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Venture Trailblazers: Charles Hudson

The first-check investor behind 375+ companies joins Adeo Ressi live on October 1

Some investors wait for proof. Charles Hudson built a firm on going first.
On October 1, 2026, Charles Hudson, Founder and Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures, joins Adeo Ressi live for the next edition of Venture Trailblazers, the VC Lab series that brings the world's most influential investors into an open conversation with our global community of fund managers, founders, and LPs.
RSVP for free here: https://fi.co/e/403116
The Investor Who Says Yes First
Most of venture capital is built on social proof. Who else is in the round, what the metrics say, which firm led the last check. Charles Hudson has spent a decade doing the opposite: writing the very first institutional check, at pre-seed, into founders nobody has heard of yet.
He's now done it more than 375 times.
Precursor Ventures manages over $175M across five funds, built entirely on that first-check thesis. Its portfolio includes an early check into The Athletic, the sports media company The New York Times acquired for $525M.
Like a lot of our community, Charles raised his first fund as a solo GP, without the conventional track record most LPs ask for. He built conviction in himself the same way he builds conviction in founders, before the data arrived. He went on to serve as the 2023-2024 Chair of the NVCA Board of Directors.
What We'll Cover
Adeo will take Charles deep on the questions every early-stage investor and emerging manager is wrestling with:
  1. How he builds conviction in a founder when there's no traction, no metrics, and no social proof
  2. What he actually looks for before writing an institutional first check
  3. Lessons from a portfolio of 375+ companies, including the wins that looked like mistakes at the time
  4. The story of backing The Athletic before the market believed in it
  5. His honest advice for emerging managers raising and closing their first funds today
Community members are already submitting questions, and Adeo will bring the best of them into the conversation live.
Who Should Attend
This session is for anyone building at the earliest stage of venture:
  • Emerging fund managers raising Fund I and learning to build conviction without a portfolio to point to
  • Angels and VCs who want to sharpen their early-stage sourcing and evaluation
  • Founders raising pre-seed and seed rounds who want to understand how a first-check investor actually decides
  • Ecosystem leaders and LPs studying how the next generation of great firms gets built
Event Details
  • What: Venture Trailblazers featuring Charles Hudson
  • When: Thursday, October 1, 2026, 8:00 to 9:00 AM PT
  • Where: Online, free, open to all
  • RSVP: https://fi.co/e/403116
About Venture Trailblazers
Venture Trailblazers is VC Lab's flagship speaker series, hosted by Adeo Ressi, CEO of Decile Group. Past guests include Tim Draper, founder of Draper Associates and DFJ, and Andrew D'Souza, founder of Boardy. Each session is a candid, unscripted conversation with an investor who changed how venture works, followed by live questions from the community.
About VC Lab
VC Lab is the world's leading venture capital accelerator, helping launch over 950 VC firms with more than $1.5B in LP commitments. Through free, structured programs, VC Lab guides emerging managers from thesis to first close to deployed fund. Learn more and apply at https://fi.co/apply/vc

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