Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 16 hours ago
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Jeff Clavier, the Founding Partner at Uncork Capital, a seed-stage venture firm in Palo Alto and San Francisco. Clavier founded Uncork Capital in 2004 (then called SoftTech VC) to provide active support and capital for companies in their first 18 months of life. Jeff has helped numerous companies reach successful outcomes, including Fitbit (NYSE: FIT), SendGrid (NYSE: SEND, Twilio), Eventbrite (NYSE: EB), Postmates (Uber), and Poshmark (NASDAQ: POSH). His current investments include ClassDojo, DroneDeploy, Shippo, Front, Loft Orbital, and Carrot Fertility.
Jeff was born in France and graduated from Université Paris Descartes with an M.S. in Computer Science. He was formerly the CTO and an early employee at Effix, a fintech startup that sold to Reuters. In 2000, he immigrated to the U.S. and joined RVC, Reuters’ $450 million corporate venture capital fund, as a general partner. He recently wrapped up his four-year term on the board of the National Venture Capital Association.
One of the early VC bloggers in 2004, Jeff is now a popular conference speaker and social media/TV commentator. When he is not spending time with Uncork’s portfolio companies, Jeff enjoys traveling, skiing, hiking, scuba diving, collecting wine, and hanging out with friends and family.
Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts!
KEY TOPICS
00:00 - Intro
03:52 - Is Seed Investing Just “VC Tourism”?
06:08 - Why Being a “VC Lifer” Matters
08:35 - How Uncork Wins 91% of its Term Sheets
11:59 - GP Fundraising is Harder Than Startup Fundraising
14:15 - Capital Bottleneck in Private Markets
16:38 - Now it Takes 15 Years to Prove You’re a Good VC
20:46 - The Real Choke Point in Venture Isn’t Seed
26:13 - The “Three Asses” Rule
29:00 - Gut Feel vs. Process
32:54 - Passing on LinkedIn and Uber
37:45 - How Do You Know if You’re Actually Good at Venture?
41:19 - Succession Planning: Stepping Back After 21 Years
46:09 - Uncork Can’t Depend on One Person
47:05 - From Venture to Winemaking
52:15 - Go Narrow First
RESOURCES
Follow Jeff on X - https://x.com/jeff
Learn more about Uncork Capital - uncorkcapital.com
Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested
Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc
Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@aleph-vc
Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg
Follow Michael on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg
Follow Aleph on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg
Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc
Follow Aleph on Instagram: instagram.com/aleph.vc
CREDITS
Executive Producer: Erica Marom
Producer: Myron Shneider, Sofi Levak
Video and Editing: Ron Baranov
Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar
Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring
Design: Rony Karadi
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Jeff Clavier, the Founding Partner at Uncork Capital, a seed-stage venture firm in Palo Alto and San Francisco. Clavier founded Uncork Capital in 2004 (then called SoftTech VC) to provide active support and capital for companies in their first 18 months of life. Jeff has helped numerous companies reach successful outcomes, including Fitbit (NYSE: FIT), SendGrid (NYSE: SEND, Twilio), Eventbrite (NYSE: EB), Postmates (Uber), and Poshmark (NASDAQ: POSH). His current investments include ClassDojo, DroneDeploy, Shippo, Front, Loft Orbital, and Carrot Fertility.
Jeff was born in France and graduated from Université Paris Descartes with an M.S. in Computer Science. He was formerly the CTO and an early employee at Effix, a fintech startup that sold to Reuters. In 2000, he immigrated to the U.S. and joined RVC, Reuters’ $450 million corporate venture capital fund, as a general partner. He recently wrapped up his four-year term on the board of the National Venture Capital Association.
One of the early VC bloggers in 2004, Jeff is now a popular conference speaker and social media/TV commentator. When he is not spending time with Uncork’s portfolio companies, Jeff enjoys traveling, skiing, hiking, scuba diving, collecting wine, and hanging out with friends and family.
Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts!
KEY TOPICS
00:00 - Intro
03:52 - Is Seed Investing Just “VC Tourism”?
06:08 - Why Being a “VC Lifer” Matters
08:35 - How Uncork Wins 91% of its Term Sheets
11:59 - GP Fundraising is Harder Than Startup Fundraising
14:15 - Capital Bottleneck in Private Markets
16:38 - Now it Takes 15 Years to Prove You’re a Good VC
20:46 - The Real Choke Point in Venture Isn’t Seed
26:13 - The “Three Asses” Rule
29:00 - Gut Feel vs. Process
32:54 - Passing on LinkedIn and Uber
37:45 - How Do You Know if You’re Actually Good at Venture?
41:19 - Succession Planning: Stepping Back After 21 Years
46:09 - Uncork Can’t Depend on One Person
47:05 - From Venture to Winemaking
52:15 - Go Narrow First
RESOURCES
Follow Jeff on X - https://x.com/jeff
Learn more about Uncork Capital - uncorkcapital.com
Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested
Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc
Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@aleph-vc
Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg
Follow Michael on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg
Follow Aleph on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg
Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc
Follow Aleph on Instagram: instagram.com/aleph.vc
CREDITS
Executive Producer: Erica Marom
Producer: Myron Shneider, Sofi Levak
Video and Editing: Ron Baranov
Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar
Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring
Design: Rony Karadi
