I look for founders attacking a chokepoint that's holding up an entire system. That takes different shapes: hard tech and deep science at the frontier; productivity and network innovations that quietly rewire how the world works (the way Gusto or Airtable did); and complete explorations of territory that didn't exist before.

What ties it together: founders who've achieved mastery somewhere — former athletes, artists, anyone who knows what it actually costs to be genuinely good at something hard. The constraint isn't just a market opportunity. It's a test of character. The founders worth backing are the ones who understand that and show up anyway.