Aditi Maliwal
General Partner
Upfront Ventures
General Partner at Upfront Ventures investing in early-stage fintech and enterprise software, with a focus that includes vertical SaaS and AI applications and infrastructure.
Bio
Professional summary
Nick Kim is a General Partner at Upfront Ventures. Upfront’s official profile describes his focus as hard tech and national infrastructure, including advanced manufacturing, robotics, industrial automation, energy and utilities, aerospace, and defense. Before joining Upfront, he was at Crosscut Ventures leading seed investments. Public sources also describe earlier investing or operating experience involving First Round Capital, Human Ventures, and Warby Parker, though the most reliable current fit is the official Upfront hard-tech and infrastructure focus.
Investment focus
Stage, sector, and overall fit
Stage
SeedEarly stage
Sector
Hard techNational infrastructureAdvanced manufacturingRoboticsIndustrial automationEnergy and utilitiesAerospace and defense
Thesis
Early-stage hard techNational security and infrastructure technologySeed-stage company building
How to approach
Framing and angles for outreach
Pitch framing
Lead with technical defensibility, real-world deployment constraints, and why the company can win in a hard-to-build infrastructure market. Nick appears best matched to founders in hard tech, robotics, aerospace, defense, energy, industrial automation, or national infrastructure who can show both technical credibility and a practical commercialization path.
Personalization hooks
- 1Reference Upfront’s stated focus on hard tech and national infrastructure.
- 2Tie the pitch to deployment-heavy markets such as aerospace, defense, manufacturing, energy, or robotics.
- 3Emphasize seed-stage partnership and long company-building horizons.
Recent signals
What the partner has said or done recently
Upfront’s current profile lists Nick as a General Partner focused on hard tech and national infrastructure.
Kauffman Fellows lists him as Los Angeles-based and focused on vertical software, aerospace, frontier tech, and national security companies.
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