Aarthi Ramamurthy launches VC firm Schema Ventures with $20 million fund

Technologist and entrepreneur Aarthi Ramamurthy has launched Schema Ventures, a new early-stage venture capital firm with a $20 million fund dedicated to supporting “exceptional outsider founders” building companies from conviction and lived experience rather than pedigree or proximity.

The fund, announced by Ramamurthy on LinkedIn and X, will focus on the earliest stages of company formation—often before pitch decks or co-founders are in place—across sectors such as industrial software, robotics and intelligence for factories, construction and logistics, workflow automation, and developer tools.

“I grew up an outsider. I moved to San Francisco, built two startups. My story—figuring it out without a roadmap—is the blueprint for Schema,” Ramamurthy said in her public posts.

Investing in lived experience

Ramamurthy’s philosophy with Schema is rooted in her own journey navigating the tech world as a self-described outsider. Her resume includes product and engineering leadership roles at Microsoft, Netflix, and Meta, in addition to building and exiting her own startups.

With Schema, she said she wants to back founders who build from lived experiences, offering capital and conviction even before traditional markers of startup maturity appear.

“Sometimes there’s no pitch deck yet, no co-founder, no capital—just conviction and technical insight. That’s where we come in,” she noted.

From clubhouse to capital

Ramamurthy rose to broader public attention in 2020 through The Good Time Show, a Clubhouse-based conversation series she co-created with her husband Sriram Krishnan, a former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and now a senior AI policy advisor to the White House.

The show featured prominent guests such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, helping define a new era of tech-media crossover during the pandemic.

The series later transitioned to YouTube and evolved into The Aarthi and Sriram Show, securing a podcasting deal with iHeartMedia and surpassing one million downloads by early 2023.

Schema Ventures joins wave of emerging Solo GPs

Schema Ventures enters the scene amid a wave of solo general partners—investors who are building boutique, high-conviction VC funds around personal networks, deep operational expertise, and focused sectoral theses.

Ramamurthy’s dual identity as both an operator and media personality gives her a unique vantage point in attracting and advising early-stage founders.

The $20 million vehicle will be deployed over the next few years, with Ramamurthy indicating a strong emphasis on technical founders in overlooked or underserved categories, where traditional venture capital might hesitate.