Will Open-Source Threaten Anthropic's Business & Do Margins Matter in a World of AI | Matt Murphy

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

July 27, 2026

Duration

1h 6m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Matt Murphy is a Partner at Menlo Ventures, who just raised $3 billion in fresh capital, its largest pool ever. Matt's portfolio includes Anthropic, Lovable, Legora, OpenRouter, Chai Discovery, Axiom, OpenEvidence and more. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:21 How Menlo Got Into Anthropic 05:12 Ownership Doesn't Matter Anymore 07:25 When Does Price Actually Matter? 10:18 How Menlo Sized Up for the Second Anthropic Round 13:43 When to Take Money Off the Table 22:00 Why Menlo Raised Only $3B When They Could Have Raised Much More 29:41 OpenRouter: Why Matt Thinks It's Already a Beast 31:05 The Legora Investment: Is Anthropic a Threat? 34:33 Series A Is the Worst Insertion Point Right Now 37:18 The Barbell Strategy: Go Earlier and Go Bigger, Skip the Middle 43:25 Can a Great Seed Investor Also Be a Great Growth Investor? 54:59 Menlo's Anthropic Carry 56:33 Richer Investors Make Better Investors 1:01:29 Where Is AI Overheated? 1:02:40 Where Is AI Underinvested? 1:04:15 What Matt Is Most Excited About in the Next 10 Years ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 X: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Matt Murphy on X: https://twitter.com/mmurph 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 #ai #mattmurphy #menloventures #anthropic #opensource #venture

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Matt Murphy

  guest

  Partner at Menlo Ventures and venture capitalist focused on technology and AI investing.

• Harry Stebbings

  host

  Founder and host of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) podcast.

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Matt Murphy and Harry Stebbings, Will Open-Source Threaten Anthropic's Business & Do Margins Matter in a World of AI | Matt Murphy explores matt Murphy on AI investing: ownership, margins, open-source, barbell strategy. Menlo’s Anthropic investment required abandoning traditional ownership/valuation heuristics in favor of gaining exposure to rare, compounding outliers.

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