Former NEA Partner Launches Premise VC to Back Technical Founders in AI Era

Vanessa Larco, a former partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with nearly eight years of experience leading investments in enterprise software, developer tools and consumer technology, co-founded Premise VC in early 2025 with Mercedes Bent. The firm focuses on pre-seed and seed stage investments in technical founders building high-growth, durable software. Known for her sharp product intuition and hands-on operational expertise, Larco emphasizes evaluating founders based on their potential rather than initial product ideas. She seeks teams that leverage AI to make products dramatically faster, cheaper, or easier to use, while avoiding rigid, single-model wrappers. Before venture capital, Larco built a distinguished product leadership career, working on Xbox and Kinect at Microsoft, leading core product teams at Twilio and Box, and founding an app development startup that she successfully sold.