Earthling VC Founder Recaps Raising $5M as an Outsider in a Tough Market

arian_ghashghai · x · 2026-08-08

The founder of Earthling VC shared the grueling process of raising their first $5M fund in 2023 as a new manager with no status, anchored on an unpopular thesis around robots, VR, and physical hardware.

It took nearly two years to close the fund, with the first million taking about a year alone. They attribute their survival to holding strong, validated opinions and doing a first close early to start writing tiny checks, making the fund tangible. They noted that many failing peers set lofty goals and gave up too soon. Fund II is expected to launch shortly.

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