Expanding Our Investing Team with Two Partner Promotions, and a New Venture Partner!

James Detweiler promoted to General Partner, Eric Flaningam elevated to Partner, and Michael Chen joins as Venture Partner.

We invest in our team the same way we invest in founders: recognizing talent early, supporting growth, and leaning in when we see outsized impact and values alignment. We’re thrilled to announce three key updates to our investment team: James Detweiler has been promoted to General Partner, Eric Flaningam has been elevated to Partner, and Michael Chen is joining us as Venture Partner. All three reflect the best of how we work at Felicis.

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‍James Detweiler: Our Newest General Partner

James helps all of us expand our imagination of what's possible. He’s thesis-driven, unafraid to challenge convention, and brings fresh perspectives that push us to see around corners.

James has an extraordinary ability to identify and earn the trust of founders at the earliest stages of company formation. His track record speaks for itself: James has sourced, led or co-led investments in over 25+ companies across AI, robotics, vertical software, and defense, including Mercor, Paraform, Skild AI, DeepJudge, Ricursive, and Operand. He brought Skild AI (now valued at $14B) to Felicis at the series A based on his early conviction that robotics foundation models would spark a “ChatGPT” moment for robotics. 

His conviction, optimism, and energy are infectious. James shows up 100%, whether it's traveling around the world to meet with a new founder or going all in to help a company scale. Just ask Brendan Foody at Mercor, where he’s earned trust (and a badge to the Mercor office!) by showing up early with conviction and bonding over F1. Or Deepak Pathak at Skild AI, where James showed up in Pittsburgh to jam with the founders over a shared love of robotics.

James’s boundless enthusiasm lifts up everyone around him. He always looks for ways to share insights, give credit, and celebrate the collective win. Even more importantly, James is the best table tennis player in the office – with a trophy to prove it! 

At Felicis, James focuses on backing founders solving “root node” problems in AI, like foundational robotics infrastructure or AI-enabled labor markets. If that sounds like you, he’d love to hear from you. (james@felicis.com)

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‍Eric Flaningam: Elevated to Partner

At Felicis, we believe imagination is alpha, and it’s hard to imagine someone more curious than Eric. He first joined our team as a researcher. That work led him to find more and more companies for us to invest in, and we noticed that founders were equally drawn to his curiosity.  He’s already helped lead several of our stealth investments (that we’re very excited about!) and his acute research lens has led us to invest in dozens more like Assort Health, Evertune, Radiant, and Agency.

Eric loves to work with founders and teams building complex businesses in spaces others underestimate. He is drawn to companies that can transform large industries dominated by incumbents. He aspires to be the most thoughtful partner to founders by diving into the details, and seeing things that others miss.

He writes Generative Value, a popular Substack where he regularly shares his research and perspectives on the public and private markets, and where tech is heading. Eric also builds communities around him; he regularly hosts AI builder dinners, bringing together some of the most talented and high-impact AI engineers and founders in the game today. 

Eric's transition to Partner is a direct result of his impact and judgment. We’re thrilled that he will continue working with the very best founding teams – now from the investing side! If you are a founder working on an industry-transforming technology, Eric would love to chat. (eflaningam@felicis.com)

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‍Michael Chen: Joining Felicis as Venture Partner

We're also excited to welcome Michael Chen to Felicis as a Venture Partner. Michael brings deep expertise in enterprise software and AI, with an impressive track record building and scaling high-growth AI companies. 

Today, Michael leads GTM and operations at Applied Compute. He previously cofounded Scale AI’s international public sector applications business and launched their audio data business, which he grew to a $100 million run rate in less than six months. Michael studied Math, Economics, and Public Policy at Harvard. 

We’ve known Michael for years, and have always been impressed with his competitive spirit and intellectual horsepower. Michael has always been an empathetic partner to founders, a sensibility shaped from his own experience founding his first company when he was 18.  He also has impeccable taste in startups: he is an angel in Mercor, Decagon, Cartesia, Crosby Legal, Design Arena, Corridor Security, and others still in stealth. 

Michael’s connection to Felicis strengthens our ability to support portfolio founders with hands-on operational guidance, which is invaluable to these companies as they navigate the challenges of scaling from early product-market fit to category leadership.

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James, Eric, and Michael embody the spirit of Felicis: imagination, curiosity, excellence, and unwavering commitment to helping founders.  If you're a founder at the earliest stages of building something extraordinary, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to James, Eric, or Michael directly. They're ready to partner with you.