The pioneer Sarah Smith, the creator of the well-known Sarah Smith Fund, just announced the Fund I final total—a stunning $16 million!

Back in 2022, Smith bid adieu to Bain Capital Ventures after being their investor for seven long, successful years to start her own venture. A solo rider, she's genuinely amazed at the potential AI possesses, especially for standalone firms like hers. "The future of venture capital, for me, is unequivocally AI-powered. It's hard to envision doing venture capital the older way," she describes, further asserting that the initial stages of investments are best executed independently.

Sarah relishes the thrill of making swift executive decisions without waiting for a committee's green signal. She astutely leverages AI to navigate her venture journey.

"I'm always brimming with ideas on how I can bolster my founders by utilizing my skill set, personal connections, and, of course, artificial intelligence," she passionately shared. She explained by providing a recent instance where she led a value articulation project for a founder. The AI assist dramatically reduced her work time from the lengthy 20 hours to a mere two to three.

"When you have an AI-savvy company that can deliver 10 folds value in 1/10th of the average time, scaling a large portfolio singlehandedly becomes achievable," Sarah confidently declared.

Prior to this, she managed a $3 million rolling fund and spent an industrious year raising Fund I. With a vision of investing in 50 companies, Fund I has already financed 17, each funding averaging $250,000. Popular businesses like Ulu Ventures, Verdis Investment Management, and Pear VC are trusted partners for Fund I.

Sarah has a soft spot for startups emerging from the Stanford ecosystem; the revered university's alumna. Backed by research conducted at her alma mater, she's doubling down on the Stanford campus despite the historic Sand Hill firms marking their territory in SF, a 45-minute drive away.

"In terms of spawning unicorns and generating exit values, no other university stands a chance against Stanford," she claims, citing the study by Ilya Strebulaev which reveals that 11% of unicorn founders are Stanford affiliates.