Good morning 👋
On Tuesday, we asked about people’s optimism for the next four years of building in America.
To spoil the poll results at the bottom of this newsletter, it sounds like everybody is on the same page - it’s a Golden Era in America. Masa agrees.
On that subject …
Everybody has an opinion on what will happen with AI investing, so we wanted to hear from the source.
Here’s what enterprise VCs are betting on in the coming months.
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Today’s highlights
VC weigh in on what they want to see from AI companies
Insight raises new funds
10 years of money wisdom
100 rules to live by
TOP
Request for startups (AI edition) 🤖
Venture investors are paid to think about the future, and whether they’re right or wrong, we like hearing their predictions.
TechCrunch surveyed a bunch of enterprise VCs to hear about what types of AI companies they are looking for.
Here’s what they had to say:
“I find models that excel at specific functions particularly intriguing, especially when combined with agents built on top of them. As AI adoption accelerates, application-focused companies will take center stage, as CEOs increasingly seek ways to leverage AI in specific areas that deliver tangible, transformative impact.”
“I look for solutions that solve unique, orthogonal challenges for enterprises — areas where traditional solutions have fallen short. This includes vertical and persona-specific workflows reimagined with GenAI or agentic automation and security innovations that do not only identify and alert, but also remediate.”
“The Crowdstrike software update incident demonstrated how fragile our digital world is, not only due to cyber attackers but also just mistakes. We need more resilient, anti-fragile digital infrastructure by design.”
“It’s still very early innings here, and I believe that momentum for AI infrastructure will continue into 2025, particularly as agentic frameworks proliferate, new model paradigms (including reasoning) develop, edge AI advances, and UI/UX of AI applications evolve (including computer use).”
COMMUNITY
The OS for private investors 🕹
So you have a choice to make, and every choice has a lists of pros and cons.
Here’s the case for joining the #1 private investor community:
Cons: Pay the annual dues of $400 / year to join the #1 private investor
Pros: Speed up your onboarding curve, get an evergreen playbook that you can use over and over again on the job, meet other co-investors , meet new LPs through your new co-investor connections, expand your deal flow through new introductions from your new investor network
We’re biased, but we think the choice is pretty clear …
LINKS
🎙️ TikTok On The Brink, ChatGPT Does Your Tasks, Unemployed MBAs: Big Technology Podcast discusses the latest tech news
🧐 10 Ideas That I’ve Been Thinking About: Timeless thoughts of Jack Raines
🏁 30 Growing Startups That Are Actively Hiring: Ben Lang lists those that have raised $10-$50M in recent weeks and need employees
💲 Money Wisdom (Reminders to Self): Shaan Puri posts his 10 years of scatchpad notes
📜 100 Rules to Live By: Dru Riley reads these every morning
TWEET
HEADLINES
Vertice bags $50M for its AI-powered SaaS spend platform (TechCrunch)
Seed Rounds Got Larger Through The Downturn. Why Is That? (Crunchbase)
New York powerhouse VC Insight Partners nabs another $12.5B after $8B in exits (TechCrunch)
Europe’s VCs enter 2025 with high hopes amid AI gold rush and IPO recovery (Pitchbook)
Thoma Bravo raises $3.6B for senior debt (Pitchbook)
MEME
RECS
beehiiv: Turn your email list into a media company
UPGRADE
ICYMI 👀
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- Clay
RESULTS
Here are the results from our poll question in Tuesday’s piece:
On a scale of 1-10, how optimistic are you about the next four years of building in America?
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 1️⃣ (2)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 2️⃣ (1)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 3️⃣ (3)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 4️⃣ (1)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 5️⃣ (0)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 6️⃣ (3)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 7️⃣ (1)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 8️⃣ (1)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 9️⃣ (0)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🔟 (7) 19 Votes
