What a Top VC Looks For After You Fail | Mayfield, Navin Chaddha

Navin Chaddha is the Managing Partner at Mayfield, an early-stage venture firm managing $3 billion. 70% of Mayfield's investments happen at the idea stage, when there's only paper and pencil. No metrics, no market size. He bets on the one thing he can evaluate " the founder". In this conversation, he shares why he walked away from his PhD exam to join a startup, what he learned when his company went public at $1 billion and then collapsed in the dot-com crash, and why he believes you learn the most from failure. He breaks down what he looks for beyond the idea, why he backed Poshmark before it even existed, why AI is a 100x opportunity, and why FOMO is for sheep. 00:00 Intro 01:13 No Risk, No Reward 06:30 Ideas Come and Go 09:38 Run a Marathon, Not a Sprint 12:31 A Land of Endless Possibilities 15:39 FOMO Is for Sheep 18:23 If I Weren't a Founder or a VC... EO is a global media brand for builders. We tell the defining stories of founders shaping the future: people who see what others don’t and build what they believe in. Subscribe to EO: https://www.youtube.com/@eoglobal EO Magazine: https://www.eomag.io Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eostudio.official/ X: https://x.com/eostudi0 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eo-studio EO Studio: https://eo.team/ Business inquiries: partner@eoeoeo.net Build what you believe in.

Navin Chaddhaguest

Oct 3, 202619mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: October 3, 2026
Duration: 19m
Channel: EO Studio
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Navin Chaddha is the Managing Partner at Mayfield, an early-stage venture firm managing $3 billion. 70% of Mayfield's investments happen at the idea stage, when there's only paper and pencil. No metrics, no market size. He bets on the one thing he can evaluate " the founder". In this conversation, he shares why he walked away from his PhD exam to join a startup, what he learned when his company went public at $1 billion and then collapsed in the dot-com crash, and why he believes you learn the most from failure. He breaks down what he looks for beyond the idea, why he backed Poshmark before it even existed, why AI is a 100x opportunity, and why FOMO is for sheep. 00:00 Intro 01:13 No Risk, No Reward 06:30 Ideas Come and Go 09:38 Run a Marathon, Not a Sprint 12:31 A Land of Endless Possibilities 15:39 FOMO Is for Sheep 18:23 If I Weren't a Founder or a VC... EO is a global media brand for builders. We tell the defining stories of founders shaping the future: people who see what others don’t and build what they believe in. Subscribe to EO: https://www.youtube.com/@eoglobal EO Magazine: https://www.eomag.io Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eostudio.official/ X: https://x.com/eostudi0 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eo-studio EO Studio: https://eo.team/ Business inquiries: partner@eoeoeo.net Build what you believe in.

SPEAKERS

Navin Chaddha
guest
Managing Partner at Mayfield, an early-stage venture capital firm (~$3B AUM).

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of EO Studio, featuring Navin Chaddha, What a Top VC Looks For After You Fail | Mayfield, Navin Chaddha explores mayfield’s Navin Chaddha on founder X-rays, AI, and conviction Navin Chaddha explains how Mayfield evaluates founders—often pre-product—by “X-raying” for growth mindset, resilience, team orientation, and aligned values when traditional metrics don’t exist.

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