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Sam Lessin: AI startup wars and overpriced funding rounds are miserable

Sam Lessin · #109 OpenAI vs Google: The Real Business Model War Begins · More or Less Podcast · Jul 25, 2025 · at 3:08

Sam Lessin, partner at Slow Ventures, reflects on the current state of venture capital and the hype driving generative AI startup competition.

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“Actually, I just think everyone's too depressed and not having enough fun. And the question is like, I like even AI, it's funny because like there are parts of it that are quite fun, right? Like programming is quite fun on some of these things that are fun, but then you're like these AI wars, like this is not fun, right? Like this is just like shitty and like these overpriced rounds of like everyone's hustling. So like none of this is fun.”

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