Philip Clark
Partner, Thrive Capital. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
Philip Clark is a Partner at venture capital firm Thrive Capital. He focuses on evaluating founders and investing in technology companies, including OpenAI, Cursor, Wiz, Nudge, and Physica.
1shows
1appearances
31statements
5resolved
4supported
1contradicted
80%fully supported
Everything Philip Clark said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Clark: Every major large model paradigm has originated at OpenAI
“Every single major paradigm In large models at this sort of macro level that has been very successful to my knowledge has come from open AI or at least been originated at open AI.”
Clark: Cursor reached hundreds of millions in run-rate revenue in 18 months
“I think when we invested, there were a couple tens of thousands of users and you know, low single digits, million air are fast forward to today. I don't think the company publicly publishes revenue, but call it on the Many, many hundreds of millions of run rat…”
Clark: Some of the most valuable companies will be in hardware
“I am fairly confident that We are going to produce some of the world's most valuable companies in hardware over the next decade.”
Clark: AI-native youth excel at frontier model experimentation
“The people who almost hold the model weights in their brains because they've been brought up thinking about AI natively are really, really good at the creative thinking and experiments and hypothesis testing that is necessary to push the performance of these m…”
Clark: Wiz closed six-figure enterprise deals in weeks or months
“And so Wiz was Closing on these like very healthy six figure deals in a matter of weeks or months, which was just unprecedented. You know, normally you have small deals and fast cycles. You can have big deals and slow cycles, which had more or less figured out…”
Clark: SpaceX, Tesla, and Anduril accelerated growth at multi-billion scale
“I was looking at the revenue curves actually of and roll and SpaceX and Tesla the other day, and they are some of the only companies that have actually accelerated growth at scale, which is to say they are growing at a faster rate at multi-billion dollar scale…”
Clark: Starlink generates large majority of SpaceX revenue and cash flow
“Created the opportunity for them to build a Starlink, which is now one of the most powerful internet constellations in the world. And it's actually driving a very, very large majority Of overall free cashflow and revenue for the business.”
Clark: Ultrasound brain stimulation can outperform TMS and improve compliance
“And so not only do we think that Ultrasound can be more effective than TMS, but you know, wearing a pair of headphones in your head, way easier than going to a clinic to get zapped.”
Clark: Only two venture firms gave OpenAI a term sheet in early 2023
“And so when we invested in open AI in that round, I think we were one of two firms that gave the company a term sheet.”
Clark: Productized intelligence will create a post-SaaS era of software companies
“Now there's a new substrate for technology, which is what if you could productize intelligence and call it via API or fine tune a model with it? And I think that it engenders an entirely new breed of software companies. So I don't think it's an after open AI. …”
Clark: No Thrive portfolio company has laid off engineers due to AI
“My bottoms up answer is I'm an investor in a lot of companies that use AI tools. I cannot think, especially on sort of the coding side and engineering side of a single one that has laid off engineers because of these tools.”
Clark: Wiz had churned only one customer before Thrive's round
“I think they'd almost never, they turned one customer in the course of all the time between when they started the company and when we were looking at this round.”
Clark: Hardware startup opportunities are at a 20-year high
“And so I think as an investor and someone who's really excited about companies that can counterfactually impact the world, that can make the world look physically different in some meaningful way, the number of opportunities now in hardware are far greater tha…”
Clark: Anduril won a defense program of record within two years
“They, I think, won a program of record, which are the very big budget line item contracts in the National Defense Authorization Act within two years. Fastest timeline since the Korean War.”
Clark: Five of the ten most valuable companies are hardware companies
“Even right now, five to 10 most valuable companies in the world are hardware companies. Apple, Nvidia, Broadcom, Tesla, TSMC.”
Clark: Thrive Capital backs non-invasive neurotech startup Nudge
“Also investors in Nudge, like you mentioned, Jeremy, who used to help run engineering at Neuralink and Fred Ursum, who was one of the co-founders of Coinbase, who are working on these very unique missions.”
Clark: Neuralink will eventually restore sight and motor function
“I think they'll actually do a number of things that are really helpful on the right side too. You know, things from there roadmap like blindsight, which they're gonna try to restore sight to the blind. You can imagine things that are actually gonna try to rest…”
Clark: Thrive's original OpenAI memo made no mention of ChatGPT
“We looked at our original investment memo. There was no mention of ChatGT in there.”
Clark: AI Labs' Key Edge Is Finding Next Paradigms While Productizing
“The ultimate competitive advantage for the labs and for OpenAI in particular is actually being able to constantly figure out what the next paradigm is, even as you're productizing and implementing the last paradigm.”
Clark: OpenAI will endure in the near term like Meta or Google
“I think the beauty is one, hopefully open AI is going to be an enduring technology. And so I'd be very surprised if in the near term we were talking about an after open AI, you know, is there an after meta or an after Google?”
Clark: Software companies will productize reinforcement learning to automate high-drudgery work
“I think we're in this moment where reinforcement learning, as you mentioned, is this new lever, but we've seen it make its way into very few new software products. I think few products in the labs rumor has it some of the coding companies like cursor have done…”
Clark: A new wave of hardware companies will tackle physical GDP
“I think we're gonna see a real renaissance of, you know, problems that don't just have to be solved with bits. They can also be solved with atoms as well. You know, sometimes to make a real impact on the world, you actually need to move something in reality. A…”
Clark: Thrive Capital led the seed round for Mesh Optical
“Mesh is a pair of founders from SpaceX named Travis and Cameron, who I actually knew back from college and then went to work on the Starlink photonics team. So the team that uses lasers in space to pass data from one satellite to another to give us internet. A…”
Clark: Thrive Capital invested in Cursor after a yearlong pursuit
“Myself and my partner, Miles spent the next year trying to see how we could ultimately partner with them. And fast forward to May of 20, 24, we finally convinced them that we were the right sorts of people to bring onto the cap table.”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Philip's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 SOURCERYLEDGER | Partner, Thrive Capital | 1 | 31 | 80% 4/5 | full record on Sourcery → |