Small businesses represent nearly half of all American jobs and 45% of all technology spend, yet less than 5% of venture capital goes to building technology for them.

In this episode, Tim Metzner joins us to share how Fireroad, his Cincinnati-based early-stage venture firm, is betting that AI is changing that math. A serial entrepreneur who co-founded Coterie Insurance ($70M+ raised) and Differential (the studio behind Cincinnati's first unicorn, Astronomer), Tim returns to the show four years after his Episode 190 appearance with an entirely new chapter.

We dig into the "silver tsunami" of retiring business owners with no succession plan, why Fireroad targets AI-resistant categories where technology supercharges rather than replaces, the flywheel of having business owners as LPs who become his founders' first customers, and why Tim believes staying small as a fund is the alpha most VCs are missing.

Hosted by Logan Jones

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