This VC backed CrowdStrike and Anduril. His due diligence starts with your parents

When Jeff Cardenas took his first meeting with venture capitalist Adam Zeplain in 2023 he was expecting to answer questions about his robotics company’s revenue, margins, and prospective market share.

Zeplain surprised him, opening with: “Tell me about your father.”

“I thought: ‘Oh, he’s going there—let’s do this,” said Cardenas of their first meeting. 

Cardenas, cofounder and CEO of humanoid startup Apptronik, wasn’t expecting a therapy session. But he talked openly...