Andy McLoughlin is Managing Director at Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC). We discuss Andy’s journey from co-founding Huddle — racking servers in the Docklands and building their own payment system before Stripe — to Silicon Valley.
He was an early angel investor in companies like Postmates, eventually joining Jeff Clavier’s venture firm SoftTech, now Uncork Capital.
We dive into the golden era of “super angels,” collaborative seed rounds, and famous near-misses like Uber and Twilio.
Other topics include how seed funds like Uncork stay relevant in a world dominated by mega-funds, why specialized early-stage investors often serve founders better than big brand names, and how to find those non-obvious deals before they become consensus. Andy also shares what it felt like to step away from operating a company, the power of “knowing thyself,” and how he’s helping build Uncork into a firm that stays sharp through founder empathy and relentless context-switching.
We also cover:
- The story behind Founders Pledge and giving back
- The British “GBx” network in Silicon Valley
- San Francisco’s turnaround, tech getting political, and why local government actually matters
- The AI revolution — why everything feels like an AI company right now, what’s overhyped, and why we’re still in the very earliest innings