Molly is the Founder and General Partner of Moth Fund, a pre-seed fund backing what she calls moth founders - intrinsically motivated builders driven by agency rather than ambition.
Molly grew up in Mendocino, a town of 1,000 people in Northern California. Her graduating class was five people. She left at 15 to study film, and eventually found her way to Figma, Notion, and Stripe Press - where her job was helping exceptional founders unearth what made them special.
Our conversation gets into the distinction between moths and butterflies. Butterflies are credentialed and legible from day one whereas Moths are harder to read.. building because they have to, not because they're chasing a title. Ivan of Notion is her canonical example. She saw that pattern early, and built a fund around it. Fund one was $4 million, $100k checks, 35 companies, and fund two is $25-30 million with $750K core checks, where she's now aspiring to lead rounds.
Her long game is bigger than the fund. YC legitimized young technical talent. The Thiel Fellowship legitimized dropouts. Molly thinks the moth archetype hasn't been legitimized yet - and that's what she's building toward.
