Avidan Ross is a former CTO and hands-on engineer turned VC at Root Ventures who still actively builds hardware himself, from custom 1,000-degree pizza ovens to machining projects, giving him deep technical credibility with mechanical and embedded founders. He positions himself as a sherpa for hard-technology startups, acting as an engineering thought partner who helps debug hardware roadmaps and navigate early manufacturing choices rather than serving only as a financial backer. Avidan Ross is a former CTO and hands-on engineer turned VC at Root Ventures who still actively builds hardware himself, from custom 1,000-degree pizza ovens to machining projects, giving him deep technical credibility with mechanical and embedded founders. He positions himself as a sherpa for hard-technology startups, acting as an engineering thought partner who helps debug hardware roadmaps and navigate early manufacturing choices rather than serving only as a financial backer.