AM
Amin Mirzadegan
Partner
Founders Fund
Founders Fund partner backing companies across stages, including Ramp, Stripe, Ohalo, and Netic.
DA
Bio
Professional summary
Founders Fund lists Delian Asparouhov as a Partner and President and Co-Founder of Varda Space Industries. The firm describes Varda as manufacturing pharmaceuticals and advanced materials in space and enabling microgravity research. Founders Fund also notes that Asparouhov co-created the Hill & Valley Forum to strengthen collaboration between Washington and Silicon Valley around technology and national security. His fit is strongest for founders building ambitious frontier technology, especially space, hard tech, bio/manufacturing, or national-security-adjacent companies.
Investment focus
Stage, sector, and overall fit
Stage
SeedSeries AGrowth
Sector
SpaceFrontier techAdvanced manufacturingNational security technologyBiotech
Thesis
Orbital economy and space manufacturingHard technology with physical-world constraintsTechnology connected to national capability
Notable companies
Selected portfolio companies the partner has backed
Varda Space Industries
How to approach
Framing and angles for outreach
Pitch framing
Lead with why the company is genuinely frontier rather than incremental: the technical bottleneck, why now, and how solving it changes a strategic industry. For space, hard-tech, bio-manufacturing, or national-security-adjacent startups, emphasize execution milestones and physical-world proof.
Personalization hooks
- 1Reference Varda when discussing space manufacturing, orbital infrastructure, or hard-tech execution.
- 2Connect the pitch to technology that strengthens national capability or industrial resilience.
- 3Avoid a purely software framing unless the software is tied to a major physical-world or strategic market shift.
Recent signals
What the partner has said or done recently
Continues to be listed as Partner at Founders Fund and President and Co-Founder of Varda Space Industries.
Co-created the Hill & Valley Forum connecting Washington and Silicon Valley around technology and national security.
Other partners at Founders Fund
12 more profiles
Brian Singerman
Partner Emeritus
Founders Fund
Partner Emeritus at Founders Fund; backed Affirm, Oscar, Oculus, Postmates, Stemcentrx, and Anduril.
Jennifer Campbell
Partner
Founders Fund
Founders Fund partner and Tagomi co-founder investing as an early-stage generalist.
JK
Joey Krug
Partner
Founders Fund
Founders Fund crypto partner; ex-Pantera Co-CIO and co-founder of Augur and Eco.
JL
John Luttig
Partner
Founders Fund
John Luttig is a Partner at Founders Fund who has worked on investments including Scale AI, Rippling, OpenAI, Figma, Cognition, Newfront Insurance, Flock Safety, Tagomi, and Loop Logistics.
LG
Lauren Gross
Partner & COO
Founders Fund
Founders Fund Partner & COO leading operations, fundraising, LPs, and strategic firm decisions.
MT
Matias Van Thienen
Partner
Founders Fund
Growth and international investing partner backing SpaceX, Stripe, Ramp, Rippling, Figma, and Scale.
MS
Michael Solana
Chief Marketing Officer
Founders Fund
Founders Fund CMO and Pirate Wires founder focused on tech, politics, culture, and firm programming.
NT
Napoleon Ta
Partner
Founders Fund
Napoleon Ta is a Partner at Founders Fund focused on growth investing. Public investor databases associate him with later-stage and breakout technology companies, including enterprise and AI-related investments.
PT
Peter Thiel
Partner
Founders Fund
Peter Thiel is a Partner at Founders Fund and a prominent entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded PayPal and Palantir, made the first outside investment in Facebook, and helped build Founders Fund's contrarian technology investing identity.
SN
Scott Nolan
Partner
Founders Fund
Scott Nolan is a Partner at Founders Fund focused on mission-driven founders rearchitecting industries through engineering-heavy companies. He was previously an early SpaceX employee working on Falcon and Dragon systems.
SL
Sean Liu
Partner
Founders Fund
Sean Liu is a Partner at Founders Fund and former CFO of Solugen, with prior investment and operating experience at Silver Lake, Google, Vy Capital, and SoftBank.