EP 91 — IceNine's Jeff Crusey on the SaaS Playbook Mismatch That Takes Hard Tech Companies off the Rails
Jeff Crusey, General Partner at IceNine, has watched the same failure mode repeat across energy, defense, and deep tech: investors who don't understand the technology gain large ownership stakes and take companies off the rails. That pattern is what pushed him to launch IceNine, an early-stage venture firm built around first-principle technical depth and embedded government networks rather than a SaaS growth playbook.
Jeff breaks down what he actually underwrites before a product exists, why he tells every founder to start lobbying and appropriations on day one,and why compliance isn't an…
The skinny
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