Thoughtful Capital. Extraordinary Founders.
A PWV gathering featuring candid conversations with founders and investors including Topher Conway, Mary D'Onofrio, David Price, Scott Johnston, Johannes Landgraf, and Tom Preston-Werner. They discussed funding, setbacks, operational realities, and the key lesson: address your metaphorical junk drawer early.
Written by Jennifer Tacheff • 3 min read
Thoughtful Capital. Extraordinary Founders. A PWV Gathering That Moved the Community Forward.
At our recent gathering at PWV Headquarters, a remarkable group of founders and investors came together to get candid about building: the funding landscape, the setbacks that shape you, and the operational realities that make or break momentum.
It was a room full of people who’ve lived it and were willing to share what they’ve learned.
We opened the event with a candid conversation between:
- Topher Conway (Managing Partner, SV Angel)
- Mary D’Onofrio (Partner, Crosslink Capital)
- David S. Price (General Partner, PWV)
Together, they unpacked the state of the market, how capital deployment has shifted, and what’s actually working for founders raising today.
A few themes that resonated across the room:
- Smart capital is becoming more discerning, not more distant.
- Strong founders are learning to tell clearer stories, backed by real metrics and momentum.
- Market cycles matter less when your fundamentals are sound.
Next, we shifted to a candid honest Founder Sessions panel with:
- Scott Johnston (Former CEO, Docker)
- Johannes Landgraf (Co-Founder & CEO, Ona / formerly Gitpod)
- Tom Preston-Werner (Co-Founder, GitHub & General Partner, PWV)
This panel cut through the shiny narratives and focused on what actually happens behind the scenes. Many of the success stories we admire were shaped by failures, pivots, and hard lessons. We got into it.
One message that rose to the top: “Address your metaphorical junk drawer so it doesn’t own you.”
Every founder has one: the things we don’t want to face and will kick down the road to address. From messy systems, bad hires, leadership problems, and small-but-growing fires that silently can erode the foundation of the company. The tldr; tackle your issues early, honestly, and consistently. It’s not glamorous, but it’s often what separates the companies that scale from the ones that stall.
Once the panels wrapped, the dinner conversations went even deeper: hiring challenges, product direction, AI architectures, revenue friction, and the pivots that nearly broke companies before they made them better.
The photos say it all.
This gathering is one of many across the 8 founder events we’re hosting this season as part of our commitment to building a community that goes far beyond capital.
If you were there, thank you.
If you weren’t, we hope to see you at the next one.