Vollset: PE buyers hesitate on AI SaaS due to downside risk focus
Einar Vollset · Episode 836 | The 5 A.I. Moats Acquirers Value Most · Jun 9, 2026 · at 30:08
Einar Vollset (Discretion Capital) explains why private equity acquirers approach AI-native SaaS startups with far greater skepticism and scrutiny than venture capitalists do.
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“The thing, the key, key thing to understand here is that founders are sometimes a little frustrated with private equity because they think of them more like venture capitalists, and like venture capitalists typically will take, very gung-ho, will take extremely high risks because they're expecting a vast majority of their investments to go to zero. That is not what private equity does. Private equity, if anything, is slower to adopt the sentiment because they're usually, their whole business model Depends upon being able to underwrite the downside risk. And so that is the challenge when it comes to AI. They don't have a good mental or even Excel model of like, okay, how do I think about the risks to this business? And so in that case, they'll tend to step back.”
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