E29: Insights From the World's Most Active Seed Investor with Antler's Tyler Norwood

Our guest this week is Tyler Norwood, Managing Partner for Antler in the US. Antler is the world’s most active seed investor backing founders at the inception stage from all over. We talked about the impact of vibe coding, the traits that Tyler sees in Antler’s most successful founders, why timing matters, and the value of surrounding yourself with other builders. Please enjoy. 

 

Here are some bullets about today's show:

 

- Antler’s origin story and global footprint: launching in Singapore (2018) and scaling to 27 offices as the world’s most active seed investor
- The Residency model: six‑week, community‑driven program backing founders at “day ‑1” with ~US $500k checks
- U.S. expansion strategy: why New York and Austin came first and San Francisco’s “Death Star” was saved for last (plus Austin’s steep growth curve)
- Founder superpowers—aspiration + agency: how Tyler tests for them (the “strange hobby” question) and why timing‑misaligned founders struggle
- Vibe coding and generative‑AI tooling: 95 % AI‑generated codebases, faster product‑market‑fit loops, robustness can wait
- Operator‑to‑investor realities: the hard math of a first 2 & 20 fund, living on fees for ~12 years, and why VC isn’t a quick win
- Myth‑busting: the “ideas don’t matter” fallacy and the case for rigorous idea selection / founder‑market fit
- Advice for aspiring VCs and founders: patient idea formation, exposing yourself to diverse problems, and how to connect with Antler

 

Investing in Startups is hosted by Joe Magyer and produced by Seaplane Ventures.