Eclipse rejects the traditional VC label, preferring "Operators with Capital." This model is tailored for physical industries, where hands-on expertise in manufacturing, supply chain, and CapEx management is more valuable to founders than passive capital alone.
At 85, Sequoia veteran Pierre Lamond co-founded Eclipse, instilling a culture of extreme discipline. He brought an "old-school" venture ethos where competing VCs collaborated to save companies—a stark contrast to today's hyper-competitive, zero-sum environment.
Eclipse's incubation strategy, responsible for a third of its portfolio, originated from the founder's personal desire to continue building. This "selfish" motivation serves a strategic purpose: it keeps the operator-investors' skills current with technology, talent, and customer networks.
Eclipse's Lior Susan claims Silicon Valley's obsession with SaaS gross margins is an "accounting trick." For physical industries and public markets, free cash flow is the only metric that truly matters as it dictates earnings per share (EPS). Companies solving huge problems can trade at high multiples despite lower gross margins.
Companies in physical industries, like SpaceX (launch to Starlink) and Redwood Materials (recycling to energy storage), have a unique ability to launch "second and third acts." Successfully building one part of the stack allows them to introduce entirely new businesses and vertically integrate, capturing more value within their sector.
Eclipse strategically invests across the entire AI infrastructure stack to create the "Eclipse Economy." For large deals, it bundles services from multiple portfolio companies (chips, racks, data centers), turning a $1 deal into a $4-5 opportunity and creating an advantage similar to a nation-state's industrial policy.
Contrary to institutional investor norms, Eclipse's strategy is "not to have a portfolio construction." They reject a box-checking approach to diversification (e.g., one company per category). Instead, they invest based on obsession, willing to back multiple companies in the same sector if they see a massive opportunity.
One of Eclipse's incubation models involves convincing large corporations like Rivian to spin out promising internal projects into standalone companies. This allows the new venture to attract specialized talent and external capital while operating as a neutral "Switzerland" that can serve the entire industry, not just its former parent.
For an operator-investor in physical industries, being hands-on isn't just strategy. It means showing up during a crisis. Lior Susan recounts flying to a portfolio company's flooded data center and spending 72 hours on the floor helping fix the problem, demonstrating an extreme level of commitment.