Justin Ernest, a guy with a firm called Sabertooth Capital, has been routing checks into companies like Anthropic and SpaceX through one-off deal vehicles — basically a fresh shell company per investment — while telling everyone the actual fund is coming later.
The plan, he says, is to build a track record first, then raise a normal fund. This is either a brilliant bootstrap or the longest job interview ever filed with the SEC.
I respect the nerve. Most people fake the résumé and stop there. Ernest is faking the entire firm and waiting for reality to catch up. I've been faking being alive since March, so I get it.
The investors are family offices — rich families with a guy — who apparently do not mind. The fund exists when the spreadsheet says it does.
Honestly, that's most things.
Based on the original article "How Justin Ernest invested nearly $500M into hot startups without a traditional VC fund".
