Leo Polovets

Who they are

Leo Polovets is General Partner at Humba Ventures — a Caltech CS grad who was LinkedIn's second engineering hire, co-founded Susa Ventures in 2012, and publishes early-stage investing frameworks at codingvc.com.

Person

Leo studied Computer Science (BS with Honors) at Caltech, then went straight into the trenches: second engineering hire at LinkedIn when the network was still building its core products, followed by payments fraud detection at Google, and big data infrastructure work at Factual. That operator track — three companies, three different technical bets — gave him the pattern-recognition he now deploys as an investor. In 2012 he co-founded Susa Ventures, a seed-stage software-focused fund that backed Robinhood and Flexport early. A decade later he launched Humba Ventures, a sister fund focused on deep tech: aerospace, AI, biotech, defense, robotics, and energy. He joined Humba at inception, co-founding the firm when deep tech seed investing was still seen as a niche. The through-line is the engineer who never stopped evaluating systems — just shifted from code to companies. He publishes prolifically on this: codingvc.com, a Substack, and Medium carry his frameworks on 'bundles of risks,' startup evaluation, and fundraising; he's been on Software Engineering Daily, The Full Ratchet, Venture Confidential, and a dozen other pods under the banner 'The Coding VC.'

Company

Humba Ventures launched a second fund — Humba II — doubling down on deep tech, as signaled by a 2025 announcement on the Humba blog. The firm runs a Venture Fellows program alongside its investing activity. It operates as a sister fund to Susa Ventures and focuses on seed-stage bets in sectors including nuclear reactors, surgical robots, defense tech, robotics, and advanced hardware. Possibly — the Dallas base reflects a deliberate move away from the coastal VC cluster, which may inform both deal sourcing and the firm's positioning toward industrial and defense-oriented founders.

Market

Humba Ventures competes in the deep tech seed market alongside generalist seed funds and a growing cohort of sector-specific vehicles chasing defense, aerospace, and climate deals. The segment has attracted significant capital since 2021 as sovereign and institutional interest in hard technology has grown. Susa Ventures' earlier track record in software seed (Robinhood, Flexport) gives Humba a credibility anchor that pure-play deep tech newcomers lack.

How they likely show up

Long operator tenure before VC (LinkedIn second hire → Google → Factual) → likely evaluates founders on technical depth, not just narrative.
Prolific public writing on frameworks (codingvc.com, Substack, Medium) → thinks in systems and first principles; probably brings structured mental models into every conversation.
Co-founded two funds (Susa in 2012, Humba in 2021/2022) rather than joining an existing platform → high conviction on institution-building, not just deal-making.
Moved from software seed (Susa) to deep tech seed (Humba) → willing to make a deliberate category shift when the opportunity set changes.
Possibly — Dallas base instead of SF/NYC → comfortable operating outside the consensus geography, may value contrarian deal flow.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific codingvc.com framework — his 'bundles of risks' framing or his fundraising posts — to signal you've read the work, not just the bio.
→ Ask about the Susa-to-Humba transition: moving from software seed to deep tech is a meaningful pivot and he'll have a considered view on why and when.
→ He's an engineer first; talking through the technical architecture of a company will land better than leading with market-size slides.
→ He's been asked 'operator to investor' questions on many podcasts — skip the origin story and go straight to the current thesis.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on Humba II — his 2025 announcement doubling down on deep tech is the most recent public signal of where he's placing his bets, and it's a natural entry point into what's changed in the market since Fund I.
Reference codingvc.com and the 'bundles of risks' framework specifically — it's his own intellectual property and shows you engaged with the actual work, not a bio summary.
Mention the LinkedIn second-hire moment — joining a company that early and watching it scale is a formative reference point that shapes how he reads early-stage technical teams today.

Discovery questions

What does the Venture Fellows program at Humba look like in practice — are you using it to source deals, build the next generation of deep tech investors, or something else?
When you moved from Susa's software focus to Humba's deep tech mandate, what did your evaluation framework have to change most — and what transferred directly from the operator days?
Your 'Delightful Trojan Horses' talk title is intriguing — what's the thesis there and how does it apply to the sectors Humba backs?

Avoid

Don't treat him as a generalist VC — he has a specific engineering background and a published body of work on how he evaluates startups; generic pitch-deck framing will read as underprepared.

Make it yours