According to GeekWire, veteran tech operators with deep Seattle ties are launching a new investment firm called VQ Capital, targeting AI and cyber intelligence. The firm is co-founded by Brian Lent, an early Amazon leader who later founded predictive analytics startup Medio before its 2014 acquisition by Nokia, and John Kim, a former colleague at Medio who also worked at Expedia and PayPal. Other managing partners include Yotam Avrahami and Praveen Hirsave, the latter having spent nearly 15 years at IBM. VQ Capital will focus on two themes: “Golden Dome” for unified cybersecurity tools and the AI transformation of consumer companies. The firm operates on a unique, deal-by-deal basis with multibillion-dollar family offices instead of raising a traditional venture fund, and while headquartered in New York, Lent plans to build a hub in the Seattle region.
The Operator Advantage
Here’s the thing that stands out immediately: this isn’t a fund started by finance folks who studied AI from the sidelines. These are operators who’ve been in the trenches at Amazon, built and sold a startup (Medio), and navigated big corporate machines like IBM and Expedia. That background is gold when you’re trying to spot which AI startups can actually execute and scale. They’ve seen what real product-market fit looks like, and more importantly, what the grind of building a tech business entails. Their thesis about “small, extraordinary teams” out-maneuvering giants sounds good on paper, but coming from them, it carries a bit more weight. They’ve probably lived it.
A Different Kind of Fund
Their structure is just as interesting as their focus. No massive, ten-year fund to deploy. Instead, it’s a deal-by-deal partnership with family offices. That’s a hybrid model they describe as mixing private equity discipline with venture-style investing. Basically, it could give them a lot of flexibility—no pressure to deploy capital just because the clock is ticking on a fund’s life. They can be picky. But it also means they have to sell each opportunity individually to their backers. It’s a structure that demands consistent, high-conviction wins. Will that make them sharper, or slower? Time will tell.
seattle-connection”>The Seattle Connection
The planned Seattle hub is a nod to the region’s enduring, if sometimes overlooked, tech strength. It’s not just Amazon and Microsoft anymore. There’s a deep bench of talent in cloud infrastructure, logistics, and yes, AI and machine learning, that has spun out of those giants. Lent’s own journey—from Amazon to Medio to a stint at Dave Clark’s logistics startup Auger—is a classic Seattle tech arc. Building a hub there gives VQ Capital a direct line into that network of builders and operators, which could be their secret sauce for sourcing deals that coastal VCs might miss. It’s a smart play.
Betting on Compounding Change
Their core argument is compelling: we’re not in an era of incremental, Moore’s Law progress anymore. We’re in an “era of compounding change” driven by AI. That’s the bet. The “Golden Dome” cyber theme is about fixing the mess of point solutions that plague security teams. The consumer AI transformation theme is even broader—it’s about rebuilding entire business operations from the ground up with AI. That’s a massive, ambitious scope. It feels less like picking the next chatbot and more like funding the AI-native versions of the enterprise software giants of tomorrow. It’s a big vision. Now, can they find and back the teams that can actually pull it off? That’s always the multi-billion dollar question. You can learn more about their approach on their website at vqcapital.com.
