Just wired our 11th investment out of Fund II! 🧬 risk-reward infrastructure for drug development 🎯 picks which drug/trial/disease gets the money 🧱 AI 10x’s drug discovery; judgment is new bottleneck 📈 founder made pipeline bets at big pharma + biotech 🤝 pilots converting to paid contracts in ~1 month

First Builders backing First Builders. @TheCouncilCap Angels Winter 2026 cohort is now open. Applications close Friday, Nov 20. Our community has 200+ operators leading in their fields. Our members have been pivotal early hires at companies like Figma, Square, Slack, and Lyft, among many others. They’re in the right rooms, and they know a founder who truly understands the customer when they see one. Join us for vetted deal flow, co-investing alongside our fund led by @AmberIllig & @rachtsui , high-quality networking with fellow operators and founders IRL + online, and much more. This cohort is for you if you’re: → A seasoned operator eager to add value to cap tables → Ready to start angel investing or already writing checks, and want to invest with conviction alongside other operators → Passionate about community and supporting founders We keep each cohort intentionally intimate and highly curated, so seats are limited. 📅 Applications close Friday, Nov 20 🚀 Cohort kicks off Wednesday, Dec 9

POV: our investment in @noxmetals 🔥 @zanehengsperger was buying their first saw with an empty factory, trying to convince VCs that they could scale physical operations faster with proprietary software. Now they hit $25M in annualized revenue in ONE YEAR and are inspiring other companies to do the same. If you’re building tech-enabled infrastructure in a critical supply chain, I want to hear from you *early*

Product teams ship at AI speed, but compliance still moves at human speed. Preeti Krishnan (@pkrishnan03) saw that gap firsthand as former COO of DailyPay, helping it scale from $2m to $250m ARR. So she built @leelainc for the AI era. Our full conversation >> 00:45 From writing the rules to COO 03:18 Why compliance feels like a brake 06:27 The 4 jobs no tool fully does 09:59 AI mistakes, repeated 200x 12:53 What Synapse cost its bank 15:59 Leela works while you sleep 17:48 85% automated, humans decide 21:17 Why LLMs alone can't do this 24:35 Who's already using Leela 29:44 Her cofounder was a cold DM 33:20 $4.6M raised, oversubscribed

Woke up to @noxmetals in Times Square! We're honored to share that we've been named to the #Disruptors60 Class of 2026, curated by @GreenfieldVC at @TechCrunch Disrupt, alongside teams advancing AI... where it matters the most! Both the infrastructure powering tomorrow's models and the applications reshaping critical industries.

Go check out what @noxmetals is building! They have 80 open roles for those looking!

Excited about a couple of portfolio companies launching next week 👀

@TheCouncilCap Angels has a full calendar of events for our angel, operator & founder community over the next few weeks 👇 Few spots left, so we're opening them to folks outside our usual network. Created for: 🔹 Founders who want to meet an operator-focused angel group 🔹 High-slope operators looking to back founders solving real problems @AmberIllig, @rachtsui, and I care about one thing: keeping each gathering intimate (~20 people, 50/50 angels/founders) so it energizes, not drains. 1️⃣ Move & Gather [SF] aka pilates + lunch - Fri, Sept 18 2️⃣ Pilates & Rooftop Social [LA] - Fri, Sept 25 3️⃣ Spill the Tea, Not Your Energy [#SFTechWeek]: High tea + small-group discussions - Mon, Oct 5 RSVP links below 💜

Proud to share that @TheCouncilCap was selected by 70+ of the leading LPs investing in emerging VC as one of the top firms they want to meet at RAISE Select. I'll be there on Oct 22 in the Presidio with 330+ family offices, fund of funds, institutional LPs, etc in attendance. Excited to join and share what's led to repeated successes in our portfolio and why we're so obsessed with First Builders 😎 It takes years to bake, and I appreciate now more than ever the LPs that believed in us from day one when we had no external validation. Think that's going to pay off 😉 If we haven't met yet and you'll be at @raiseconference, reach out!

Everyone talking about nuance in women's health should check out Collective X - they're about to superpower the industry on the backend and already working with health brands you know: collectivex.health/

Operator capital is becoming its own craft. Enrich is hosting Tech Angel & LP Investing 101 on August 6 in San Francisco, bringing technology leaders into an approval-based room with @AmberIllig and @rachtsui of @TheCouncilCap to explore angel investing, LP investing, risk, return, diligence, and long-term value creation. The next innovation cycle will not just be shaped by who builds great companies. It will be shaped by operators who learn to allocate capital with patience, discipline, and conviction before the market agrees. #sanfranciscotech #angelinvesting #lpinvesting #venturecapital #founders

Wire is out for our 7th investment out of Fund II: 🤖 robotics 🛠️ maintenance 🕸️ fleet operations 📍 hq outside of SF 🧑‍💻 First Builder founder (scaled eng org) 🤝 former coworker Can't wait to share more on this one!

NEW: @rachtsui and I break down what the past month has been like as two VCs writing $200K - $500K checks into Pre-seed rounds We discussed the following in this special "hosts only" episode: 01:00 AI Agents - Reality vs. Expectations 03:25 SaaS Resilience Amidst Market Doubts 08:07 Inflated Pre-seed Valuations Stalling Rounds 11:24 Conferences Aren't a GTM Strategy 14:54 Women's Health Driving an $11B IPO 19:35 Consumers Rejecting Big Med & Big Pharma 20:58 The Shift Towards Preventative Health 23:52 The Role of AI in Healthcare 24:19 Vanderbilts of Next Decade are Building Today 28:09 Reindustrialization and Investment Trends 31:09 Impact of Social Media on Industry Perception

🔎 What does @rachtsui, Partner at @thecouncilcap, look for when investing in a health tech startup? 🎧 Listen to the full episode here to find out. techstartupnetwork.co/podcas…

Doing something a little different for our next Inside the LP room webinar series @TheCouncilCap 🤓 Hosting @LisaPopovici, co-founder and president of @siena_ai, for an interactive workshop on building your own AI chief of staff with Claude Code This session is going to be too good! Been attending her live workshops & always walk away with 🧠 so so many new learnings. - Next Thurs, July 16 at 9 am pt - RSVP here luma.com/tq3iq6ol

New episode: the person behind Figma's generative plugins and shaders on craft, community, and what only humans can build Check out the full episode here: piped.video/2zxpUR5Zx34 🎧 thecouncil.co/podcast 🎙 @AmberIllig @rachtsui

NEW: our @first_builders_ chat with Georgia Rust (@georgiarust3) Georgia is Product Lead on Creation Engine at Figma, where she joined early enough to experience the Adobe-Figma acquisition drama, the IPO, and now "design is dead." Her career spans solutions engineer to founding PM to shipping some of Figma's biggest 2026 product launches: code as a canvas primitive, generative plugins, and shaders. We caught her fresh off the Config stage and discussed: - Her Founding PM days at a 3-person startup - Why "design is dead" is wrong - AI lowers the floor, craft raises the ceiling - How Figma's own PM team runs on Claude skills - Her side project: Deep House Wines 00:00 intro & the future of design & AI 02:40 journey to Figma 05:25 the role of a founding PM 08:27 Figma's evolution & challenges 11:05 Most exciting updates from Config 2026 13:45 AI's impact on design & technical fluency 16:40 the debate: is design dead? 19:18 the importance of human touch in design 21:00 being on stage at config 23:42 what are shaders? 25:57 the evolving design process with AI tools 29:59 how to thrive in high-slope environments 31:29 personal practices for balance and well-being 33:24 exploring the journey of winemaking 35:24 rapid fire insights on design and PM 40:13 the power of community in design 42:47 entrepreneurial mindsets in non-founders