20VC: The Twenty Minute VC
Fast, focused interviews with the top venture capitalists shaping AI investment. The pulse of where AI money is moving.
199 episodes curated
Episodes
20VC: The Value Chain of Machine Learning, Is There Really An Incumbency Advantage in ML & Will The Rise In Cyber Remain For the Long Term with Jake Flomenberg, Partner @ Accel
Jake Flomenberg is a Partner @ Accel , one of the top performing venture funds of the last decade with investments in the likes of Dropbox, Slack, Facebook, Deliveroo and Atlassian, just to name a few. As for Jake, at Accel he specializes on all things Big Data and has led investments in the likes of Demisto, Origami Logic, Sumo Logic, Trifacta, and Zoomdata. Prior to Accel, Jake was director of product management at Splunk, where he was responsible for the product's user interface and big data strategy. Before that, he worked at Cloudera where he helped the founding team tackle a broad array
20VC: Founders Fund's Chief Scientist on Why AI Is Mostly A Scam, Why The Value of Large Datasets Is Mostly Overplayed & The Societal Effects of 4m Truck Drivers Being Unemployed with Aaron Vandevende
Aaron VanDevender is the Chief Scientist at Founders Fund , one of the world's leading fund with investments in the likes of Facebook, Airbnb, SpaceX, Spotify and many more incredible companies. At Founders Fund, Aaron monitors the scientific impact of the portfolio, works with portfolio companies, assesses new technologies, and conducts his own research. Prior to Founders Fund, Aaron has designed single-photon and single-atom quantum computers in academia and government (NIST), advanced the quantum-mechanical theory for microscopic black holes, patented the fastest transparent optical switch,
20VC: Duolingo's Luis von Ahn on How CEO's Can Scale With The Company, How VC Herd Mentality In The Valley Really Works and How Chatbots & AI Play A Role In The Future of EdTech
Luis Von Ahn is the Founder & CEO @ Duolingo, the leading language learning platform with over 100m users. They have backing from some of the best in the investing world with over $100m in funding from the likes of USV, Kleiner Perkins, NEA, Google Capital and even Ashton Kutcher. Prior to Duolingo, Luis is known for inventing CAPTCHAs , being a MacArthur Fellow ("genius grant" recipient), and selling two companies to Google in his 20's. Luis has been named one of the 10 Most Brilliant Scientists by Popular Science Magazine , one of the 20 Best Brains Under 40 by Discover . In Today's Episode
20VC: Why Core AI Is Largely A Bunch of Nifty Tricks, Why Consumer Electronics Is The Hardest Thing To Do In Venture & Why Silicon Valley Will Dominate The Future of Robotics with Jeremy Conrad, Partn
Jeremy Conrad is a Partner @ Lemnos Labs , the fund that believes in the earliest stages of building hardware, every dollar counts, every hour matters and every decision is crucial to success or failure. Consequently, Lemnos invests in pre-seed and seed hardware startups encountering these very real challenges. Among their portfolio is the likes of previous guest Swift Navigation and Airware, just to name a few. As for Jeremy, prior to VC he was in the United States Airforce where he was in charge of an $80m tests and targets group and was also responsible for the BMC4I system of the Airborne
20VC: What Is The Big Lie To Silicon Valley, Why Silicon Valley Is No Longer Optimised For Deep Tech Investing & Why AI Will Lead To More Business Model Innovation Than Technology Innovation with Tim
Tim Harris is the Founder & CEO @ Swift Navigation , the startup focused on building a world-class organization that will power the next generation of GPS-enabled robots and autonomous vehicles. They have raised over $45m in VC funding from some of our favourites including the likes of First Round, Felicis, Lemnos Labs and NEA. As for Tim, prior to Swift Tim held numerous roles from supply chain consulting to corporate finance encapsulating strategic partnerships and M&A. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Tim made his way from supply chain consulting to providing navigation for an aut
20VC: Why AI Is More Artificial Than Intelligent, Why Engineering-centric Founders Are Able To Pivot Best & Why Startups Are Like Games with Alina Cohen, General Partner @ Initialized Capital
Alina Cohen is a General Partner @ Initialized Capital , one of Silicon Valleys leading early stage seed funds. Their portfolio includes the likes of recent unicorn, Coinbase, Flexport, Cruise Automation, OpenDoor and many more incredible companies. As for Alina, prior to Initialized, she ran tech investments for Tamares Group, the first outside investor in Palantir, and previously founded Recrec, a computer vision startup which was acquired by Facebook, where she worked on Platform and Groups. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Alina made her way from selling her computer vision start
20VC: YC's Daniel Gross on How YC Can Democratise AI & Reduce Incumbency Advantages, Why ML Enabled Software Will Eat The Software That Ate The World & Whether AI Will Produce Independent Companies or
Daniel Gross is a Partner @ Y Combinator , the world's most successful accelerator with alumni that includes the likes of Airbnb, Dropbox, Reddit, Flexport and many more incredible companies. At Y Combinator Daniel heads up all things YC AI having been a Director @ Apple where he focused on machine learning, as a result of his prior company, Cue (also a YC company) being acquired by Apple in 2013. If that was not enough, Daniel also has one of the valley's most impressive angel portfolios with investments in OpenDoor, Cruise (acquired by GM), Gusto and Github, just to name a few. In Today's Ep
20VC: How To Create FOMO For Investors, How To Manage VC Conversations & A Repeatable Process For Learning New Things with Anna Shedletsky, Founder & CEO @ Instrumental.ai
Anna Shedletsky is the Founder & CEO @ Instrumental , the startup that helps consumer electronics companies ship high-quality hardware, on time. They have funding from some of the best in the business including First Round Capital and a huge thanks to Phin Barnes @ First Round for the intro to Anna today. As for Anna, prior to Instrumental, Anna was a product design lead and manager for the Apple Watch and before that, a product design engineer for the Apple iPod. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Anna made the move from working on the Apple Watch to starting her own startup Instrumen
20VC: How Every VC Firm Is A Marketplace, Why A Large Amount of Promise in AI Today Is Impossible & Entrepreneurs 3 Main Pain Points of Fundraising with Alex Mittal, Founder & CEO @ Funders Club
Alex Mittal is the Founder & CEO @ Funders Club , the company that uses software and networks to provide investors with access to the world's most promising startups. Their portfolio includes the likes of Slack, Greenhouse, Shippo and Flexport just to name a few. They are backed by some of the world's leading investors themselves with the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Felicis Ventures and First Round Capital. Prior to starting FundersClub, Alex was the founding CEO of Innova Dynamics, a VC-backed touchscreen hardware company, leading the company from university laboratory to secu
20VC: Why We Will See A Big Series B Crunch? Why Proprietary Data Pools & AI Talent Will Be The New Limited Natural Resources? Why Now Is The Closest Thing To A New Normal with Tim Chang, Managing Dir
Tim Chang is a Managing Director @ Mayfield Fund and Tim was referred to me by many other VCs as 'the fittest man in silicon Valley', notable tech publications even write it. His eclecticness does not stop there as he is also a musician in 3 bands and a serious body hacker. As for his investments, he has had AdChina (acquired by Alibaba), Playdom (acquired by Disney) and Basis (acquired by Intel) just to name a few. Prior to Mayfield, he spent time at notable institutions including General Motors and Norwest Venture Partners. It is not only us that appreciate Tim's skills though as he has also
20VC: Building An AI Company For The Long Term? How Humans & Machine Learning Can Work Together? What Applications Are The Conversational Interface Best Suited To with Maran Nelson, Founder & CEO @ Cl
Maran Nelson is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Clara Labs , the truly human interface that uses conversational intelligence trained on high-quality data to schedule your meetings. They have secured funding from some of the best in the business including previous guest Kent Goldman @ Upside Partnership and Greg Brockman, Founder of the prestigious OpenAI. As for Maran, she is also the Founder of Interact, a community of 100 young makers and technologists coming together for an annual retreat in Tahoe. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Maran come to found one of the hottest AI startups of t
20VC: How AI Can Enhance Not Replace Humans? What Will Differentiate Between The Winners & The Losers In AI? Why AGI Is Further Away Than We Think with Nitesh Banta, Founder & CEO @ B12
Nitesh Banta is the Founder and CEO @ B12 , the startup that uses AI to superpower their team of world class creatives to create even more intelligent websites. They have backing from the likes of Jim Breyer, General Catalyst and our friends at Founder Collective. As for Nitesh, prior to B12, he was on the dark side as a VC with General Catalyst for 5 years before Co-Founding Rough Draft Ventures, the General Catalyst program designed to develop the next generation of student founders. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Nitesh made the move from VC with General Catalyst to AI Startup f
20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on The Dark Side Of AI & What Happens When 3-4m People Become Unemployed Overnight
Matt Ocko is the Co-Managing Partner and Co-Founder @ Data Collective and has over 3 decades of experience as a tech entrepreneur and VC and has made investments in the likes of Facebook, Zynga, Uber and AngelList just to name a few. If that was not enough he is also an inventor on over 40 granted or in process patents. A truly deep thinker and one of my fave ever shows to record. In Today's Episode with Matt You Will Learn: How Matt made his way into VC and came to co-found Data Collective? What is the biggest challenge facing the rise of AI today? How does this evolve the further into the ca
20VC: Ed Cooke, Grandmaster of Memory on What Is Missing In EdTech? What Does The Integration Of AI & Education Look Like & The Core Pillars Of Optimising Memory
Ed Cooke is the Founder & CEO @ Memrise , the app that makes learning languages joyful and they have funding from some of the best including Lerer Hippeau, Balderton Capital and Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg just to name a few. As for Ed, he must have the most diverse background of any guest as he is a former grandmaster of memory, is a prominent author and features heavily in the book, Moonwalking With Einstein , in which Ed was the memory coach for Josh Foer where he took Josh from beginner to US memory champion in just 1 year. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Ed went from being
20VC: Who Will Own The Data? Is There An Incumbency Advantage in AI? When Will Artificial Super Intelligence Come To The Forefront with Rudina Seseri, Founder and Managing Director @ Glasswing Venture
Rudina Seseri is Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures , Boston's own AI focussed fund. Prior to Glasswing, Rudina was a Partner at Fairhaven Capital, sering as lead investor and Director on the Boards of Celtra, CrowdTwist, Jibo, SocialFlow and Statisfy. Before Fairhaven, she was a Senior Manager in the Corporate Development Group at Microsoft where she was responsible for sourcing, structuring, and negotiating Microsoft's acquisitions and strategic investments. Rudina has served as Entrepreneur-In-Residence for Harvard Business School for 4 consecutive years and is an advisor fo