This episode of the Sunny Ray Show features Sarah Romanko, a member of the investment team at Geek Ventures, a firm focused on backing immigrant founders in AI and robotics. Sarah traces her path from a studious childhood in Austin through founding the UT Dallas Skills USA chapter and becoming its national president, to graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA and a national gold medal. She discusses an early stint in financial planning, her deliberate move into venture capital, and how she built a network from scratch by staying authentic rather than changing to fit in. The conversation covers her intense work ethic, her early fascination with Shark Tank, and why she ultimately landed at Geek Ventures after cycling through several temporary VC roles. Sarah shares what she looks for in founder pitches, lessons from her Hacking for Defense project at UT Dallas, how Geek Ventures supports portfolio companies after investing, and why she sees AI infrastructure and hardware software differentiation as underrated investment categories. She closes by discussing her role with the Texas Venture Gala and gaps in the Austin startup ecosystem.
A 4.0 GPA gold medalist explains how authenticity and relentless work ethic opened doors into venture capital.
What were you like as a kid, were you entrepreneurial from the start?
I was a really studious child, to the point my parents had to convince me to go out and have fun instead of party. I always wanted to work and study, and I was never the popular kid. I stayed true to myself even though it was hard being different, believing that someday my work ethic would matter.
You founded the UT Dallas Skills USA chapter from scratch and became national president. What made you build it?
In high school I competed in business competitions through Skills USA and watched Shark Tank, which shaped my future career. I wanted other students to have those same opportunities, so I started the chapter. As national president during COVID, my team never actually met in person until 2021, at the end of our term.
Your first job was in financial planning at 49 Financial. What was that pivot about?
It was about finding the role that worked best for me. I always knew venture capital interested me, but it was hard to break into because I lacked the experience VCs wanted at the time. What stood out to me about VC was wanting to back founders from the very beginning.
You came to Dallas knowing no one. How did you build a network from zero?
I acknowledged I'd done this before, having switched schools as a kid. I decided to be myself and find like minded people rather than change for anyone. I led with kindness, gave people the benefit of the doubt, stayed transparent, and cared about my reputation, and that's how I built my career and network.
You've cycled through multiple VC firms before landing at Geek Ventures. What were you looking for?
Many of my earlier VC roles were temporary because smaller firms couldn't support a full time hire based on their AUM. I loved Geek Ventures' mission of investing in immigrant founders, that we keep helping founders we don't fund, and that the team made me feel welcome and at home from the start.
You've evaluated hundreds of startups. What's the one thing founders get completely wrong in a pitch?
Not knowing who they're pitching to. You need to read the room and adapt your pitch, whether the investor is technical or not. Founders who ask about my background before pitching, or who dig into specifics like my real estate experience for a proptech pitch, show real effort and increase our chance of investing.
What happens after Geek Ventures wires the money? How do you actually help founders?
We help with investor introductions through our large network and can write follow on checks for top performers. We host events worldwide in places like Zurich, Lisbon, San Francisco, Austin and New York connecting founders with LPs and each other, and all founders join our CEO community for ongoing support and resources.
Is AI and robotics a central investment focus, and what category is underrated?
Yes, and I think infrastructure AI is really interesting. We're looking for companies with strong hardware and software components rather than just application layer AI wrappers, because we question long term differentiation. We've passed on companies with great traction when the differentiation wasn't strong enough.
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