1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Daniel Ibri, Mindset Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Great. That clarifies things. Now, let’s talk about AI. What’s happening? What are you seeing? What are you investing in? What do you like to invest in?

Daniel Ibri: If we had five hours, we could cover it all. Let me separate it into two parts: what’s happening with AI in terms of investment focus and deal pipeline, and what’s happening with AI in our day-to-day work as a VC, because that’s changing too.

In terms of companies we’re looking at, everything now involves AI. Every company needs some AI component. The challenge is separating real AI and real technological differentiation from basic AI wrappers built on top of models like GPT, which are easy to create because barriers and costs are low.

I strongly believe in AI and the opportunity it represents. The challenge is finding differentiated technology, real moats—either tech or go-to-market—teams that understand the technology and know-how to scale, especially when clients are overwhelmed by hundreds of companies knocking on their doors. You need differentiation in your sales or go-to-market strategy to stand out.

We also try to avoid the valuation hype. There’s a clear valuation bubble around AI, especially in growth-stage companies. Finding good deals isn’t easy: strong teams, strong technology, strong go-to-market, and reasonable valuations—getting all of that together is very challenging.

Sramana Mitra: Very challenging.

Daniel Ibri: And the best companies are extremely competitive. Getting into these deals is challenging, but that’s our job.

Sramana Mitra: What size checks are you writing?

Daniel Ibri: Usually we invest $1.5 to $2 million initially, and then follow on. Sometimes we double or triple that over time.

Sramana Mitra: I want to highlight something for our audience. What Daniel said about LLM wrappers—ChatGPT wrappers—not having enough moat for venture capital is absolutely true.
At the same time, in 1Mby1M we heavily support bootstrapped founders. These are fantastic opportunities for bootstrapped entrepreneurship. As a solo entrepreneur or a small team, you can build solid businesses using wrappers on top of ChatGPT if you’re solving a real problem with a paying customer base. There are endless niches, many of them sizable.

We have a large base of solo and bootstrapped founders, and we fully support building such businesses through 1Mby1M.

Daniel Ibri: I completely agree. Venture-backed companies aiming for IPOs in 10 years are not the only path. Entrepreneurs can absolutely build successful, lucrative businesses without raising venture capital. With today’s AI tools—agents, code generation—you don’t need to be an expert coder to build and launch products.

Being a bootstrapped founder can make you happier and wealthier, especially when you don’t have to share equity with investors. There are many opportunities to build strong companies independently.

This segment is part 3 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Daniel Ibri, Mindset Ventures
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