Intro
I sat down with Ross Fubini, Founder and Managing Partner at XYZ Ventures. Ross has been a venture capitalist for 15 years, cofounded Village Global, and was an early investor in Anduril. XYZ now manages billions in AUM and has over 140 companies in its portfolio, 42 of them founded by ex-Palantir people.
When Anduril went to raise its A round, Ross couldn’t get firms to take a meeting. Investors were confident you couldn’t make money building products for the government.
We discuss why this moment feels like the dot com era, how AI could change where value is captured in software, what it took to back Anduril before defense was popular, and why Ross believes networks and intimacy with founders are the durable advantages in venture.
What we cover:
Venture risk at every stage: why the pace at which dollars become relevant and irrelevant reminds Ross of the dot-com days, and what the market is now willing to believe about outcomes.
AI and the value of software: Ross’s mom self-publishing children’s books with OpenAI, and whether AGI in software engineering means value accrues to the models.
Backing Anduril early: knowing Palantir from the inside, why firms like Sequoia and Greylock passed on the A round, and what changed across the defense ecosystem.
Building XYZ: why the first fund was hard to raise, finding LPs who back new firms, dollar concentration, and building compounding excellence inside a firm.
Networks and builder DNA: asking founders who you wish you could hire, networks of networks, what Ross learned from Reid Hoffman, and what makes his partner Chauncey a builder.
Other WTB guests who are in the XYZ portfolio include Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz, Cofounder of Chapter, Ian Cinnamon, Cofounder of Apex Space and Cameron McCord, Cofounder of Nominal.
Follow on X/Twitter:
Ross Fubini: https://x.com/fubini
Suffiyan Malik: https://x.com/suffiyanmalikk
We The Builders: https://x.com/WeThe_Builders
Watch on YouTube:
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:37 Starting out at Netscape
04:59 How technology beats shift
05:35 From Village Global to nine years of XYZ
06:37 How venture and company building are changing
09:50 How Ross's approach to venture has evolved
12:25 Venture risk priced in at every stage
14:35 Exit outcomes and what the market is willing to believe
17:35 AI and the changing pace of creative work
19:23 Ross's mom, OpenAI, and self-published children's books
21:57 If software engineering gets AGI, who captures the value?
24:42 Is this what verticalization looks like?
27:08 Merging code and the near-term bottlenecks
28:55 Government, drones, and Turbine One
29:10 Backing Anduril alongside Founders Fund
30:07 Ahoy Capital and the first LP
31:50 Getting close to early Palantir
33:18 140 companies, 42 founded by ex-Palantir people
34:31 Why Anduril struggled to get access to capital
37:44 What changed in the defense ecosystem
41:35 Village Global, XYZ, and raising a first fund
45:45 Dollar concentration and the high side of every opportunity
46:55 The 10-year plan for XYZ
47:22 Joy and compounding excellence in firm building
51:12 Spending time with the portfolio
54:49 Asking your network who you wish you could hire
57:24 Learning from Reid Hoffman about networks
59:15 Curiosity, empathy, and understanding people
1:07:53 Chauncey and the early days of the firm
1:10:59 What builder DNA looks like
1:13:12 A big-fund counterexample
1:17:46 Networks of networks
1:21:49 A company Reid passed on
1:23:26 Going deep on a thesis
1:29:59 Robotics, manufacturing, and software
1:32:02 Backing companies raising at high valuations
1:34:56 Being intimate to founders as they scale
1:36:59 Venture as a maturing asset class
1:39:16 Favorite food
1:40:01 Book recommendation: A Gentleman in Moscow
1:43:17 What Ross is watching on HBO and Apple TV
Brought to you by
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