Prediction certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

O'Driscoll: Evaluating $60M YC AI seed rounds will take eight years

Rory O'Driscoll · Is DPI The Only Thing That Matters? with Sam Lessin, Jason Lemkin & Rory O’Driscoll · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jun 5, 2025 · at 1:14:53

Rory O'Driscoll, General Partner at Scale Venture Partners, discusses the long feedback loops in assessing venture capital asset returns.

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“It'll take 10 years to discover if the eight billion dollar funds work and deliver an acceptable return. It'll take eight years to figure out, can you pay 60 pre for an AI Y Combinator startup and make money on average?”

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