
Founders Unplugged · 2025-07-16 · 31 min
What does founder-friendly VC look like in practice? In Part 2 of our conversation with Kealan Doyle and Michael Theodosiou from Symvan Capital, we explore how they scale their portfolio without sacrificing personal support - and why their long-term, lifecycle approach to venture capital is built for both performance and relationships. We dig into exit strategy, failure rates, the broken early-stage funding landscape, and why hands-on VCs are rare but essential. Plus: Why most founders fail at sales (and what to do about it) How to avoid hiring the wrong first salesperson ️ The startup-to-film analogy that will reframe how you think about building How Symvan plans to scale without becoming just another big fund And why 80% failure rates at some funds are not just bad luck If you're raising at pre-seed or seed, managing an early-stage fund, or just trying to make sense of today’s VC market - this episode is a must-watch. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro - What’s next for Symvan Capital?