E174: The State of Venture Capital in 2025: Insights from a $1.8B AUM Chairman and Co-Founder

In this episode of How I Invest, I speak with Arjun Sethi—Chairman and co-founder of Tribe Capital, Co-CEO of Kraken, and one of the sharpest thinkers in venture capital and crypto today. Arjun breaks down how he approaches investing in “N-of-1” companies, what most VCs get wrong about data, and why the traditional funding stages like “pre-seed” and “Series A” are being rewritten in real time. We also go deep into Arjun’s frameworks for scaling world-class companies, the evolution of crypto in a changing political landscape, and the big bets he’s making at the frontier—including humanoid robotics. Whether you're an allocator, founder, or just fascinated by the future of finance, this conversation is packed with sharp insights and original thinking. Highlights: Why Arjun views Tribe as an “operating system” for venture What makes Kraken different from Coinbase and Binance The critical difference between a market leader and an N-of-1 company How Arjun uses leading indicators to invest ahead of revenue The vision behind Termina, Tribe’s in-house data platform What most investors get wrong about benchmarks How tokenized equities could reshape global capital markets Why humanoid robots could play a key role in defense and logistics -- Guest Bio: Arjun Sethi is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Tribe Capital, a venture capital firm managing $1.8 billion across stages. He is also the Co-CEO of Kraken, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. Arjun previously worked at Facebook, was a partner at Social Capital, and has founded multiple companies across consumer, enterprise, and deep tech. Most recently, he incubated Foundation Robotics, a humanoid robotics company building toward a future of self-sustaining technology. Our Podcast now receives more than 300,000 downloads a month. Are you interested in sponsoring an episode? Please email David Weisburd at david@weisburdcapital.com . #VentureCapital #VC #Startups #OpenLP #AssetManagement -- Stay Connected: Twitter/X: David Weisburd: @dweisburd LinkedIn: David Weisburd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweisburd/ Arjun Sethi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asethi/ Links Kraken: https://kraken.com/ Tribe Capital: https://tribecap.co/ Questions or topics you want us to discuss on How I Invest? Email us at david@weisburdcapital.com . (0:00) Episode preview (1:06) Differentiation of Kraken from other exchanges and crypto trading evolution (6:00) Investing strategies: n of one companies vs market leaders (8:00) Advancements in data utilization for early-stage investments (11:47) Applying nuanced metrics to traditional and tech companies (16:16) Knowing your market position and strategic growth (18:23) Focus and product development in top companies (20:13) Vertical integration trends in various sectors (22:25) Strategies for competing with large venture firms and staying private (27:33) Tokenization in venture capital (29:49) Foundation Robotics: Mission and challenges (32:54) Future of humanoid robots in industry and defense (33:19) Closing remarks