Gut feeling once ruled venture capital. Back then, knowing the right people mattered most. Spotting future stars came down to practice, sharp eyes, rough guesses. Decades passed like this – handshakes sealing trust, past wins guiding new bets. Now something different stirs beneath the surface. Machines parse what humans used to guess at alone. Algorithms scan noise for signals in startup data. Firms begin seeing patterns hidden until now. One firm leans on code instead of coffee chats. Another swaps gut hunches for structured predictions.