Ignite VC: Jim Curry on Rethinking Venture and Building Companies Built to Last | Ep169

Ignite: Conversations on Startups, Venture Capital, Tech, Future, and Society

What if the secret to building enduring billion-dollar businesses isn't chasing growth at all costs—but betting on slower, more sustainable scale, even if it means skipping the traditional exit? Jim Curry thinks most of Silicon Valley has it backwards—and he’s proving it, one founder-led company at a time.

Jim Curry is the co-founder of Build Group, a $330M permanent capital firm that invests in long-term, operator-led businesses. Before that, he co-founded OpenStack while at Rackspace and played a pivotal role in scaling one of the earliest cloud pioneers. Now at Build Group, he’s rethinking the VC model itself—with a focus on staying power, not spray-and-pray.

In Today's Episode We Discuss

00:01 Jim Curry’s path from finance to co-founding Build Group

01:00 Lessons from Rackspace and the founding of OpenStack

04:00 Why traditional VCs fail founders in the “middle” of company building

06:45 The problem with forced exits and timing IPOs

08:56 How Build Group’s permanent capital model works

12:02 Why institutional LPs struggle with long-term investing

14:12 Evergreen vs. closed-end fund structures

17:14 Fund mechanics, recycling capital, and tax efficiency

21:00 Ownership strategy, board roles, and check size philosophy

24:36 Avoiding overhyped valuations and focusing on product strength

26:57 Building OpenStack and Rackspace’s cloud missteps

30:53 What Rackspace got wrong—and why they didn’t become AWS

34:03 The value of support over software in cloud hosting

36:41 Traits Jim looks for in long-term, founder-led companies

39:07 Why team-building and product vision matter most

41:03 Operator vs. investor mindset—and the danger of “fixer” thinking

46:18 Go-to-market missteps and sales team scaling advice

49:43 Why LTV:CAC is broken—and better SaaS metrics to use

51:20 How AI is reshaping SaaS—and what Jim’s betting on

53:55 The trouble with agentic AI startups and the value of proprietary data

56:18 Scaling to $10M+ with minimal headcount

57:26 Using AI to transform investment workflows and ICs

01:01:16 Personal AI use cases and GPTs in everyday investing

01:04:03 Closing reflections on staying curious, tinkering, and future fund models

Subscribe on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6Ga6v0YUsHotLhjap67uu5

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ignite-conversations-on-startups-venture-capital-tech/id1709248824

Follow Brian Bell on X:

https://x.com/brianrbell?lang=en

Follow Jim Curry on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimncurry/

Visit Our Website:

https://www.teamignite.ventures/

👂🎧 Watch, listen, and follow on your favorite platform: https://tr.ee/S2ayrbx_fL

🙏 Join the conversation on your favorite social network: https://linktr.ee/theignitepodcast

//

Our sponsor Byldd⁠ helps non-technical domain-expert founders build and launch tech businesses by providing a complete product team - that's everyone you need from designers to engineers to testers, all the way up to a CTO.

We'll ship products while you focus on the other essentials: validation, sales, and distribution. Our portfolio companies have been backed by YC, Google, ERA, and other top-tier investors.

Get Started Here: https://tr.ee/bylld