Why We Invest in Teams: From Hype to You Too
Why great venture investments start with teams, not products. Using U2’s early years, we show why early-stage VCs back people who can evolve, pivot, and compound long before the product is finished.
David Thyresson (DT)
Cofounder & General Partner
A. David Thyresson (DT) is an accomplished entrepreneur, technologist, and investor with a history of building successful technology ventures and delivering exceptional returns. He co-founded Entessa, which developed an Order to Cash platform for midstream energy companies such as Chevron, Valero, and Plains All American, achieving a 6x return with its acquisition by Energy Solutions International in 2010.
DT also co-founded Spogo, a real-time sports prediction platform acquired by NTN Buzztime in 2015, and served as CTO of Sports Innovation Lab (acquired by Genius Sports), where he built market intelligence platforms for global sports brands and leagues. He negotiated one of the first enterprise contracts with Netlify and influenced their early product development. As a core contributor to the open-source RedwoodJS framework, DT led GraphQL and authentication initiatives, further cementing his technical expertise.
At PWV, DT drives technical due diligence, portfolio advisory, and the development of internal tools and infrastructure to scale the firm’s operations. His experience in creating scalable solutions and his ability to bridge technical innovation with strategic value make him a critical asset to both PWV and its portfolio companies.
Articles by David Thyresson (DT)
The Real Genius of AI Investing: Why Venture Capital Isn’t a 1980s Frito-Lay Sweepstakes
AI investing isn’t Lazlo’s Real Genius sweepstakes machine. VC isn’t closed, founders choose, and even infinite capital can’t guarantee outcomes. The real genius of AI investing is judgment, timing, and knowing when not to invest.
From Riff to Rooftop: Why I Invest at PWV
Inspired by the Get Back documentary: why investing means being truly invested: giving founders space to create, stepping in at the right moments, and building alongside people who turn ideas into lasting products.
Queue the Job
Investing in Inngest was my first opportunity at PWV, and it highlighted how far developer experience for jobs and queues has come—from brittle Sidekiq runners and missing JAMstack features to elegant, one-line functions. Just as Inngest orchestrates async tasks, venture capital orchestrates deal flow: success depends on queuing the right work, trusting the system, and watching it complete.
The Startup Multiverse: Why Five Years Reveals the Winning Branch
GitHub Co-Founder Tom Preston-Werner on the 5-year rule, pivots, and finding the winning branch in the startup multiverse.
Everywhere, Somewhere, Here: Intelligence in the Place
From foundation models to agents to embodied intelligence, AI is unfolding from everywhere to here.
Seeing the Big Picture
From tldraw experiments to FAL's $125M Series C and $140M Series D, how sketches turned into billion-dollar infrastructure for generative media.
Update: Startups as a Band / Startups as a Service
In my prior post, I failed to consider the quartet as a startup as a band model.
Are Dreams Just Next-Token Prediction?
Rethinking Inspiration and Creativity in the Age of Generative AI
From Atoms to Agents
Why PWV invests in the technology, tools, and infrastructure that makes AI possible
Startups as a Band / Startups as a Service
Exploring how startups mirror band dynamics and proposing a 'Startup as a Service' model to provide essential resources for growth.