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David Hornik

Partner at August Capital, August Capital

Search every verified David Hornik interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. David Hornik, founding partner of Lobby Capital and former general partner at August Capital, appeared on the VC 10X podcast on January 25, 2025. He discussed his firm's concentrated, conviction-driven investment approach, noting that he reviews about a thousand companies annually and that being valuation-insensitive across all of them would be unsustainable. Hornik described his preference for funding entrepreneurs who are "obsessed with the problem they're solving" regardless of their background, citing his early investment in WePay as an example of backing unconventional founders with no prior domain expertise. Hornik also shared his view that "empowering humans is going to be a big opportunity" amid the current AI cycle, arguing that roles such as elder care, mental health care, and physicians will remain important. He reflected on the late blogger Om Malik as an inspiration and indicated he may return to blogging and podcasting through platforms like venturblog.com and Venturecast.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“I look at a thousand companies a year. And so if I were to be valuation insensitive across every company I encounter and then I get it wrong nine times out of ten, there's zero chance that that tenth is going to make up the difference. And the likelihood that that tenth is a trillion dollar company approaches zero. It's more likely, as has been the case for me, a multi-billion dollar company.”

“I turned down the Series A investment of Facebook because I thought the price was too high; it was a $100 million valuation and the company went public at $100 billion.”

“We helped prepare the CEO to make sure that Ticketmaster could continue to overcharge you and unfortunately for you I was very good at that job and so Ticketmaster has overcharged you for decades since.”

“For the 25 years I've been a VC, my life has been about relationships. I do not believe in a world that is about transactions.”

“You can no longer sell on just promise; the seed rounds are promise. The most important thing you can do is prove that the thing you thought was true is true.”

“The people who think that this is a transaction business — that the job of venture is about finding and doing deals — are wrong. This turns out to be a relationship business: it's about meeting amazing people and figuring out how you can help them hire amazing people and build products that get sold to people you know.”

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