Pablo Srugo explains why AI founders should offer end-to-end services directly rather than selling software to legacy service providers.
Insight
Srugo: Ignore Advice to Work On Your Business Instead of In It
“It's almost like, you know, they tell you shouldn't be working in the business. You should be working on the business. And I'm like, no, you should be working in the business as long as humanly possible. You should do whatever's the hardest thing to do that yo…”
Insight
Srugo: Intros from VCs who passed destroy fundraising momentum
“If I, as a VC, make an intro to another VC, the first question they're going to ask me is, are you investing? And if I say no, I've just deflated that balloon completely. So the last person that you want to intro you to other VCs Is a VC.”
Insight
Srugo: Time-in-Market Moats Do Not Exist for AI Startups
“All the models just constantly get better and a new entrant coming in today can probably out of the box, have a product that is equally as good as yours. And so your time in market mode, frankly, doesn't exist.”
Insight
Srugo: Seed investing risk shifted from product value to competitive defensibility
“Pre-gen AI, the biggest thing was as a seed stage investor, is this real value creation? Like, is this a nice to have versus a must have? That was the big question for most companies that came to pitch... These days, the reality is AI has put founders in a pla…”
Insight
Srugo: A $5M to $10M business does not require true PMF
“Product market fit is the thing that's going to give you the venture type growth, right? The truly exponential, hard to control growth that puts you on a path to like a hundred million plus in revenue. If you want to build like a five to ten million dollar bus…”
Opinion
Srugo: Early startup success requires 12-hour days and weekend work
“In the early days, I actually do think that, and I don't think, you know, luck aside, you can really get something off the ground, because the ball's not rolling, man, it's a boulder, and you gotta just push that thing, and so like, If you're not very all in a…”