Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177

Saam Motamedi is a General Partner at Greylock, where he has led investments in Abnormal Security (incubated at Greylock), Apiiro Security and Opal Security, as well as AI companies like Adept, Braintrst, Cresta, Predibase, Snorkel, and more. Before Greylock, Saam founded Guru Labs, a machine learning-driven fintech startup, and worked in product management at RelateIQ, one of the first applied AI software companies. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:06) The Lasting Impact of Childhood (02:20) Is Hyper Competition for the Young? (03:16) Are We in an AI Bubble? (07:58) Differentiating in a Crowded AI Market (10:30) Can OpenAI Updates Threaten AI Application Businesses? (12:38) Venture Opportunities in the Foundational Model Layer (16:03) Is SaaS Ending? The Shift to Custom-Built Software (23:24) Rationality in Seed & Series A Pricing (30:54) Maintaining High Standards with Irrelevant Check Sizes (33:00) The Impact of Signaling in VC (38:07) Saam’s Approaches to Managing Investment Reserves (39:01) Rethinking ARR as a Series A Filter (45:43) Great Founder, Poor Market: Would You Invest? (51:07) Lessons from Investing in Great Founders, Poor Markets (54:18) Mastering Sourcing, Selecting, and Servicing (59:29) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Conversation We Discuss: 1. Seed Today is Frothier than 2021: How does Saam evaluate the seed market today? With seed pricing being so high, how does he reflect on his own price sensitivity? When does he say too much and does not do it? Despite seed pricing being higher than ever before, why does Saam believe it is rational? How has the competition at seed changed in the last few years? 2. Series B and Growth are not a Viable Asset Class Today: Why does Saam believe that you cannot make money at Series B today? Why has pricing gone through the roof? Who is the new competition? When does it make sense to “play the game on the field” vs say this is BS and do something else? What would need to happen in the public markets for Series B to be a viable asset class again? 3. Markets vs Founders: The Billion Dollar Mistake and Lessons: How does Saam prioritise between founder vs market? What have been Saam’s biggest lessons when it comes to market sizing and timing? What is Saam’s biggest miss? How did it change his approach and company evaluation? Which other VC would Saam most like to swap portfolios with? Why them? 4. Saam Motamedi: AMA: What does Saam know now that he wishes he had known when he got into VC? Saam has had a meteoric rise in Greylock, what advice does Saam have for those younger investors look to really scale within a firm? Sourcing, selecting and servicing: Where is he best? Where is he worst? Why does Saam believe that most VCs do not add value? ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Saam Motamedi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/saammotamedi Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #podcast #saammotamedi #greylockpartners #venturecapital #founder #startup #fintech