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When in mid-2022 Sarah Guo left Greylock to launch her own<\/a> AI-focused fund, Conviction Partners<\/a>, she indicated that she was tagging the word \u201cPartners\u201d to the firm\u2019s name because she would eventually bring on other GPs.<\/p>\n Now, more than two years later, Guo is being joined by Mike Vernal, who was a partner at Sequoia before leaving the storied firm in 2023. Vernal joins as Conviction reveals it just closed a second fund with $230 million in capital commitments \u2014 more than double the haul of its $101 million debut fund.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t a surprise that Conviction has attracted a heavyweight investor. Over the last two years, Guo has built up Conviction\u2019s brand, becoming among the better-known AI investors in Silicon Valley with stakes in companies like Mistral, Harvey, and Sierra. Guo also co-hosts a popular AI podcast, \u201cNo Priors,\u201d with star investor Elad Gil.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Vernal, who spent nearly seven years at Sequoia \u2014 and the previous eight years at Facebook as a VP of product and engineering \u2014 has himself led deals in numerous high-fliers, including Notion, Rippling, and Verkada, a security camera startup that\u2019s reportedly<\/a> raising funding at a $4.5 billion valuation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n