1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Ihar Mahaniok, Geek Ventures (Part 1)

Ihar Mahaniok is Managing Partner at Geek Ventures. We have an excellent discussion on AI trends and startup opportunities.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: JP Persico, shuckerVC (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do one more example of what you’ve invested in.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: JP Persico, shuckerVC (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What size checks do you write at pre-seed and seed, and what proof points do you look for?

JP Persico: At pre-seed, we focus more on the technology and the team. Who’s the team? Is there a single CEO or co-founders? What industry are they targeting? What kind of software are they building? We look for early indicators of product-market fit, though not full product-market fit yet.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: JP Persico, shuckerVC (Part 1)

Jean-Philippe ‘JP’ Persico, Cofounder and Managing Partner at shuckerVC, discusses his firm’s investment thesis.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Marina and Nick Davidov, DVC (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Last question—when you write a pre-seed check, what do you want to see in the company?

Nick Davidov: In the founder. At pre-seed, it’s often just one or two founders and maybe an idea.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Marina and Nick Davidov, DVC (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I actually have a much more interesting question to explore with you. We talked about Perplexity as a wrapper. Give me examples of other interesting wrapper companies. I think these wrapper companies are very easy to bootstrap and very desirable for people to build revenue on top of quickly. So, give me more examples of what you’re seeing.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Marina and Nick Davidov, DVC (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s come back to the wrapper question. You started off by saying Perplexity is a wrapper on top of other LLMs.

Nick Davidov: Yes. Perplexity is actually very lean. If you compare how much money they raised, they haven’t spent much of it. They still have the majority in the bank. That’s their superpower.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Marina and Nick Davidov, DVC (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You’re not the only ones who invest only in repeat founders. Most of the venture capital industry does the same. It’s very hard for first-time founders to raise money because of that. We help a lot of first-time founders, and it’s a real challenge.

Let’s go deeper into your AI investment thesis with a more specific question.