Disclosure certainty 5/5 debate potential 2/5

Clements: Accel missed investing in early AI foundation model companies

Miles Clements · "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Mar 9, 2026 · at 27:31

Miles Clements is a Growth Partner at Accel. Speaking on 20VC, he acknowledges that Accel failed to back early AI foundation model companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

0:00 / 0:04exact quote · 4.6s
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“A lot of firms miss the model companies early, and we're guilty of it.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Miles Clements

Insight
Clements: VCs that never lose deal fights aren't competing hard enough
“I think if you're not putting yourself out there in losing, sometimes you're not chasing competitive enough things.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 29:54 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Open · timeframe Mar 2027
Clements: 95% of developers switch AI models daily
“And one of the things that we're learning is like 50% of developers switch model families on a daily basis and 95% of developers switch models on a daily basis.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 6:24 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Held up
Clements: Cursor will build specialized coding models for enterprise users
“Cursor is going to build specialized coding models that are going to serve specialized coding tasks, especially for a lot of enterprise users.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 7:23 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Clements: Accel's initial Cursor investment was priced at 4-5x year-end ARR
“Actually, this company is growing so quickly that on a multiples basis, you know, our first investment was at like four times, five times year-end ARR.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 9:13 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Clements: VCs get hammered sitting in the middle of consensus
“I think you can actually be successful in this market investing in consensus. And I think you can actually do really well investing in like non-consensus. I think you get hammered sitting in the middle.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 12:07 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Clements: Accel lost ServiceTitan over rigid valuation caps before $9B valuation
“We had fallen in love with our envy. We were chasing this round. It was going to happen in the two 50 or three hundred million dollar range. And, you know, we had these rigid rules about like, you definitely can't pay more than six times, six to eight times fo…”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 16:28 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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