Conviction Capital

General Partners Sarah Guo, Mike Vernal, and Pranav Reddy are the named investment decision-makers as listed on the firm's website. Guo founded the firm after serving as a general partner at Greylock, while Vernal and Reddy bring operator and investing backgrounds to the partnership.

Conviction sources heavily through its own community-building programs. It runs 'Embed,' a grant program for early-stage AI founders, 'Commit,' a fellowship for early-career AI builders, and 'Mixture of Experts,' a recruiting event series. These are paired with the firm's 'No Priors' podcast, which features AI researchers and builders, creating a funnel that captures founders before they formally raise.

Conviction only directs capital into companies via direct equity investments. The firm writes initial checks ranging from $1 million to $25 million as indicated on its website, and there is no public evidence of a fund-of-funds or LP commitment program for this vehicle.

Conviction targets seed and Series A rounds. The firm states it likes to invest early and is often the first institutional investor in its portfolio companies, as described in its own published materials.

Conviction focuses exclusively on AI-native companies it calls 'Software 3.0.' There is no evidence the firm invests in sectors outside the AI stack, such as traditional enterprise software, consumer packaged goods, or industrial technologies not significantly enabled by machine learning.

Conviction is a venture firm, not a family office. It is structured as a traditional venture fund that raises external capital and deploys it into AI-native startups, with a general partner-led investment committee.

Conviction often leads or co-invests alongside other top-tier venture firms. For instance, it participates in rounds for companies like Harvey and Mistral, which are backed by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, respectively, indicating the firm is a collaborative but thesis-driven participant in syndicates.