Shaheer Sandhu
Snapshot
Investor @ Susa Ventures, San Francisco. Pre-seed/seed, focused on AI software apps & infra, consumer, and healthcare. A young, builder-minded investor (UC Berkeley ‘23) who co-built Alif (accelerator/fund for Muslim founders in emerging tech) before joining Susa, and now runs Susa’s Venture Fellows program. init.inc’s parallel track into Susa, running alongside Misha.
Background
- Susa Ventures (2024–present): came in through the Susa Venture Fellows program → now Investor and the person who runs/authors the Fellows program (wrote the 2025–26 cohort announcement). Sources new deals + supports portfolio. Self-described on LinkedIn: “Prev incepted alif.build, some startups, and did ml research at Cal. Rn investing in ai software apps/infra, consumer, healthcare, and some other pre-seed/seed co’s at Susa. If you’re building reach out!”
- Alif (
alif.build) — co-builder / core team of an accelerator + venture fund for Muslim founders in emerging tech (founded 2023; primary founder Omar Waseem). Shaheer ran/kicked off Batch 0 and locked partnerships with Ramp, Microsoft, AWS, Google, OpenAI, LinkedIn, Asana, Rippling, Apollo.io; 5+ batch-0 companies signed term sheets post-demo-day. ^[role described as “incepted”/core team; Omar Waseem is the named founder] - Earlier roles: LinkedIn — Product Strategy & BizOps; built self-serve hiring products. Base Ventures — VC analyst. Scalers.ai — PM (enterprise). Salesforce, Intel — internships. ML research at UC Berkeley (“Cal”). Nonprofit work in housing and restorative justice; board member at AIM 4 The Heart (partnerships/fundraising).
- Education: UC Berkeley, BA Economics + Data Science (graduated 2023). Grew up in the Bay Area.
Investing
- Focus: AI software apps & infrastructure, consumer, healthcare; pre-seed/seed. Early in his investing career — junior to the partners, sources/supports rather than leads alone, but Susa’s model gives Fellows/investors real decision-making exposure.
- Style/POV: big believer that the edge in modern venture is judgment and taste over capital (see Public voice) and in proximity to where things are being built. Builder-empathetic (has shipped products + run an accelerator).
- Notable Susa work: runs the Venture Fellows program (talent/pipeline + thesis development), which is itself a window into how Susa thinks about the next generation of investors.
Public voice (EXHAUSTIVE — “everything they’ve said”)
- Writing — Susa Substack (bylined “Shaheer Sandhu, Investor at Susa Ventures”): the Venture Fellows posts are his clearest essay-voice. Key stances (verbatim/near-verbatim):
- “Capital is becoming homogenous… A $5M bank wire looks the same regardless of the firm that sent it. What is scarce is judgment. So is trust, taste, speed, and the ability to be genuinely helpful before money is ever involved.”
- The next-gen winning firms “will be leaner, more hands-on, and deeply embedded in the companies they back… They will deploy early, help founders build, and earn their edge through proximity.”
- On apprenticeship: fellows should be “owners of the craft, not just contributors to pipeline.” Cites Elad Gil / Nat Friedman as models — investors who built companies first, then backed founders from high-trust networks.
- Video / short-form (interviewed by Omar Waseem for Twill, Mar 2026, Instagram reels — short clips, no long-form transcript to queue):
- “One of the most important things an investor can build is taste. Not just access. Not just brand. Taste.”
- On urgency/proximity: “if the biggest shift in tech is happening now, you cannot afford to sit too far from where things are actually being built.”
- Social: X/Twitter
@shaheersan; LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/shaheer-sandhu(posts on Alif, faith, building). Notable LinkedIn post (May 2024) launching Alif: “I’ve often looked for Muslims that have traveled down the path I’m on… the biggest thing I’ve noticed is our lack of organization… Alif is an accelerator built for the next generation of Muslim founders.”
Personal & interests (rapport)
- Bay Area native; UC Berkeley (Econ + Data Sci, ‘23) — young, recently graduated; technical (ML research at Cal, data-science training) so he’ll engage on real technical substance.
- Faith & community: practicing Muslim; Alif is his mission-driven project (an ecosystem for Muslim founders) — community-building and values-driven entrepreneurship matter deeply to him. Cares about nonprofits/policy (housing, restorative justice).
- Hobbies (stated): loves to cook, play and watch basketball (big Golden State Warriors fan), produce beats (music), run, and read philosophy. Rich, genuine rapport surface — Warriors, music production, and philosophy are all strong, non-generic hooks.
Fundraise Relationship (init.inc)
- Status: Shaheer is the parallel track into Susa (Misha is primary). He’s junior, so he likely can’t lead/decide alone — value is as an internal champion who feeds conviction to the partners. CRM read: “a little NPC but sharp questions.” Note: the Misha track runs into the same firm (two warm intros into Susa).
- Conversation log (newest first):
- 2026-05-05 — Met Shaheer. Read: “a little NPC but sharp questions.” Running parallel to Misha; awaiting internal feedback.
- 2026-04-28 — Intro made by Toms Ce (status: “Follow Up Phase” per Toms’s intro list).
- Mutual connections / warm path: Toms Ce → Shaheer (his path). Separately, Juraj Masar → Misha is the primary path into the same firm.
- Personal & rapport notes: Rapport surfaces — Warriors basketball, beat-making/music, philosophy, and mission-driven building. The faith/values dimension matters to how he sees entrepreneurship. He values taste over brand (per his public voice).
- Live stage: in the CRM.
Cross-check vs existing wiki
- Toms Ce already lists “Susa Ventures / Shaheer Sandhu — Follow Up Phase” — consistent. No contradiction.
- Disambiguation: not Sukhraj Sandhu (Lacuna), RajVikrant/Jaskaran Sandhu (India), or other Sandhus seen in search. Correct LinkedIn =
shaheer-sandhu; X =@shaheersan. ⚠️ none.