to a large business is not always obvious. I aspire to be the kind of investor a founder wants alongside them on that journey: curious enough to deeply understand the technology and vision, candid enough to say what I really think even when it's uncomfortable, and committed enough to work through all the challenging scaling questions that come with turning technical breakthroughs into generational companies. Building an enduring business is rarely linear, and I believe the years between the big milestones are where an investor earns the right to be called a true partner. My commitment to founders is to show up every day, good or bad, with the same conviction I had the day we invested.