Intro
This is my first conversation with Sal Churi, Founder and Managing Partner at Trust Ventures. Before starting the firm, Sal practiced at Kirkland & Ellis and taught law at the University of Chicago. Trust Ventures was the first investor in Base Power and an early investor in Oklo, and its portfolio includes Antora and Physical Intelligence.
One detail from our conversation stayed with me: in the early days of Base Power, Sal rented his house to the founders. By the end, they had 50-plus people working out of his three-bedroom house, and they had yanked out his washing machine to bolt a giant inverter to the wall.
We discuss why the biggest markets in the world are also the most regulated, how Trust Ventures helps companies overcome regulatory hurdles after investing, and why building more energy infrastructure matters so much in the AI era.
What we cover:
Monopolies are like piggy banks: how watching Ryan Graves help build Uber and working on a campaign to legalize street vending in Chicago led Sal to invest in regulated markets.
Energy as the input to everything: why US generation capacity has been flat since 2000, nuclear’s “fences around fences around fences,” and backing Oklo when nobody was interested in nuclear.
Killing mosquitoes, not slaying dragons: being the first investor in Base Power, helping pass a law that removed local permitting for home batteries, and living in Base’s offices for a month.
Building Trust Ventures: how Chase Koch and Brian Hooks wrote Sal’s first check when people thought the thesis was nuts, putting an hour where a dollar is, chasing a 10X fund, and how a referral from Base’s CEO led to Physical Intelligence.
Follow the guest and host:
Sal Churi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salenchuri/
Suffiyan Malik: https://x.com/suffiyanmalikk
We The Builders: https://x.com/WeThe_Builders
Watch on YouTube
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:45 Founding Trust Ventures
04:04 Monopolies are like piggy banks
05:39 Legalizing street vending in Chicago
08:05 The biggest markets are the most regulated
09:09 Why law firms are not built for startups
10:55 Oklo, Base Power, Antora, and the energy thesis
11:31 China has 10X'd generation capacity. We are flat.
14:51 Nuclear and fences around fences
15:36 Backing Oklo before nuclear was exciting
17:24 Investing in regulated markets in 2017
18:44 Not can we do it, but are we allowed?
20:08 First investor in Base Power
21:31 Base Power moves into Sal's house
24:43 Passing a law for Base
25:32 Kill mosquitoes, not dragons
29:11 How Chase Koch and Brian Hooks took a shot on the thesis
30:00 A venture team of legal nerds
30:49 Running a concentrated strategy
31:46 Can I return my fund at this price?
33:15 Product, market, team, and the regulatory threshold
37:18 How Physical Intelligence came through Base's CEO
39:24 The worst case is I look like everyone else on your cap table
40:48 Chasing a 10X fund
42:58 Building a remote team from day one
45:48 Pounding the table
47:38 The black magic after the check
51:46 What Trust Ventures won't invest in
53:22 Brilliant generalists over specialists
58:37 Bad laws stay forever
59:40 From crazy idea to cliche
1:01:22 The first check that put Trust Ventures in business
1:04:21 Can you beat natural gas in the Permian?
1:06:06 The great American deflation fund
1:09:06 Robotics and the future of manufacturing
1:11:22 Standing in an industrial revolution
1:15:51 Overbuild, crash, build more
1:18:40 Deflation and status competition
1:20:02 Sal's book recommendations
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