The Firm That Bets on Collisions
Most venture firms are built around a fund. Collide Capital is built around a firm — one designed to outlast any single vehicle, any single cycle, and any single founder. Brian and Aaron believe the best investments sit at collisions: intersections of background, ecosystem, and community that most funds never reach because they never bothered to embed themselves there. Their edge isn't capital — it's presence. And presence, built over twenty years in this industry, is the one thing AI can't compress.
Guest
Aaron Samuels
investor
Founder and Managing Partner of Collide Capital. Co-founder and former COO of Blavity and AfroTech. Began as a spoken word artist, then Bain & Co. strategy consultant and TeleSign product manager. Stanford GSB MBA (Arbuckle Leadership Fellow); Washington University in St. Louis, magna cum laude. Cave Canem fellow and author of two poetry collections.
Guest
Brian Hollins
investor
Co-founder of Collide Capital. Spent 6.5 years at Goldman Sachs across Investment Management, Investment Banking, and GS Growth Equity; founding board member of BLCK VC.
AARON SAMUELS: We probably sent a thousand cold emails that nobody responded to. People see the shots you took that went in — they don't always see the ones that were wild misses.
BRIAN HOLLINS: Most products and founders are just not ready for Goldman — the level of diligence they don't really know until you get exposed to it. So sometimes I'll just be honest with founders and say: you're not ready yet.
To Research
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