Episode
Gaurav Jain on Building $500M Fund, Missing Ramp and Backing Irrational Founders
- Podcast
- The Neon Show
- Published
- Jul 17, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3523
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Summary
What does it take to write the very first check into a company that has almost nothing to show yet, sometimes not even a finished idea? Afore Capital helped invent the pre-seed category. When Gaurav Jain and Anamitra Banerji started the firm ten years ago, "pre-seed" was almost a slight, a label for founders who couldn't raise a proper seed round. They set out to build the world's largest pre-seed fund anyway, closing $47 million on a $40 million target, and every fund since has closed above...