Leo Polovets is a venture capital investor at Susa Ventures who was the second engineering hire at LinkedIn (joining when the company had ~12 people) and built early core products like Jobs and Groups before working on payments fraud at Google and big data infrastructure at Factual. He's known as the "Coding VC" for his engineering-style approach to venture capital, publishing detailed frameworks on his blog and systematically evaluating startups as "bundles of risks" that founders should de-risk rather than just chasing growth metrics.

• Strong conviction in deep tech, hardware, and the reindustrialization of physical infrastructure. Frequently highlights investments in sectors that involve building tangible things rather than just software, such as nuclear energy startups like Antares Nuclear, space technology firms like Northwood Space, and lithium enrichment companies.
• Valuation of high-velocity execution and tangible progress in founders. Appreciates teams that can achieve significant milestones rapidly, such as a nuclear startup securing fuel and government contracts within two years, or an ag-tech founder deploying hardware cameras to farms months before a seed round.
• Interest in robotics and automation that solve physical labor or logistics problems. Actively invests in and discusses humanoid robots, automated storage and retrieval systems for heavy packages, and ultralight drones that can drastically reduce delivery costs.
• Emphasis on founder "hyper-fluency" and deep operational involvement. Looks for entrepreneurs who understand every aspect of their business, from hardware and software to customer needs, citing a specific example of a founder who relocated their entire team to Washington state to be closer to their agricultural customers.
• Willingness to break traditional investment rules for exceptional founders and visions. Admitted to ignoring his own firm's restrictions regarding geography and sector—specifically avoiding non-US companies and small drones—to invest in an Indian ultralight drone delivery startup because the founder's vision was too impressive to pass up.
• Support for founder mental health and sustainable company building. Advises entrepreneurs to avoid burnout, emphasizing that investors need outliers rather than founders who destroy themselves for marginal returns, and encourages cutting off poorly performing initiatives early to save resources.
• Focus on energy innovation and resilience. repeatedly shares enthusiasm for advancements in the energy sector, including geothermal power plants and the rapid emergence of new nuclear technology startups participating in Department of Energy programs.