Sarah Guo: On Her New $101M Fund; How AI Impacts Inequality; AI Startups vs Incumbents | E1007

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

April 28, 2023

Duration

54m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Sarah Guo is the Founding Partner @ Conviction Capital, a $100M first fund purpose-built to serve “Software 3.0” companies. Prior to founding Conviction, Sarah was a General Partner at Greylock where she made investments in the likes of Figma, Coda, Neeva and many more incredible companies. Sarah also hosts her own podcast, No Priors with the wonderful Elad Gil. ------------------------------------- Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (0:55) Why Sarah Left Greylock (3:02) Conviction’s Thesis (3:51) AI & Wealth Inequality (5:08) AI Regulation (6:43) Investing in AI (23:00) Can AI startups compete with the incumbents? (26:11) Idea Generation (28:45) Founder vs Market (30:58) Sarah’s Biggest Investing Mistake (32:49) Startup Defensibility (33:55) Multi-Stage Firms vs Boutique Firms (37:42) The Death of the Generalist VC (41:11) Will the economy improve by the end of 2023? (42:04) AI Software vs Services (44:10) Buy or Sell: Multi-Stage & Boutique Firms (46:15) Dangers of AI Code Generation (46:56) Sarah’s New Mindset for Investing (48:14) Reserve Management (49:05) The World of LPs (50:42) Will Trump win in 2024? (52:03) What does success look like for Conviction? ------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Sarah Guo We Discuss:

1. From Large Multi-Stage Firm to Founding Conviction: Why did Sarah decide to leave Greylock? What are 1-2 of her biggest lessons from her time at Greylock? How did they impact her mindset when building Conviction today? What does Sarah believe are the most surprising or hardest elements of firm building?

1. The Future for AI: The Opportunities and the Challenges: Why does Sarah believe AI is the most foundational technology of our lifetime? Why did Sarah decide to centre the entire fund around AI? Is AI not an enabling technology that will power all sectors in technology? Is Sarah concerned by the further wealth inequality that AI and billion dollar companies created by 10 people, will inevitably bring? How does Sarah think about the potential for malicious AI use? What can be done to prevent this?

1. Startup and VC Principles That Are BS: Why does Sarah believe that defensibility is BS? Why do Sarah and Harry both believe that reserves in venture funds are a suboptimal use of funds? “Great founder, bad market, market wins”. Does Sarah agree? How does Sarah prioritize the centrality of founder vs market?

1. Sarah Guo: The Investor How has Sarah changed most significantly as an investor over the last 5 years? What is Sarah’s biggest miss? How did it impact her mindset today? What is Sarah’s biggest win? How did that alter her risk appetite? How does Sarah see the future of venture? If Sarah could invest in one multi-stage firm and one seed-stage firm, which would it be? ------------------------------------------------------------ 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 Sarah Guo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/saranormous Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels 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 -------------------------------------------- #SarahGuo #HarryStebbings #20VC #greylock #venturecapital #AI #chatgpt

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Sarah Guo

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Sarah Guo and Harry Stebbings, Sarah Guo: On Her New $101M Fund; How AI Impacts Inequality; AI Startups vs Incumbents | E1007 explores sarah Guo Explains Conviction, AI’s Future, and Venture’s Next Era Sarah Guo, former Greylock partner and now founder of Conviction, discusses why she left a top-tier firm to start a $101M, AI-focused early-stage fund. She argues AI is a once-in-a-generation platform shift that will enable tiny teams to build billion-dollar businesses, while also exacerbating wealth inequality and creating new security risks. The conversation ranges from AI regulation, capital intensity, and startup vs incumbent dynamics to how founders should pick ideas, think about defensibility, and choose investors. Guo also reflects on her own investing mistakes, LP dynamics, and what long-term success for Conviction should look like.

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