Mehra: Anthropic and OpenAI will steamroll standalone developer tooling startups
Krishna Mehra · Slow Teams Lose PMF in 90 Days | Krishna M, Elevation Capital · Aug 22, 2026 · at 37:09
Krishna Mehra, Partner at Elevation Capital, explains why the venture firm is currently cautious about investing in AI-powered software development lifecycle (SDLC) tooling.
0:00 / 0:21exact quote · 21.8s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“The parts which I think I would say we are less excited about. Is generally things around the SDLC right now. Because the challenges in SDLC, you're in the way of anthropic and open AI. So hard to underwrite anything on what direction they'll take. And honestly, my feeling is they'll do everything.”
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 Krishna Mehra
Mehra: Silicon Valley's AI lead is only three to six months
“Sure, Silicon Valley is still ahead, you could argue, but if in the world of SaaS, Silicon Valley was five years, 10 years ahead, I mean, it's probably three to six months ahead.”
Mehra: India-US startup corridor will produce many more winners over next decade
“If we produced a handful of winners, I see no reason why we should have many, many more in the next 10 years, right? So the first part of the thinking is, hey this corridor is really going to prosper.”
Mehra: Many VCs passed on early Anthropic rounds over valuation fears
“I mean, a lot of people also passed Anthropic at Seed and Series A and Series B and Series C. For them, Anthropic was very expensive.”
Mehra: Idle AI startups lose product-market fit within a quarter
“Everything is moving so fast that if you actually sit idle you will basically be you will lose your PMF within like a quarter, right? So I do feel that that velocity and that sense of urgency is one of the most important traits in AI as compared to, let's say,…”
Mehra: Founder ambition separates $500M outcomes from $10B outcomes
“The difference between a company with a half a billion outcome and a ten billion outcome is just purely the hunger, ambition, and fearlessness of the founder.”
Mehra: Bangalore founders face no skill or network disadvantage versus US founders
“Like whether a kid is moving from you know, New Jersey or Georgia or Bangalore, I mean, they have the scale skill set and they are coming here with the same network. So from that perspective, I don't think founders are at a disadvantage of any kind.”