SINCE 2024
Antler
General Partner
- Founder Origination Method
- Engineer-to-VC Arc
- People Functions From Scratch
- Austin Pre-Seed Founder Backer
General Partner · Antler · Austin, Texas
Prerna Sharma
Austin, Texas
She turned a recruiter's read on people into the method Antler uses to back founders from day zero.
Prerna Sharma is a General Partner at Antler US, where she leads the Austin office and writes $200K–$500K pre-seed checks into DeepTech, AI, and consumer founders like SweatPals, Fastn, and Nucleus 4D. She joined Antler in 2018 as one of its first five employees, after building Uber's earliest Asia recruiting and Flow Traders Asia's People & Culture function. A computer engineer by training, she once shipped GE Healthcare's integration systems in Bangalore.
- $3MSweatPals seed, with a16z & Pear VC
- #5Employee joining Antler in 2018
- $500KPre-seed check sweet spot
- 2→16+Antler recruiting team she grew
HAPPENING NOW
STANDING TODAY
SINCE 2024
FIF Collective
Member
HOW SHE THINKS4 BELIEFS
Four convictions carry from hiring engineers to backing founders.
THE IMPACT
The through-line: build the engine that finds great people, then fund them.
EVERYTHING ELSE · 6 WORKS
THE TIMELINE
One selection instinct — bet on drive over pedigree — carried from hiring engineers to backing founders.
The whole record, newest first – tap any moment and Aster tells the story.
2024–PRESENT
Staking capital on day-zero founders from Austin
In March 2024 Prerna became a General Partner at Antler US and moved from Singapore to Austin to lead the firm's Texas office. She now writes $200K–$500K pre-seed checks into DeepTech, AI, and consumer founders — SweatPals alongside Andreessen Horowitz and Pear VC, Fastn, and Nucleus 4D — betting on the same raw potential she once hired for.
“Set the benchmark high for yourself and strive to be self-driven. As a founder, you will face many obstacles and you need to tackle these without giving up.”
2018–2023
Building Antler from employee number five
Prerna joined Antler in Singapore in 2018 as one of its first five employees and spent six years scaling it — from under ten people to over 150 colleagues globally, and the recruiting team from two to sixteen-plus. She created the firm's core methodology on founder origination, its system for finding and backing founders from day zero, moving from APAC Director to Global Director to Associate Partner.
“Work hard on yourself as a leader and trust the incredible team you have chosen!”
2013–2017
Scaling people across Asia
From 2013 Prerna helped build Uber's earliest APAC recruitment team, hiring hundreds into its Southeast Asia operations during the company's Asia land-grab. In 2015 she joined Flow Traders Asia as a recruiter and was quickly promoted to Head of People Operations, building the Dutch trading firm's entire People & Culture framework from scratch and pushing diversity and work-life-balance programs at a male-dominated firm.
“Great recruiters bring great talents.”
2004–2012
Computer engineer building at scale
Prerna trained as a computer engineer, earning a BE in Computer Science with Distinction from Cummins College of Engineering, Pune. At GE Healthcare's IT Central Engineering in Bangalore she built integration infrastructure — shared patient and user context, roles-and-rights, and single sign-on across clinical products — after starting out at Tata Consultancy Services. A 2011–2012 Masters at NUS in Singapore set up her pivot into talent.