Hard tech is hard. Funding hard tech is even harder. Andrew Haughian has the answer, and it's not what you think.

Andrew is a Partner at Pangaea Ventures, a hard tech focused VC fund with nearly 30 CVCs as limited partners. He's an engineer turned investor who has spent years sitting at the intersection of corporate innovation and early stage hard tech, working closely with companies like Aspect Biosystems, CarbonCure Technologies, Prime Roots, and others navigating the long, complex road from lab to market.

In this episode, Ravi Belani, CEO and Founder of Alchemist Accelerator, digs into the playbook that separates fundable hard tech companies from glorified research projects, and why CVCs are more critical to hard tech than almost any other sector.

They get into:

• Why hard tech founders absolutely need CVCs, and how to build those relationships the right way

• The real timeline for landing a CVC investment (hint: it's not months, it's years)

• How one founder is closing a CVC-led Series A, and exactly what they did differently

• What POs, LOIs, and MOUs actually signal to investors, and which ones are worth the paper they're written on

• The "option value trap": why customer enthusiasm doesn't always mean skin in the game

• How to go from 1 customer to 10 to 100, and what great founders know about that path that others don't

• Why CVCs keep churning talent, and what the best ones are doing to fix it

• The singles and doubles strategy for new CVCs trying to prove their value internally

This one is for hard tech founders, CVC leaders, and anyone trying to understand how corporate innovation actually works from the inside out.

🔔 Subscribe for more Alchemist Influencer Series episodes 🌐 Learn more at alchemistaccelerator.com

Most VCs will tell you to stay away from Corporate Venture Capital. Angelo Del Priore is here to tell you why they're wrong.

Angelo is the Founding Managing Director of HP Tech Ventures, one of the most active CVCs in the game. He's led and followed investments in AI, edge compute, and the future of work, and he's sat on boards alongside companies that have exited to Google, Oracle, and Unity. Before all of that, he consulted for Apple, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, and Sony, so he's seen this world from every angle.

In this episode, Ravi Belani, CEO and Founder of Alchemist Accelerator, pushes back hard, and Angelo pushes back harder.

They get into:

Why CVC money can actually be smarter money than a traditional fund

The no-BS truth about when CVCs follow vs. when they lead

How having HP, Intel, or Samsung on your cap table signals something no pitch deck can

Why CVCs rarely take board seats, and why that's a bigger deal than founders realize

The one mistake founders make that wastes everyone's time (free pilots)

How great founders actually use their CVC investors vs. how most founders ghost them

The pre-seed warning: why bringing in a CVC too early can quietly kill you

This is not a CVC sales pitch. It's a real, honest debate between two people who've been on both sides of the table, and it'll change how you think about building your cap table.

🔔 Subscribe for more Alchemist Influencer Series episodes 🌐 Learn more at alchemistaccelerator.com

Corporate venture capital has evolved.

In this episode of the Influencer Series Fireside Chat, Ravi Belani sits down with Jay Eum, Founding Managing Director of GFT Ventures and one of the few investors who has helped build three venture initiatives, including Samsung Ventures and TransLink Capital.

They explore how CVC has moved from slow, strategically entangled “dumb money” to independent, performance-driven CVC 3.0 models. Jay breaks down what makes corporate venture capital successful today, how reputation shapes access to deal flow, and why some CVCs create real strategic leverage while others struggle.

They also dive into hard tech fundraising:

• When founders should approach CVCs

• Why proof of concept matters before engaging strategics

• How to avoid getting burned in capital-intensive industries

• Why reputation is everything in tight venture ecosystems

• How to think about leverage when you only have a few possible partners

Plus, Jay shares his perspective on today’s AI revenue explosion and what founders should focus on during this unprecedented market cycle.

If you’re a hard tech founder, enterprise startup, or emerging fund manager, this conversation is essential.