Jeremy Liew

Who they are

Jeremy Liew is Managing Director at Lightspeed Venture Partners — Snapchat's first institutional investor, now also a board member at Affirm, HungryRoot, and Wintermute.

Person

Jeremy grew up in Australia, studied Linguistics and Pure Mathematics at the Australian National University, then did his MBA at Stanford in the late 1990s — a combination that maps well onto how he thinks about consumer behavior and market sizing. He came up through the late-internet operator track: management consulting at McKinsey, then into the dot-com era at Netscape as General Manager, AOL in sales and business development, InterActiveCorp (USA Networks) as SVP of Corporate Development and Chief of Staff to the CEO, and CitySearch as VP of Strategic Planning. That operator arc — spanning two internet booms, two exits, and a stint inside Barry Diller's empire — is what he brought to Lightspeed when he joined in 2006 as one of its early consumer investors. He is best known as Snapchat's first institutional investor, a bet he made when Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy were just getting started. His board portfolio spans consumer (HungryRoot, Rothy's, HoneyLove), fintech (Affirm), crypto market-making (Wintermute), and gaming (One More Game). He writes actively — Medium, the Lightspeed blog, Business Insider, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur — on topics including generational founder patterns, profitable startup growth, and autonomous battlefield technology. The through-line is a two-decade conviction that consumer internet compounds in ways most investors miss until it's too late.

Company

Lightspeed recently announced a rename — after almost a decade under its current branding — alongside a capital raise of over $9B. Jeremy posted about both developments on LinkedIn, framing them as markers of the firm's evolution. One of his portfolio companies, Moveworks, was acquired by ServiceNow, a notable exit for the firm's enterprise-AI exposure. On the consumer side, Jeremy highlighted HungryRoot's 2025 financial performance publicly, signaling the company hit meaningful milestones. The firm continues to run a global multi-stage strategy across consumer, enterprise, and crypto.

Market

Lightspeed competes at the top tier of multi-stage venture alongside Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, and General Catalyst for consumer and enterprise deals. The $9B-plus capital raise positions the firm to write large checks across stages, from seed through growth. Consumer VC more broadly is navigating a post-2021 reset — profitable growth, not just top-line scale, has become the bar, which is consistent with Jeremy's public emphasis on HungryRoot's financial performance.

Network

Possibly — Jeremy works closely with Mike Zimmerman and Danielle Haj-Moussa on investments and partnerships at Lightspeed, based on LinkedIn claims. His board network spans founders at Affirm, Snapchat (Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy), and Wintermute. He is also connected to the broader VC ecosystem through his NVCA board role (since May 2023) and his advisory work at Mucker Capital.

Mike Zimmerman· Lightspeed colleague (investments/partnerships)
Danielle Haj-Moussa· Lightspeed colleague (investments/partnerships)
Evan Spiegel· Co-founder & CEO, Snap
Bobby Murphy· Co-founder & CTO, Snap

How they likely show up

Long tenure at Lightspeed since 2006 → thinks in decade-long arcs; not interested in the trade, interested in the company.
First investor in Snapchat when it had no institutional backing → comfortable being early and alone, doesn't need consensus to pull the trigger.
Active writer across Medium, Lightspeed blog, Business Insider, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur → deliberately public about his views; expects interlocutors to have read the work.
Operator background at McKinsey, Netscape, AOL, InterActiveCorp, and CitySearch before joining VC → evaluates founders through an operator lens, not just a pattern-matching one.
Board roles spanning consumer, fintech, crypto, and gaming → generalist by conviction, not by default; follows behavior and monetization patterns across categories.
Posts about generational founder patterns and profitable startup growth → publicly skeptical of growth-at-any-cost; metrics-first mindset.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific piece he's written — he publishes across multiple platforms and will know immediately whether you've actually read it.
→ Ask about the Snapchat bet in terms of what he saw that others didn't, not as a 'what was it like' story — he's discussed the epistemics of being right vs. contrarian on 20VC and will engage there.
→ HungryRoot's 2025 financials are something he posted about publicly and with pride — that's a live topic, not historical color.
→ His operator background (Netscape, AOL, IAC) is genuinely formative; questions that connect his pre-VC experience to how he evaluates founders will land better than generic VC shop-talk.
→ He sits on the NVCA board and participates in AAPI Heritage Month conversations in venture — he's engaged in the structural side of the industry, not just deal flow.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the Lightspeed rebrand and $9B-plus raise he just posted about — he framed it as a firm-defining moment, so he'll have a clear point of view on what it signals about where the firm is going.
Lead with the Moveworks-ServiceNow acquisition — he was on that journey from startup through exit and it's a fresh data point on his enterprise-AI thesis alongside his consumer track record.
Reference his Medium or Lightspeed blog piece on generational founder patterns — he writes that 'generational founders share predictable patterns,' which is a specific thesis you can push on.

Discovery questions

You've written that it's more important to be right than contrarian — how did that play out with the Snapchat bet when most investors passed?
HungryRoot's 2025 results are something you highlighted publicly — what does profitable consumer growth actually look like at that stage, and how has your bar shifted since the 2021 environment?
Your background runs from McKinsey to Netscape to IAC before VC — how much does that operator arc actually change the questions you ask founders versus a partner who came straight up through investing?

Avoid

Don't pitch consumer ideas with pure growth metrics and no path to profitability — he has publicly emphasized profitable startup growth and will probe unit economics immediately.

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