Venture Trailblazers featuring Charles Hudson
Venture Trailblazers is an exclusive event series that connects leading investors, founders, and ecosystem leaders from across the globe to discuss the latest trends in startups and venture capital. For this edition, we are honored to welcome Charles Hudson, Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures and one of the most respected voices in early-stage investing. The goal of Venture Trailblazers is to educate and connect founders, leaders, mentors, and investors across the global Founder Institute, VC Lab, and FI Venture Networks. Charles Hudson joins Adeo Ressi for the next edition of Venture Trailblazers. ❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/e/403116/meetup to get your link and join us live! Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture firm focused on writing the first institutional check for the most promising software and hardware companies. Under his leadership, Precursor has raised four funds and manages more than $200 million. He has invested in over 375 companies and backed more than 400 founders, including the teams behind Clearco, Juniper Square, The Athletic (acquired by The New York Times for $525 million in 2022), Incredible Health, Carrot, and Pair Eyewear. Before founding Precursor, Charles was a Partner at Uncork Capital and the Co-Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games. He holds an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Stanford University. A committed champion of the venture community, Charles served as the 2023–2024 Chair of the NVCA Board of Directors, mentors emerging managers, and sits on the San Francisco Opera Advisory Board. ❯ What We'll Cover: Charles's path into venture and the philosophy behind backing founders at the earliest, riskiest stage What he looks for when writing the first institutional check, often before the data exists Lessons from a portfolio of 375+ companies, including standouts like The Athletic and Juniper Square How he thinks about conv