Todd Gitlin
Managing Partner
at Safire Partners & Unmatched Ventures
Executive search and venture investing. We partner with emerging-stage companies — typically post-seed, taking on executive searches and investing at Series A/B. We offer discounted fees in exchange for warrants or discounted pro rata rights in the next round, and treat search as a form of diligence. We will work with later stage as well, but likely won’t invest.
Safire Partners (www.safirepartners.com) was founded in 2006, has a team of 30+ people and takes on ~200 VP+ searches per year for software, AI, healthtech, fintech, and consumer apps.
Unmtached (www.umv.vc) was founded in 2025 with the former Head of Talent @ SpaceX as a recruiting and investing platform built for hardware companies with a focus on aerospace, defense, robotics, and energy.
Articles by Todd Gitlin
Austin Tech Week 2025 Recap
Mucker Capital hosted two powerful days of programming during Austin Tech Week, bringing together founders, operators, and growth leaders to share real-world insights from the startup trenches. Across four sessions,...
LA Tech Week 2025 Day 3 Recap: AI Search – Wednesday Oct 15
After two packed days exploring AI startup building and go-to-market growth, Day 3 of LA Tech Week shifted focus to the evolving world of AI Search, how new AI technologies...
LA Tech Week 2025 Day 2 Recap: Startup Growth – Tuesday Oct 14
After a packed AI Building Day, we continued LA Tech Week with Startup Growth Day, a full schedule of sessions focused on go-to-market strategy, founder journeys, and scaling startups in...
LA Tech Week 2025 Day 1 Recap: AI Building – Monday Oct 13
We hosted three full days of events during LA Tech Week, each one focused on helping founders learn, connect, and build with the latest in AI and startup growth. Day...
Using Customer Feedback to Build a Product that Customers Will Love
Customer feedback is the lifeblood of successful product development, but many startups struggle with collecting, validating, and prioritizing the constant stream of input from users, advisors, and internal teams. In...
How Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai As A Solo Builder
I recently had the opportunity to chat with Shaun Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Karrot.ai, a LinkedIn ABM tool. Shaun was kind enough to share a comprehensive breakdown of how...