
Piyush Kharbanda, General Partner at Vertex Ventures, discusses his firm’s AI investment thesis.
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Dean Guida, CEO and Founder at Infragistics, has a real passion for the elegance, simplicity, and beauty of software development. He has built a company celebrating these values and shared his story with me in 2021.
Sramana Mitra: We will start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised?
Dean Guida: When I was six years old, my mom and dad got divorced. I moved to Miami, Florida. I saw how much my mom struggled to make money for us. When I was eight years old, I just wanted to work. I convinced the maintenance man in the apartment that I was living in to let me do his work. He would pay me off the books.
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For our Seed Capital series of podcasts, I’ve interviewed hundreds of investors, especially micro-VCs and angels who play an important role in the early-stage game. The toughest round of funding an entrepreneur will seek to raise is Pre-seed. How do you increase your odds?
Pre-seed has the lowest probability of success. Over 99% of the entrepreneurs who seek financing are rejected. Read more about the Probability of Pre-Seed Funding.
Sramana Mitra: I’m sure you are seeing that category of entrepreneurs in the geographies that you’re catering to. That is a true statement. They’re benefiting from the fact that the ultralight startup trend is really taking off right now because of AI.
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Yesterday Palantir (NYSE: PLTR) announced its first quarter earnings that outpaced market expectations. Driven by strong government contracts, the company raised its outlook for the year as well.
Sramana Mitra: The founders that are prized are founders who bring that kind of deep domain knowledge with which to build something differentiated.
>>>Sramana Mitra: So, tell me a little bit about fund two. What are you expecting to see? I’m sure you have some sort of a pipeline and deal flow that’s already built up as you are starting to divest your second fund. What is happening in the geographies you are interested in? Tell us more about what’s happening in the tech enabled services work.
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