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Bilal Zuberi

@bznotes.bsky.social
486 followers 39 following 200 posts

GP at Lux Capital. Applied Intuition, Ironclad, Evolv, Openspace, Nozomi Networks, Nominal, Lumafield, Saildrone, Commure + more. Ex General Catalyst, MIT PhD. 🇺🇸🇵🇰

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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
~1/3 of the companies just want to solve int’g problems. And want to be given $$ to solve those problems for their customers. But have to sell AI in their pitch. Their body language is that of a Pakistani-American introducing themselves as “Indian” since it’s better understood :-)
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
As a former founder… VCs should be VERY judicious in calling themselves cofounders of companies they early invest in. Sometimes it is justified. Most times it is not. Let real cofounders have that glory. Don’t force yourself into that title just because many can’t say no.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
I now get deal flow messages that start with: “Uncle Bilal, …” 🤣
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Saw this today... As we now know, in the long term, the tractor takes over 🙂
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Tech has some great people. People who are not racist. People who are not sexist. People who are not hateful People who inspire positivity. People who are pro-peace. People who are pro-immigrants. People who are pro-American values. Intention: partner and work with them.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Spent day with family at a local amusement park. People of all sorts of races, color, religions, ethnicities and even nationalities…proudly wearing red, white and blue. Such a great country 🇺🇸, esp when we hold up its values and embrace our diversity.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
I say this as a defensetech investor. People should never joke about war and death. It is shameful. War is human failing. Not success.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
US has no idea what is going on in terms of technology in China. We better get our act together real fast. Every founder I know that competes with China, and spends any time there in person, is concerned. We need to Disrupt and Transform every single industry…because we are falling behind.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
A LOT of college (and high school) students could not land an internship this summer. Or had offers pulled. This seems to be the case across majors, including hard sciences. Some of these need summer jobs to pay for college. Others want experience. This is a loss for us all.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Red Glass focuses at the intersection of AI and the physical world. Industrial companies in the physical world are experiencing a boost thanks to AI. Check out: “AI boom adds €150bn to value of four of Europe’s oldest industrial groups” www.ft.com/content/c0f3...
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
The economic change, growth, and focus on long term development happening in the Middle East, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia Arabia 🇸🇦, UAE 🇦🇪, Qatar 🇶🇦, Kuwait 🇰🇼, is really impressive. And increasingly teams are built with local and regional talent!
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
No child should die of hunger. Each of us should do what we can to make that a reality. 🤍🕊️
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Charlie Lieber is a deep expert in nanotechnology/materials. “Harvard’s former chemistry chair takes new position at Chinese university” www.chemistryworld.com/news/harvard...
chemistryworld.com
Harvard’s former chemistry chair takes new position at Chinese university
Charles Lieber, the nanoscience pioneer convicted for not disclosing his ties to China, has just joined Tsinghua University
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
There are some incredibly ambitious new funds emerging from the Middle East to capitalize on the AI revolution. AI is a global phenomenon, and founders should feel so fortunate that capital is forming to support their journeys towards transforming major industries.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
12 years of coming to Board meetings for Evolv Technology. Still feels like Day One for using advanced physics in hardware coupled with ML and AI to save lives from gun epidemic and terrorism.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
Beautiful sunny day in the park. My Muslim Pakistani-Palestinian-American kids are playing holi with their Hindu and non-Hindu friends from India and from all around the world. And a small group is playing live Celtic music in the background. America is a beautiful place! 🇺🇸
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
RED - Passion, Courage GLASS - Transparency, Clarity Glass is also molded in fire, like founders. And sometimes glass turns out to be crystalline, even a diamond. Four core values: Curiosity, Intensity, Integrity, Humility
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Hearing from some alumni of US colleges and universities that they are not planning to return for reunions given fear of intimidation by our immigration services. You think these people will want to donate to our colleges and universities? 😔
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Integrity is having strong moral principles and doing what is right when no one is watching, and in fact even more so, how one behaves in the face of adversity. Not doing what may be popular or results in short term benefit. Build integrity. It takes work and effort.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Told a founder to ignore the noise, stay heads down, and keep building…you know, the typical VC advice in difficult times. He texted back: “Bro, wtf you talking about. This is what we are dealing with.”
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Eggs and Stocks are now cheaper.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
Eid Mubarak from our family to yours. Praying for peace, justice, hope, love in this world! 🤲🏼🤍🕊️
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Community celebrating Ramadan and breaking fast with Congressman Ro Khanna. Discussing the need to defend core American values like free speech and other civil liberties, and protect necessary support systems like healthcare, social security etc.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Just got invited to a Signal group chat. And now I am not sure if I should accept it. These clowns should have used WhatsApp so even Zuck would be in on all the discussions.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
A nice primer on EDGE AI by portfolio company ZEDEDA. AI Is Coming to the Edge, but It Will Look Different thenewstack.io/ai-is-coming...
thenewstack.io
AI Is Coming to the Edge, but It Will Look Different
AI at the edge is redefining how businesses process data. Learn how it works, its benefits over cloud AI and which industries stand to gain the most.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Doing the last Middle School parent-teacher conference for my kid. It is hard not to get emotional. Graduations aren't just rituals. They mark end points, but are also starting lines for the journey ahead. Its amazing to see kids gain confidence and come into their own.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
People love to hate on LinkedIn. It has its bad moments, but these days it’s one of the more useful and sane social networks in the world.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Where we learned we could do good in the world!
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Starting to hear from CEOs that uncertain economic environment (and impact of tariffs etc) is showing up in financials. ➕fewer POCs ➕longer sales cycles ➕tighter budgets ➕deferrals in capex budgets ➕churn on teams means loss of internal champions Tighten belts!
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Reminded today how amazing are founders who are working their tails off every day, enduring all the stress, and simultaneously trying to be good spouses, parents, children, and friends etc. It takes blood, sweat, and tears to build.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Small decisions make a massive difference. Y-Combinator emerged out of identifying a need, and realizing that the product that was offered in the market was simply not very good. Rings so true. ✍️ paulgraham.com/ycstart.html
paulgraham.com
How Y Combinator Started
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
We cannot allow collective punishment, and State-sponsored terrorism, to be normalized. Americans are not OK with this. No matter where it happens. Recent episode being Syria! 💔🤍🕊️
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
If there ever was an opportunity for Europe 🇪🇺🇬🇧to wake up, reorganize, modernize, and run towards re-industrialization, digitization, defense, energy, and other aspects of tech innovation to wield global influence (and economic benefits) this would be it. Golden years ahead?
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
First question that comes up whenever VCs discuss AI companies among themselves: how sticky are their revenues and is there any moat, like data etc? And the answer is often: Well, not really. But maybe they are building enterprise sales motion and compliance/security etc.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Its Ramadan and I have been fasting. Back to back Zooms, where you are doing a lot of talking, generate another level of thirstiness and dry mouth/throat situations. Just saying a prayer when that happens and powering through!
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Rest in peace, Skype! Thank you till eternity for allowing my parents and siblings and I to be able to connect with each other on video for free. It changed our worlds! 🙏🏽
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Beautiful day in SF. ☀️ Especially to hear Arab-American founders building incredible tech startups in AI. Nice to see many Persian-Americans and Desi-Americans supporting them.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced. — Aldous Huxley
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
“We are fighting for the SOUL of technology”
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
We are living in a timeline where there are suddenly 5-10 humanoid startups mostly because VCs seem willing to fund them. If that is the case for technically complex robotics, how many chatbot-y startups are there in every AI sector. These will be Hunger Games.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
I remember when a16z instituted $10/minute fine for investors being late to a meeting. I wish physicians’ offices would institute something like that. It seems completely normal to them to run 30-60 minutes late.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Going to the UPFRONT Summit next week. Looking forward to meeting old friends, and making new ones. Kudos to the team for making this such a great event every year.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
There is a founder I first wanted to invest in ~11 years ago but couldn't. We became friends and would often chat about his business and the VC world. He became incredibly successful over those years. When he wanted to start a new company he called and I became first/lead investor. More tomorrow.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Airlines are having a hard time in 2025. For the first time I am thinking if “get on a plane” is the best advice to give to yourself or to others.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
There is a soap opera playing out on Twitter (also seems like a new one every day). One could say who cares. But maybe we should? Do we care for things like morality, ethics, rule of law? Almost feels like it matters less, at least for some people. It’s a yuck feeling.
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Guys, pay attention!
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Bilal Zuberi @bznotes.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
This truly separates FOUNDERS from everyone else. Great entrepreneurs can do all three simultaneously.
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