Venture capital

State of Startups and AI 2025 - Sarah Guo, Conviction

State of Startups and AI 2025 - Sarah Guo, Conviction

Sarah Goa from the AI-native venture fund Conviction discusses the state of AI, arguing that despite the hype, building valuable AI products is challenging. She covers the rapid advancement in AI capabilities like reasoning and multimodality, the increasingly competitive model market, and provides a playbook for building successful applications, using "Cursor for X" as a framework. The key takeaway is that defensibility in AI comes from superior execution and deep workflow integration, not just the underlying model.

The AI Engineer’s Guide to Raising VC — Dani Grant (Jam), Chelcie Taylor (Notable)

The AI Engineer’s Guide to Raising VC — Dani Grant (Jam), Chelcie Taylor (Notable)

VCs Dani Grant and Chelcie Taylor provide a tactical playbook for AI engineers on raising their first round of funding. They cover when to raise, how to write effective cold emails, what to focus on in a pitch (vision over tech), how to answer key questions about competitors and go-to-market, and the dynamics of a successful investor meeting.