Managing Partner at @amplifyla. This account is no longer monitored. Find me over on the other site.
Los Angeles
Joined April 2009
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Alex Rubalcava retweeted
Monday “We don’t like the high CAPEX spend.”
Thursday “We’re worried CAPEX spending is going to slow down.”
🤡
Election night is great for all the talking heads and pundits who pronounce “Laa-TEEN-owz” in such a distinctive way.
To all the Texans who have spent the last 15 years crowing about all the Californians moving to their state…
Alex Rubalcava retweeted
By the way, in case anyone was still wondering whether they are completely useless, Binance holds SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and several other certifications.
It turns out that the killer app for crypto was to pull forward the deployment of compute enough to make it easy for AI to steal crypto.
California needs to restrict ballot initiatives to a single question, issue, or change. Some of the local initiatives are like eight part questions and should not be in the same matter before voters.
Alex Rubalcava retweeted
@UseMissionCtrl wants to turn every machinist into Tony Stark.
That's why we built Bob. The Co-Engineer for real life.
If you're building something, DM me. We're delivering pelican cases of Bob every week.
youtube.com/watch?v=XxYVAmHp…
Muse helped me price shop my homeowners insurance. Found identical coverage for $970 less annually.
Thanks Zuck!
I had a great time talking startups and tech with my friend @Magyer on his podcast. Check it out!
The best deals aren't competitive.
That's the view of my friend and early-stage investor, @alexrubalcava. We talked on @InvestNStartups about VC groupthink, the evolution of moats, embracing technical risk, only investing in greenfield markets, and more.
Technology risk creates opportunity. Many VCs avoid technically difficult startups, leaving room for investors able to assess and underwrite those risks. As AI makes software easier to build, Alex sees more potential in frontier tech and physical-world applications.
AI is redefining software moats. Faster development weakens traditional defensibility. Alex favors software in regulated or high-stakes settings where accuracy, auditability, accountability, and human oversight still matter.
Sales and product judgment matter more. Alex evaluates founders on whether they can ship, sell, and hire. With building easier, sales velocity and deciding what to build—and when—have become more important.
Venture suffers from groupthink. His public-markets background shapes a contrarian approach grounded in valuation discipline, independent judgment, and finding opportunities overlooked by consensus-driven investors.
Small funds can deliver big returns. Exceptional LP outcomes don't require trillion-dollar exits or mega-funds. An overlooked multibillion-dollar exit can be transformative for a smaller venture fund.
Capital efficiency reduces funding risk. Long runways give startups time to prove their case, especially when follow-on investors favor AI narratives. Alex cites profitable, fast-growing non-AI companies struggling to raise despite strong fundamentals.
Greenfield markets offer an edge. Alex prefers startups serving needs no existing technology addresses over crowded VC-backed categories. Shipping products, winning early customers, and showing demand turn unknown markets into investable opportunities.
Investing expertise must evolve. Alex highlights secondary share sales as a path to LP liquidity, Amplify's founder network as a diligence resource, and the importance of steadily expanding ones circle of competence.
Persistence needs experimentation. Productive founders test new products and sales tactics rather than repeating failed approaches. Alex recalls a founder who shut down a struggling startup and returned half its capital instead of grinding on.
Conviction beats allocation. Alex argues the best opportunities may have just one term sheet. At Stage VP, 42 of his 45 investments were noncompetitive, showing how leading overlooked rounds can create an edge.
Alex is very talented and a great investor. I hope you enjoy this one!
investinginstartups.com/post…
Hello sharks. Today I’m here to pitch Pumkin, my chain of pop-up Thanksgiving stores I operate inside pop-up Spirit of Halloween stores.
I’m asking $600,000 for 8.42% of my company.
Claude decks are so text heavy that I can read 20 slides and still have very little idea of what the company does.
Muse is $META’s best shot in 15 years to jailbreak out of their platform dependency.
They’ve spent nearly $100B on reality labs, which was always more of a long shot.
Expect them to be relentless, and to spend whatever it takes to win.