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E135: Category Creators—The Secret to Venture Success | Eric Ver Ploeg of Tunitas Ventures

What separates an innovative startup from a true category creator?

In this episode of Fireside with a VC, Andrew Romans speaks with Eric Ver Ploeg, founder and managing partner of Tunitas Ventures, about identifying startups capable of creating entirely new markets—and generating exceptional venture returns.

Drawing on more than a decade of experience at firms including VantagePoint Venture Partners and Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, Eric explains the seed-stage investment strategy he developed nearly ten years ago and continues to apply today.

“I developed the strategy beginning with the end in mind, which is asking the fundamental question: Where do the great returns in venture come from?”

— Eric Ver Ploeg

THE POWER OF CATEGORY CREATION

Category creators do more than improve existing products or compete within established markets. They give customers an experience that previously did not exist—often creating an entirely new industry in the process.

Eric explains why these companies can be difficult to recognize at the seed stage and why investors must begin by understanding the customer’s unmet needs.

“The key thing is to start with the customer. Does the customer get an experience that they could never have gotten any other way?”

— Eric Ver Ploeg

THE SOLO-GP ADVANTAGE

Eric also discusses the advantages of operating as a solo general partner. This structure allows him to make decisive investments in unconventional, non-consensus opportunities that larger investment committees may overlook.

He shares Zūm as an example of category creation within the transportation market and explains how independent decision-making can help a venture capitalist pursue bold ideas before they become obvious.

“It helps to be a solo GP in this strategy, especially in these non-consensus kinds of things where you’re inventing new categories.”

— Eric Ver Ploeg

IN THIS EPISODE

• Where the greatest venture capital returns come from
• How to recognize a potential category creator
• Why investors should begin with the customer experience
• The benefits of being a solo GP
• How non-consensus investments can produce exceptional outcomes
• Why category creation matters more than incremental innovation

Listen to the complete episode for Eric’s perspective on finding—and backing—the rare companies capable of redefining industries.

Learn more about Tunitas Ventures:
https://tunitas.vc/

UPCOMING 7BC EUROPEAN VC ROADSHOWS

Apply here: https://www.7bc.vc/events

OCTOBER 2026
🇸🇪 Stockholm • 🇩🇰 Copenhagen • 🇳🇱 Amsterdam • 🇧🇪 Brussels • 🇱🇺 Luxembourg

NOVEMBER 2026
🇬🇧 London • 🇫🇷 Paris • 🇨🇭 Geneva • 🇮🇹 Milan • 🇨🇭 Lugano

DECEMBER 2026
🇩🇪 Frankfurt • 🇩🇪 Munich • 🇨🇭 Zurich • 🇨🇭 Geneva • 🇲🇨 Monaco

If you are a VC, angel investor, fund manager, startup investor, family office or limited partner, contact 7BC to discuss:

• Exercising your pro rata rights with us
• Selling venture secondaries
• Raising capital for your VC fund
• Joining an upcoming European VC Roadshow

Connect with Andrew Romans on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

7BC Venture Capital | Partnering with VCs from early-stage investing through growth and liquidity.

#VentureCapital #VC #AngelInvesting #PrivateEquity #Secondaries #VentureSecondaries #FundOfFunds #StartupInvesting #ProRata #Fundraising #FamilyOffice #LPs #EuropeanVC #7BC

🚀 Are you a VC or angel investor? Let’s partner.

7BC Venture Capital is actively partnering with venture capital funds and angel investors across four key areas:

🤝 PRO RATA CO-INVESTMENTSHave a breakout portfolio company raising its next round? We can provide capital to help you exercise your pro rata rights, while sharing economics with you.

💰 VC SECONDARIES

Looking to generate liquidity or return capital to your LPs? We buy shares in high-quality venture-backed companies directly from VCs and other existing shareholders.

📈 FUND OF FUNDS INVESTMENTS

Raising your next VC fund? Through our Fund of Funds, we invest in venture capital funds and build long-term relationships with top-performing managers.

🌍 EUROPEAN VC ROADSHOWS

We bring select VCs with us across Europe to meet family offices, institutional investors, wealth managers, and other LPs.

UPCOMING 7BC EUROPEAN VC ROADSHOWS

🇸🇪 🇩🇰 🇳🇱 🇧🇪 🇱🇺 September 2026

Stockholm • Copenhagen • Amsterdam • Brussels • Luxembourg

🇬🇧 🇫🇷 🇨🇭 🇮🇹 🇨🇭 October 2026

London • Paris • Geneva • Milan • Lugano

🇩🇪 🇩🇪 🇨🇭 🇨🇭 🇲🇨 December 2026

Frankfurt • Munich • Zurich • Geneva • Monaco

If you're a VC, angel investor, fund manager, or startup investor, reach out to 7BC to discuss:

• Exercising your pro rata rights with us• Selling venture secondaries

• Raising capital for your VC fund

• Joining an upcoming European VC Roadshow

🔗 Connect with Andrew Romans on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

https://www.7bc.vc/eventsandrew@7bc.vc

7BC Venture Capital | Partnering with VCs from early-stage investing through growth and liquidity.

#venturecapital #VC #AngelInvesting #PrivateEquity #Secondaries #VentureSecondaries #FundOfFunds #StartupInvesting #ProRata #Fundraising #FamilyOffice #LPs #EuropeanVC #7BC

E133: In this episode of Fireside with the VC, Andrew Romans is joined by Chris Wilkerson, founder and GP of 51 Ventures. They discuss the booming sports tech industry, the importance of relationships in the sports ecosystem, and how understanding industry language is critical for venture success. Whether you're interested in sports technology, venture capital, or relationship-building, this episode offers valuable insights. 

· What is sports tech? Understanding the industry beyond team ownership

· Case studies of sports tech companies like We Played and Pisen

· The role of relationships and trust in sports-related investments

· The unique aspects of sports industry dynamics and language

· The size and future potential of the sports tech market

· Challenges of applying AI and automation in sports industries

· How industry expertise and relationships create value for VC investors

· The importance of understanding seasonality and revenue flows in sports startups

· 51 Ventures – Chris Wilkerson’s firm focused on sports tech investments

· We Played – Platformaggregating live sports video streams

· Pisen – Wearable tech for athleteperformance and cognitive monitoring

· Sideline – Recruitment andcontent distribution platform for sports

Connect with Chris Wilkerson:

· LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswilkerson51/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/chriswilkerson

· email: chris@ventures.vc

Connect with 7BC Venture Capital:

Direct VC Fund  |  Fund of Funds  |  Late-Stage Pre-IPO SPVs |  VC Roadshows

Apply for Funding for your startup from our Direct VC fund, for your VC from 7BC Venture Capital’s Fund of Funds. Accepting applications for 5 VCs to join 7BC on our next three VC Roadshows where we meet 150+ LPs in 5 days on each tour.

Upcoming European VC Roadshows
September 2026
Stockholm • Copenhagen • Amsterdam • Brussels • Luxembourg

October 2026
London • Paris • Geneva • Milan • Lugano

December 2026

Frankfurt • Munich • Zurich • Geneva • Monaco

· VC Roadshows: https://www.7bc.vc/events

· LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

· X: https://x.com/romansventures

· Contact: https://www.7bc.vc/

The one clause most founders forget to negotiate — and the family-office investor who's quietly used it for decades to protect capital and engineer better exits.

Andrew Romans (7BC Venture Capital) sits down with Arthur Bavelas, founder of Family Office Insights, to unpack information rights — the deceptively simple legal provision that decides who gets paid, who gets stuck, and who actually gets to sell their shares.

In this conversation:

— Why information rights aren't just for investors, and how founders can negotiate them for themselves

— The secondary-sale scenario where a missing clause costs founders real money

— How VCs structure Layer 1 vs. Layer 2 SPVs and orchestrate "final close" tactics

— A Steve Jobs–era story on how transparency rights changed an outcome

— What LPs should ask before they wire

In a market where deal structure quietly decides winners and losers, the people who understand these levers walk away with more. Arthur and Andrew break it down in plain English.

About the guest: Arthur Andrew Bavelas is founder of Bavelas Group Family Office and Family Office Insights.

About the host: Andrew Romans is General Partner at 7BC Venture Capital and author of three books on VC.

7BC European Roadshow this June — Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Geneva, Monaco. VCs and LPs welcome: https://www.7bc.vc/events

Fireside with a VC E131: Discover how Tyson Tuttle, CEO of Circuit AI, is leveraging AI to revolutionize manufacturing, supply chain, and enterprise workflows. This conversation covers strategic company growth, technological innovation, and the future trajectory of AI-enabled industrial solutions.

· Tyson Tuttle's journey from semiconductor leadership to AI entrepreneurship

· The application of AI in manufacturing and supply chain optimization

· Strategies for go-to-market, customer engagement, and scaling of AI solutions

· The role of VC funding, growth plans, and long-term vision for Circuit AI

· Insights into Texas's evolving financial and manufacturing ecosystem

· Tyson shares his experience leading Silicon Labs through $3.5B IPO and $8B acquisition

· Details Circuit AI’s focus on automating technical workflows within manufacturing

· How AI transforms complex sales processes, CPQ, and technical data management

· The importance of land-and-expand strategies inenterprise AI deployment

00:00 - Introduction: Tyson Tuttle’s background and recent successes
02:29 - Silicon Labs IPO and strategic pivot into IoT04:51 - Transition from hardware to AI software solutions07:14 - Founding Circuit AI with co-founder Matt Weiss09:09 - Building a strong leadership team and company culture

11:23 - Circuit AI’s focus: Enabling manufacturing with AI12:52 - The value of AI in technical document understanding and automation

14:21 - Targeting manufacturing and supply chain for AI application

15:38 - Impact of AI on manufacturing workforce and productivity18:05 - Automating front-end sales workflows with AI (CPQ & quotes)19:58 - Reducing manual workflows, onboarding, and scale strategies23:01 - Use cases: Contract review and document analysis in supply chain24:37 - Long sales cycles in manufacturing and strategies to shorten them26:46 - Land-and-expand approach with large manufacturing clients28:08 - Cost savings and productivity improvements (Culligan case study)29:55 - Importance of user adoption and ROI in AI deployment31:21 - VC interest in rejuvenating American manufacturing33:28 - Differentiators: Vertical focus, manufacturing-specific solutions35:23 - Company financing and future fundraising plans36:39 - Vision for Circuit AI: Growth, customer acquisition, and vertical expansion38:05 - Implementation and scaling of AI-powered CPQ systems41:23 - Building Texas's financial ecosystem via Texas Stock Exchange44:27 - Texas's advantages over traditional markets and regulatory environment

45:47 - Closing remarks: Exciting outlook for AI-driven manufacturing

· Circuit AI https://www.circuit.ai/

· Texas Stock Exchange

andrew@7bc.vc         

If you are a VC or LP join the next 7BC European Roadshow with stops in Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Geneva and Monaco this June. ⁠https://www.7bc.vc/events

In this episode of Fireside with a VC, Andrew Romans explains how VC secondaries really work in large private companies — and how buyers and sellers can avoid common mistakes.

We cover:

· Secondaries vs. primaries

· Stock transfer permissions and why deals get blocked

· ROFRs and the ROFR price

· Direct to cap table vs. layered SPV structures

· How to calculate the all-in cost (with or without carry)

· Fake brokers, daisy chains, and wasted time

· Liquidity post-investment

This episode draws on 20 years of experience, 70 SPVs, and five pooled VC funds.

🎙️ More episodes: https://www.7bc.vc/podcast

👉 Events: https://www.7bc.vc/events
✅ Apply: https://lu.ma/user/usr-8Y0b18KjVLZhAPm
📩 Contact Andrew: andrew@7bc.vc

Important: This content is for informational and relationship management purposes only. It is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any offering will be made only to eligible investors, through private communications, pursuant to applicable offering documents, and only where permitted by law.

E129 — Silicon Valley Real Estate – Selling Google their first building - Barry DiRaimondo, CEO, SteelWave

In this episode of Fireside with a VC, I sit down with Barry DiRaimondo to understand the history, present and future of Silicon Valley real-estate market from a lifetime veteran who sold Google their first building.  

• The story of selling Google their HQ building
• Is Commercial RE a hard asset, a financial asset, or asocial asset?
• What is the difference between design and architecture?
• How has the workplace evolved over time?
• How technology real estate differs from other real estate.
• How to think about risk? What types of risks CAN be underwritten and what types CAN'T be underwritten?
• Lessons learned from those that CAN'T be underwritten?
• The future of the industry going forward and compare that towhere its been.

Upcoming live events — Global VC Demo Day (VC–LP Tour)

👉 Register and view dates: https://www.7bc.vc/events
📌 Next stops include: Dallas, Zurich, Geneva, Munich, San Francisco, Austin, New York, Singapore, Berlin, and London.
Apply to attend: https://lu.ma/user/usr-8Y0b18KjVLZhAPm

• All episodes: https://www.7bc.vc/podcast
• Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IGbVQYRDV0k?si=d7SgBXcHYHs1jpW_
• Contact Andrew Romans if you are an active LP interested in investing in VC funds and would like to join us at VIP luncheons, dinners, or Global VC Demo Day events. andrew@7bc.vc