Good day. I recently talked with partners at multistage venture investor Friends & Family Capital about, among other things, why they don’t seek board seats at their portfolio companies. It was a lively discussion, so we are making it our reader question this week. 

Colin Anderson, founding partner at Menlo Park-based Friends & Family and former Palantir CFO, explained the firm’s view in a follow-up email:

"Today, founders understand that board structure is not about representation. It is about control. That shift has changed the practical value of a board seat. Today, many founder-friendly companies are structured so founders maintain mathematical control regardless of whether investors hold seats."

For some investors, Anderson says board seats remain important for governance expectations or LP optics but that in practice many seats no longer carry decisive control. He draws a distinction between the hard power of formal authority that boards traditionally have had and the soft power of relationships with founders:

"Soft power is often more important. The most valuable investors are frequently the ones founders call before a board meeting, not during the vote. The better approach is simply to be founder-friendly, focus on helping founders build, and not optimize around the ability to remove them when things go wrong."

What’s your view? Should venture backers seek board seats? Does a board role risk putting investors at odds with founders over unpopular board actions? Please email vcnews@wsj.com.

Last week, we asked what priorities or changes you would like to see from the next FDA commissioner. Here are your responses, edited for length and clarity:

• Mary Minno, founding partner at Treehub: “If it takes even a year for an AI approach to be approved, it will already be out of date. This could be done quickly—in many instances, it’s all software based. For instance, we could create standardized benchmarks on real patient data *with no data leakage* for the performance of these new AI methods. That should be part of what the FDA does in partnership with academic researchers. It’s critical that we improve these regulatory pathways so technology can get into the hands of patients sooner.”
   
• Lee Cooper, managing director at Delos Capital: "The U.S. ecosystem for bioinnovation would benefit from an FDA commissioner whose communication style projects a steady hand that can retain top talent and rebuild lost trust. I would want his or her focus to be on building and pulling levers that incentivize and accelerate the types of truly innovative medicines that have set American innovation apart from the rest of the world. FDA has many jobs, but above all it ought to be synonymous with bringing safe, effective medicines to the biggest medical needs impacting society."

Note to readers: VC Daily won't be published Monday in observance of Memorial Day in the U.S. We will be back Tuesday.

AI’s impact on jobs. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Thursday to study how artificial intelligence affects employment and explore ways to help displaced workers. The order from Newsom, a Democrat seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, follows signs of growing public discontent over the rapid rise of AI, the proliferation of massive data centers around the U.S. and anxiety that the technology could widely displace white-collar workers. Newsom’s move came the same day President Trump postponed the signing of an executive order that would have given the federal government more oversight of the AI industry, saying he didn’t want to take any action that would slow the U.S. down in the AI race.

• More: Trump Postpones AI Order Because of Concerns About Overregulation

Oura Inc., the maker of Oura Rings, filed confidentially for an initial public offering. The company’s rings track metrics such as heart rate and skin temperature, and are intended to help improve sleep and reduce stress. Investors in Oura include Fidelity Management & Research and Forerunner Ventures. Dexcom announced a partnership with Oura in 2024 focused on metabolic health and said it would invest $75 million.

S. “Soma” Somasegar, a managing director at venture firm Madrona, died on Tuesday at age 59.

Somasegar joined Seattle-based Madrona in 2015 as a venture partner and was promoted to managing director in 2017. Somasegar led or played a key role in Madrona’s investments in Snowflake, UiPath, Pulumi and Statsig, among others. OpenAI acquired Statsig for $1.1 billion last year.

Before Madrona, Somasegar worked for 27 years at Microsoft. Somasegar was the co-owner of the Seattle Orcas, a Major League Cricket team, together with Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella and others.

Somasegar was born in Puducherry, India. Neither of his parents had attended college. He came to the U.S. in 1987 to attend graduate school at Louisiana State University.

“Soma Somasegar shaped how a generation of developers built software,” Madrona’s team wrote in a statement. “First at Microsoft, where he led the Developer Division for 12 years and championed the open-sourcing of .NET. But even more than that he supported the people who built the software. At Madrona he became one of the most respected early-stage investors in cloud and AI infrastructure, mentoring founders, operators, and other investing talent in the Seattle ecosystem and far beyond.”

Somasegar is survived by his wife and two daughters. The cause of death wasn’t disclosed. 

—Yuliya Chernova

Funds

Toronto-based pre-seed investor N49P held a $25 million first close of its fourth fund, which has a target of $70 million.

People

Ground State Ventures, an investor focusing on quantum technology startups, promoted Kris Kaczmarek to partner. He joined the firm, which was previously known as QDNL Participations, in 2024.

Peter Levine has returned to Andreessen Horowitz full time as a general partner.

Obesity treatment developer Antag Therapeutics appointed Philip Just Larsen as chief executive officer. He previously served as CEO of SixPeaks Bio.

Theromics, a biotechnology company focusing on ablation therapeutics for minimally invasive cancer treatment, named Andrew C. Zeringue as chief executive officer.

Hark, a San Jose, Calif.-based AI lab, scored more than $700 million in Series A funding at a $6 billion post-money valuation. Parkway Venture Capital led the investment, which included contributions from Greycroft and several others.

Exa, a San Francisco-based AI search startup, fetched a $250 million Series C investment led by Andreessen Horowitz, giving the company a $2.2 billion valuation.

Mercury, a San Francisco-headquartered banking startup, landed $200 million in Series D funding at a $5.2 billion valuation. TCV led the round, which included participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, CRV, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital.

Fresha, a London-headquartered marketplace and business-management platform for the beauty and wellness industry, secured an $80 million growth investment from funds managed by KKR & Co. The deal values the company at more than $1 billion.

Scapia, an India-based travel-first financial platform, picked up a $63 million investment led by General Catalyst.

Socket, a San Francisco-headquartered security platform that protects organizations from software supply-chain attacks, raised $60 million in Series C funding at a $1 billion valuation. Thrive CapitaI led the round, which saw participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Abstract Ventures and Capital One Ventures.

Relay, a Toronto-based small-business banking and money-management platform, grabbed a $50 million growth investment from General Catalyst.

Variational, a protocol for on-chain derivatives trading, secured about $50 million in Series A funding led by Dragonfly.

Quartermaster, an Arlington, Va.-based startup building a global fleet for real-time maritime intelligence, nabbed $43 million in Series A funding co-led by First Round Capital and Quiet Capital.

Pivot, a Paris-based AI operating system for procurement, collected $40 million in Series B funding. Forestay Capital and Notion Capital led the round, which included additional support from Hedosophia, Visionaries and others.

Findd, a Provo, Utah-headquartered workforce-management platform for frontline workers, snagged a $21 million growth investment. Unbundled Capital provided the funding, with Partner Shane Skiffington joining the company’s board as executive chairman.

• StraightPath Founders Hit With Prison Time

• SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI’s Sprint to Go Public Defines the AI Boom’s Big Day

• SpaceX Postpones Launch of Newly Redesigned Starship

• Even at $5 Trillion, Nvidia Is Underappreciated

• Workday’s Returning CEO Has a Plan to Survive the AI Era

• Social-Media Companies Settle Youth-Harm Case Ahead of Wave of Trials

• E-Hiking Is Here. You Can Tell by My 1,000-Watt Hips.

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

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