Jeremy Klein on Leading super{set}'s Data-Driven $90 Million Fund II

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Jeremy Klein is a general partner at super{set}. Jeremy helped build super{set} from day one alongside Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya , designing super{set}’s structure, recruiting co-founders, and laying the plans for a scalable buildout. super{set} recently announced the closing of its $90 million Fund II. He sat down with me to provide insights into the strategic timing and vision behind launching Fund II, his professional journey from a legal expert to an integral part of super{set}'s fabric, and how his unique background and approach have been instrumental in building super{set} and recruiting top-tier co-founders.

jsd: Super {set} recently announced the closing of its $90 million second fund. Why is this the ideal moment for it? What makes this the perfect timing for super{set}?

Jeremy: There are two main reasons. The first is the data+AI revolution is here, and we are particularly well-suited for it given that we've been starting and building data+AI companies long before it was cool. The goal is to continue to do that. This fund provides us with the ability to intensify our serial focus on data+AI company building. We can start as many or as few companies as we want over the next several years and build them from the ground up.

The second reason is when we started with super{set}, we were simply starting a bunch of companies at the same time. I would be lying if I said it was structured or we had a formation philosophy or playbook. Over the last five years, we've put a lot more structure into place. We have a better way of conceiving companies, building companies, and understanding the types of people we should bring in and work with. Now, our companies have a much better platform to launch off of than in the early days when we were building the airplane in flight.

Overall, from a macro perspective, the timing couldn't be better. The world has tilted in our favor. On the micro level, being further along and having a more solid foundation means if we partner with a new founder, we're prepared and optimize our chances of success. We can leverage company creation methods and playbooks to create value straight out of the gate.

jsd: No one is closing funds like this right now. Let's get a little behind-the-scenes look: what was fundraising like in this market?

Jeremy: The short answer is it's tough. It's tough for us and tough for everyone out there raising funds. The challenge, at least in 2023 and the world we're living in today, is that most investors, or limited partners, who are investing in funds don't have a good sense of where their existing investments sit. So, they're being cautious—and rightfully so—about taking on new obligations, particularly investing in new firms, and are mostly focused on supporting their existing investments. Because of this, breaking in with new firms is particularly difficult right now. The fundraising process was valuable to us in other ways, as we learned some new things along the way. There were a couple of conversations that influenced how we think about how we’re building super{set} and the language we use to describe our work.

In some ways, the macro environment helped us figure out more quickly who was open and interested in investing in this fund. We were able to get to the heart of these discussions quickly. Like any venture, building super{set} is a multi-year, multi-decade build-out. We don't hold it against investors who couldn't commit to this fund; there may be other opportunities to work together in the future. We're excited to welcome several new investors to this fund who didn't participate in the first fund, some of whom we knew at the time of the first fund and who didn't invest, and others of whom we've met along the way. They saw something in our model and our value proposition that resonated. In several cases, there were folks who were seriously interested in what we were building, and we could go super deep with them, which ultimately resulted in a great fundraise.

jsd: You've touched on the data and AI revolution. What makes super{set} uniquely positioned to capitalize on it, as opposed to those just now hopping on the AI bandwagon?

Jeremy: We're uniquely positioned with AI because of our ability to conceive of companies and focus on solving business problems. Even after probably more than a year now of using ChatGPT, I still think it's pretty cool. But turning an LLM into a product and, ultimately, a company is much more complicated than just solving AI problems. There are business process problems and workflow problems. We don't approach starting a company with “how should we use AI?” We approach starting a company by asking, "What business problem are we looking to solve? Is there a way that we can apply our data management techniques and apply AI to solve that business problem?" That's perhaps a different way of going about it.

Right now, there is a bit of a gold rush on AI. And to some extent, that makes sense. The question is, how many of these companies will exist three or five years from now, and who's building something that's defensible and truly a company? And so, in some ways, we're going to move a little bit more slowly as it relates to AI because we're still trying to figure out the best ways to show up and build a company in this space. And that's not necessarily building an LLM model or taking an LLM model and building a company around it; it might be solving a business problem that doesn't require Gen AI or doesn't even require traditional AI, but where you can add Gen AI as a particularly helpful feature. So we're being very thoughtful about it, and given that we have a fund, we have the luxury of moving a bit more slowly than others who are just rushing to get a product to the market and maybe not thinking about how that's ultimately defensible or how it scales into a true company.

jsd: Let's take a step back. Before super{set}, you were a lawyer advising leading startups at all stages of the corporate lifecycle. What drove you to join super{set}?

Jeremy: I started my career as a lawyer at a law firm in Silicon Valley, where I worked with startups and VC firms. Through that experience, I was lucky enough to work with a company called Krux, founded by Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya. Salesforce acquired Krux in 2016, and basically, Krux, Tom, Vivek, and the rest of you were out of sight, out of mind, and I wasn't sure if or how our paths would cross in the future. It turns out in 2018, as Tom was thinking about getting super{set} up and going, he reached out and said, we should get lunch, and we should talk about me joining super{set}. I remember asking him, well, what's super{set}? And he said we're going to start a bunch of companies at the same time. It was, to me, a very simplistic way of describing something that seemed like it needed to be much more complicated and lofty. But I was intrigued and began to spend time with him and Vivek, getting to know them better, trying to understand their motivations, and ultimately decided I was going to join super{set} not so much because of what we were doing, but because of the people and the team and feeling like it was a good group to work alongside. So, I jumped on at the outset and have been here ever since.

jsd: I'm curious about the switch – what's it like now, rolling up your sleeves at super{set} and being in the thick of company building? Were there any significant shifts in how you thought about company building?

Jeremy: It's very, very different. There are a lot of reasons for that. I was at a law firm. At a law firm, you tend to be very specialized in how you work with your clients. You have a special set of skills. Your clients pay you to show up and help them in that specific way. Within the confines of a law firm, you, as the lawyer, are a revenue generator – the product, so to speak. Also, in a law firm environment, you can control your own destiny to some extent. Much of your performance and success is based on what you accomplish: the quality of your work and your ability to bring in or keep clients. In my experience, it's a little bit less of a “team sport.” Coming into a startup environment where you're actually building products, and any one person can impact the success or failure of the endeavor, you depend on everyone to show up and do their part, and people rely on you. It's just a different environment. But one I was excited to be a part of, of course, and in some ways, I was well-suited for it, and then in other ways, I probably had things to learn too.

jsd: You also play a key role in co-founder recruitment at super{set}, and you're a big proponent of our people-first approach. What would you say to potential co-founders who might be interested in joining super{set}?

Jeremy: On the first part of the question, I am heavily involved in recruiting. I told someone just yesterday there are certain hires where I'm going to insist that I'm involved. I look for two things in particular. The first is someone who's highly collaborative. To succeed in our model, you have to be really open to input, show up with your own ideas and contributions, and ultimately just work with the team. Somebody who's highly collaborative is key. The second thing is somebody who has an underlying intensity. And when I say intensity, I don't necessarily mean somebody who's aggressive or extroverted or loud. I mean somebody who's deeply motivated, wants, and needs this to be successful. And most, if not all, of our co-founders are not brash and loud, right? They're measured, they're careful, but they really want it. And they're gonna run through a wall for it. That sort of intensity meshes well with the intensity of the super{set} team and aids the collaboration.

To the second part of your question, what message would I have to potential co-founders? The simple message is, if you're at all interested, talk to us. We love to figure out if it's the right match. Sometimes, it's not, and we'll tell you that. The other thing, which is a longer conversation, is that we have a unique value proposition for co-founders. This is a chance to come in with what I call co-founder impact and co-founder economics. So, you get to put your mark on the company. From a product, cultural, and team-building perspective, you get to dictate where we go. You have meaningful ownership of the company from an economic point of view. And that package of goods compares very favorably to either working in big tech or starting a company in a garage where you don't have the same level of support, or going to a Series A or Series B company where you can contribute but some of the big decisions have already been made. It's a great model to come in and co-found with us. But as I said before, it must be a good fit for both sides. And part of what we do very early on is just trying to figure out, “Hey, do we think this is even going to work? Should we explore these conversations?” And just have a very open and transparent conversation.

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