Managing Partner, Sonia Nagar of SNAK Venture Partners joins host Dana Guthrie to walk through her path from engineering at GM and launching categories at Amazon to founding and selling a startup, then becoming a VC - joining Pritzker Group before co-founding SNAK. They break down how small funds must “play a different game” than mega-funds, why many founders are better off with earlier mid-nine-figure exits, and how domain expertise beats generic AI in today’s market. The conversation also covers imposter syndrome, leadership evolution, building a “mafia” of great people, and why the Midwest is uniquely positioned for industrial marketplaces and vertical AI.

Extended show notes:

01:48 – Sonia’s journey: engineer, founder, operator, Pritzker GP, and now emerging

manager​

04:48 – Harvard Business School, discovering finance, and a painful summer at

Goldman Sachs​

07:11 – Launching Amazon’s clothing category and why it was a pivotal career decision​

09:29 – Founding a mobile shopping startup, raising venture capital, and the early

roller coaster​

13:09 – Building a “little black book” of talent that she still taps as an investor​

17:07 – Returning to the Midwest, planning a new startup, and falling into venture at

Pritzker​

18:21 – Becoming Pritzker’s first female investor and wanting more direct impact

through capital​

21:39 – Why Sonia left Pritzker to co-found SNAK Venture Partners with Adam​

24:11 – Global bifurcation: $10B+ mega-funds vs. sub-$50M regional funds and the

games they play​

28:34 – The Midwest narrative gap and how coastal ecosystems still win the story war​

32:26 – VC fund math: check size, ownership targets, and returning the fund​

38:46 – Advice for founders and emerging managers: build your “mafia” of good

people​

39:57 – The “PayPal mafia” concept and how to recreate that effect over a career​