Sarah Guo said she was adding the word “Partners” to the firm’s name because she would eventually hire more general practitioners when she left Greylock in the middle of 2022 to start her own AI-focused fund, Conviction Partners.
Mike Vernal, a former Sequoia partner who left the illustrious firm in 2023, is now joining Guo more than two years later. As Conviction announces that it has closed a second fund with $230 million in capital commitments, more than doubling the proceeds from its initial $101 million fund, Vernal joins.
The fact that Conviction has drawn a major investment is not surprising. With investments in businesses like Mistral, Harvey, and Sierra, Guo has established Conviction’s reputation over the past two years and is now one of Silicon Valley’s most well-known AI investors. Guo and renowned investor Elad Gil co-host the well-known AI podcast “No Priors.”
Vernal, meanwhile, has led deals in a number of high-fliers, including Notion, Rippling, and Verkada, a security camera startup that is reportedly raising money at a $4.5 billion valuation. Vernal spent almost seven years at Sequoia and the eight years prior at Facebook as a VP of product and engineering.
Read Also:
