As the wave of AI-enabled vertical SaaS startups rises, founders face critical questions: How do you attract the right investor who deeply understands your market? What makes a true vertical AI company stand out in a saturated landscape?

In this episode, Frazer and Annelies discuss:

• How vertical AI startups can find their strategic wedge - and why brute force and feedback loops matter more than a flashy pitch.

• What today’s top-tier investors are really looking for when backing AI-driven SaaS companies in legacy industries like insurance, logistics, and supply chain.

• The mindset shift from founder to investor and how operator intuition can sharpen your go-to-market and long-term defensibility.

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Annelies Gamble is a Partner at Zetta Ventures, an early-stage venture firm backing AI native B2B startups. Prior to Zetta, Annelies founded Prima, a vertical AI company in the supply chain and manufacturing space. While based in Mexico, she scaled Prima to over 80 employees, led engineering and supply operations, launched the U.S. business, and raised more than $45M in venture funding. Before founding Prima, Annelies was a Co-Founder and Partner at Scribble Ventures, where she invested in over 30 early-stage AI startups.

Annelies started her career at Dropbox, helping launch the company’s Product Analytics team. She holds a degree from Yale, where she was a three-season Division I varsity athlete and President of the Yale Entrepreneurial Society.