Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das responded to the claim that "seed investments are options," stating that if a venture capitalist mocks this framework, their entire investment should ideally be just one check; otherwise, by definition, they are buying options for themselves.

His argument directly targets portfolio behavior. As long as a fund holds more than one company, each early check is purchasing the right to observe outliers, rather than making a one-time belief bet. Those who mock option thinking, if they simultaneously diversify across multiple companies, are logically executing the same strategy.

Das was promoted to partner at Menlo in September 2025. Before joining, he was a founding team member at Glean, progressing from engineer to engineering manager, and then overseeing the Glean Assistant product. During his tenure, the company grew from fewer than 10 people to over 300, achieving a valuation of $2.2 billion from having no product. Earlier, he worked in technology at Facebook and Google, participating in search and AI query understanding at Google.

At Menlo, he was involved in launching the $100 million Anthology Fund in collaboration with Anthropic, which has invested in over 40 companies in the early stages of AI. Public investments include Goodfire, where he serves as a board member. He initially entered OpenRouter with a small check from the Anthology Fund, later leading a $40 million Series A round in June and serving as a board observer.

OpenRouter provides developers with a unified interface to access hundreds of models from Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, and others. Das noted that in the past year, its annual token processing increased from about 100 trillion to over 250 trillion, approximately 25 times. Since its revenue is tied to usage, the surge in usage corresponds to a simultaneous rise in revenue. Its public portfolio also includes Wispr Flow, Modal, Pangram, Inception, and Prime Intellect.

This is an alignment of positions within the same institution, not a new fundraising event. Buyers treat early checks as information options and retain the right to increase their stakes later. The pressure on sellers lies in being limited to a single small proportion and unable to expand their positions after data confirmation as seed managers. Mockery itself does not change the flow of funds; multiple holdings are, by definition, an options portfolio.

Menlo's website lists its responsibilities as early investments in AI infrastructure, robotics and hardware, and enterprise software. The structure of the Anthology Fund is designed to exchange access to early-stage projects for relationships with Anthropic's models, with the main fund increasing its stake once evidence of usage or revenue appears.

Source: Public Information