Sam Lessin, general partner at Slow Ventures, shares his contrarian perspective on the current wave of artificial intelligence venture investing.
Opinion
Lessin says Y Combinator founders pitch investors like 'animals'
“We're a little bit making fun of the fact that YC founders do come out a little bit like animals, right? There's like having met with many of them, I guess not their fault. They're like young kids. They've been holed up in a room coding and that's all they've …”
Opinion
Lessin: AI empowers incumbents rather than creating great startup opportunities
“AI is a powerful tool. It's incredibly powerful for existing businesses and existing structures. It's not a great startup opportunity.”
Opinion
Lessin: Startup founders wearing a Rolex watch is 'very classless'
“Like, you shouldn't have a Rolex, right? It's like very classless, if that makes sense, to like show up as a startup founder with a Rolex, right?”
Opinion
Lessin: Only 0.1% of startups have breakthroughs powerful enough to ignore etiquette
“It is true that if you bring manna from heaven, right, like you invent something that is literally the next Google or whatever out of pure thought, That sometimes none of this stuff matters, right? Like if you just, if you fully, that's it, you know, it's like…”
Insight
Lessin: Founders should always offer to pay the bill with VCs
“Within reason, always offer to pay. Now, you should be turned down, right? If you go out with a VC, right, and you're like, you know, you put a card down, 99% of the time, they'll be like, I got this, like, please, like, this is, don't worry about it, right?”
Insight
Lessin: Pushing humor right to the edge signals social mastery
“The thing about humor is it kind of, there's this interesting subtlety to why it's so useful in social studies, which is one, it kind of shows the ultimate mastery of a social situation. If you're able to tell a joke, Which is right up to the line or even push…”