The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding

Latest Episodes:

20VC: Who Wins the Inference Market | Has Open-Source LLM Inference Peaked? | What Happens to the Cost of Compute | The Real Limits of Post-Training and RL with Erik Bernhardsson, Modal CEO Nov 02, 2026

Show notes

Erik Bernhardsson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Modal, the AI infrastructure platform for training models, running inference and powering AI agents. Modal has raised over $1.2 billion, including a recent $750 million Series D led by Accel at a $15.75BN valuation. The company has surpassed $1BN in ARR, growing more than 15x year-on-year. Previously, Erik built Spotify's original music recommendation system.

AGENDA:

05:30 - Why wait until your mid-30s to start a company?

06:40 - Is founding a startup really like "eating glass"?

08:00 - How to Raise $1BN with No Pitch Deck

08:45 - The danger of raising too much venture capital

09:40 - How much cash is Modal burning on GPUs?

10:30 - Do early-stage startups actually have moats?

13:30 - Who wins the inference market in the next 5 years?

15:30 - Are 90% software gross margins dead in AI?

17:45 - The "open-air drug market" for GPUs

21:30 - Will GPU hardware prices ever collapse?

22:15 - Are we about to overbuild data centers?

23:45 - Can custom silicon dethrone NVIDIA's monopoly?

24:30 - Is CUDA really the moat everyone claims it is?

25:20 - Are Neo Cloud providers partners or mortal enemies?

26:35 - Nebius vs. CoreWeave: who built the better business?

27:25 - Open-source vs. frontier models: which takes the lead?

28:20 - Can Europe ever build a competitive frontier model?

30:20 - The bull case for a $100B verticalized model company

37:15 - Modal's biggest resource allocation mistake

38:00 - Has open-source LLM inference already peaked?

41:30 - The real limits of post-training and RL

44:20 - How much does Modal spend every month on coding agents?

45:50 - The massive gold rush in selling data environments to labs

47:20 - Should enterprises own their own intelligence?

49:50 - Is model routing a defensible standalone business?

53:20 - $20M+ compensation packages for exceptional new grads

54:20 - The #1 portfolio company Erik would bet on

55:10 - What Erik changed his mind on most this year

20VC: David Tisch on Why High Ownership and Concentration is BS | Why No Manager Actually Wants to Stay Small | Why Competing with the Mega Platforms is a Losing Game | Why the Lean Startup is a Fake? Oct 31, 2026

Show notes

David Tisch is the Founder of Box Group, one of the best seed funds of the last decade with early investments in Cursor, Baseten and Clay to name a few. Today the fund invests from two funds, a $275M seed fund and a $275M opportunity fund.

AGENDA:

10:40 Why we have less dilution now than ever before 12:50 Why I don't want to compete with the best VCs, and why it's a trap 16:15 What concentrated funds know but do not admit to 17:25 Why multiple tranched rounds can be good for founders 18:45 Why the Lean Startup was a total fake 28:55 Why LPs are frustrated by a market that we can't change 31:50 What is the single best-returning investment in the history of BoxGroup? 33:15 Why fund returners are not always obvious in the early years 40:05 Why funding consumer brands at seed no longer makes sense for venture 42:00 Rogo, the now $2B company, got passed on by 39 out of 40 investors 45:40 Why the marketing message that pro rata is not a right is BS 1:01:50 Why we do not allow negativity in the investment decision-making process 1:03:00 The true magic of early-stage venture capital 1:04:35 Why YC has the best business model in all of venture

20VC: Anthropic Files S1 Ahead of $2TRN IPO | Instinct's Rumoured $30 Billion Fundraise | Microsoft Laysoff 27,000 While Meta Taps Equity Markets for $95 Billion Capex Spending Spree Oct 29, 2026

Show notes

AGENDA:

04:00 Anthropic Files S-1 Ahead of $2TRN IPO 14:50 Microsoft Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Employees 20:45 Zuckerberg Taps Equity Markets for $95 Billion AI Spending Spree 23:00 DeepSeek Raises $15 Billion as Chinese AI Faces US Backlash 34:45 OpenAI and Wiz Uncover Decade-Old Security Flaws 37:05 Instinct's Rumoured $30 Billion Valuation Divides the Panel 45:30 Invest Committee: Put 20% of the Fund Into OpenAI at $1.25 Trillion 49:40 Palmer Luckey's War Dog Startup Hits $1.5 Billion Valuation 55:00 Zuckerberg Threatens California Exit Over Billionaire Tax

20VC: Satya Nadella on Open vs Closed Models: Who Wins | Whether to Trust Frontier Model Providers | Why Companies Need to Own Their Own Intelligence | The Importance of Verticalisation: From Chips to Models and More Oct 26, 2026

Show notes

Satya Nadella is the CEO of Microsoft and one of the greatest CEOs of our time. Satya has been at the company for an astonishing 34 years. When he joined, Microsoft had a market cap of $23.5BN. 22 years later, the company was worth $300BN. At this point, Satya took the reins as CEO. Under his leadership, he has taken it from $300BN to $3.9TRN.

AGENDA:

03:08 Should We Assume Every AI Model Is Compromised? 04:13 How Do We Stop AI Agents From Causing Harm? 06:15 Can We Trust an AI Model's Chain of Thought? 07:05 Is China's Lead in Open-Source AI a Safety Risk? 08:28 Will Open or Closed Models Win the Next Two Years? 10:08 Why Should Every Company Own Its Intelligence? 12:12 Will Every Company Become AI Native? 13:22 Are We Entering an AI Implementation Economy? 15:10 Do You Need to Own the Entire AI Stack to Win? 16:49 Can the World Support $100 Billion AI Training Runs? 18:34 Can AI Radically Accelerate Global Economic Growth? 19:39 Will AI Transform Sales, Finance and Marketing Like Coding?

Quickfire round

What have you changed your mind on most in the last 12 months?
What looks crazy today but will be incredibly common in 5 years?
What's the exercise routine given the travel schedule?
Favorite cheat meal on a rest day?
What are you most excited for in the next 10 years?

20VC: Why Robotics Will be 100x Bigger than Coding Agents | Inference Will Be a $10TRN Market: What No One Sees | Why Software Investors are F***** Today with Naveen Rao, Unconventional Oct 24, 2026

Show notes

AGENDA:

05:00 Will we run out of energy? 19:00 Will specialised chips threaten NVIDIA's dominance? 26:00 Can we trust AI agents more than humans? 31:00 Will data companies become commodities? 36:00 What comes after transformers? 41:00 Are software investors f****** in a world of infra and compute? 52:00 How big will the inference market be in 10 years? 53:00 Could robotics be 100x bigger than coding agents? 59:00 Why are coding agents the most overrated AI investment?

20VC: Trillion or Bust: The New VC Game | Coreweave Sell-Off Creates Panic | Town at $1B, Anduril at $90B: Revenue Multiples Out of Control | General Atlantic Eyes IPO & Modal Raises $750M at $15.75B Oct 22, 2026

Show notes

AGENDA:

04:20 Billion-Dollar Bets or Nothing: Why VCs Are Rejecting Fast-Growing Startups 13:20 CoreWeave Sell-Off Sparks Fears of Cracks in AI Boom 18:50 Anthropic's IPO Valuation Could Fall From $2 TRN to $1.5 TRN 32:10 Modal Raises $750M at a $15.75B Valuation as Inference Booms 35:50 Town at $1B, Anduril at $90B: Have Startup Valuations Lost Touch? 42:15 Berkshire Hathaway Doubles Down on Bending Spoons 45:05 37signals' Profit Machine Challenges the Venture Capital Model 49:20 General Atlantic Eyes an IPO; Harvard's Endowment Hits $68B 54:15 Elon's Flying Roadster and $10B SpaceX Share Giveaway

20VC: You Need $1BN To Do Seed Today: The Untold Truths of Venture | Who Wins and Who Loses in the Next Decade of VC | Why Margin and Price Matter Less in a World of AI with Sameer Dholakia, Bessemer Oct 19, 2026

Show notes

Sameer Dholakia is a Partner @ Bessemer, the first that has just raised $5.75BN across a $1.75BN seed fund and $4BN growth fund. Sameer has led investments into the likes of Anthropic, Fireworks and Legora to name a few. Prior to venture, Sameer was the CEO of SendGrid, taking it from $30M in ARR to over $200M.

AGENDA:

04:55 Why This Is a Supercycle Like Never Before 07:40 Why We Backed Anthropic to Compete With the Hyperscalers 10:05 Why Anthropic Was One of Bessemer's Most Contentious Deals 11:05 Why Open Models Don't Destroy the Market for Closed Models 16:45 Does Price Matter in AI—and Which Metric Really Determines Value? 19:45 How Much Should Consumer Businesses Be Discounted for Their Revenue Quality? 20:20 Why Today's Gross Margins Matter Less Than You Think 23:00 Competition Hasn't Changed—but the Capital Behind It Has 24:00 Why Capital Is a Moat Today 25:55 Is "Triple, Triple, Double, Double" Dead? 28:00 Can You Still Succeed With a Small Seed Fund? 29:45 Who Wins and Who Loses in the Future of Venture Capital? 32:15 Why Founders Shouldn't Hate Being an "Option Bet" 34:35 Why Signalling Risk Doesn't Worry Me 51:55 Why Companies Will Stay Private Longer—and Why the IPO Window Could Reopen by 2028 56:00 How Should Retail Investors Participate in Venture Capital? 57:25 How Fireworks Could Become a $250 Billion Business 01:02:35 Why Bessemer Is Confident It Can Deliver 5x Returns on $5.75 Billion

20VC: Horizontal vs Vertical Agents: Who Wins | Model Routing: Commodity or Increasing in Value | The Future of the Inference Market | Why Founders Should Take Discounts for Tier 1 Firms with Harrison Chase, LangChain Oct 17, 2026

Show notes

Harrison Chase is the co-founder and CEO of LangChain, which helps developers build, test and deploy AI agents. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and IVP, LangChain has announced approximately $160 million in funding with the last round at a $1.25BN valuation. The company works with 35% of the Fortune 500, has surpassed one billion open-source downloads and processes over one billion events daily through LangSmith.

AGENDA:

04:10 Why Is It Still So Hard to Build AI Agents? 08:50 Will the Model Labs Eat the Agent Stack? 16:25 Is Model Routing a Real Business or a Commodity? 25:45 Why Has No One Solved AI Memory? 35:45 Why Are AI Bills Exploding as Tokens Get Cheaper? 43:25 Should Companies Be Afraid of Chinese AI Models? 46:20 Where Would Harrison Not Be Investing Today? 53:05 Should Founders Take a Discount for Benchmark and Sequoia? 57:35 OpenAI at $1.5T or Anthropic at $2T: Which Would You Buy?

20VC: The Pro-Rata Battle: Valar Atomics Sues Day One Ventures | Meta Returns to the AI Frontier With Muse Wonder | NVIDIA Eyes $30B Reflection Deal & Jev Raises $870M at a $7.5B Valuation Oct 15, 2026

Show notes

AGENDA:

04:00 Valar Atomics Sues Seed Investor Day One Ventures Over Pro Rata 17:00 Meta Returns to the AI Frontier With Muse Wonder 20:00 NVIDIA Eyes $30B Reflection Deal as Amazon Circles Decart 26:00 Jev Raises $870M at a $7.5B Valuation—Weeks After Launch 31:00 42 New Decacorns: The AI Boom Overtakes 2021's Record 36:00 Isomorphic Labs Eyes $50B Valuation in New Funding Talks 46:00 Anthropic Slashes Haiku Prices by 90% as AI Price War Intensifies 52:00 Bending Spoons Slashes Airtable's Team: What Do Founders Owe Employees? 57:00 Bumble to Go Private in $1.3B Deal: Can AI Transform Dating? 01:01:00 The SaaSpocalypse Deepens: Why $500M ARR May No Longer Be Enough 01:06:00 Flock Safety Cuts 270 Jobs Amid Privacy and Security Backlash

20VC: Atlassian CEO on Why Agents Won't Replace Interfaces | Why Enterprises Won't Trust Chinese Models | Why The Jury Is Still Out On The Benefits of Specialised Models with Mike Cannon-Brookes Oct 12, 2026

Show notes

Mike Cannon-Brookes is the Co-Founder and CEO of Atlassian, the company behind Jira, Confluence, Trello and Loom. Atlassian generated $6.5BN in ARR in 2026, and serves more than 350,000 customers, including over 85% of the Fortune 500. Today, Mike is leading its expansion into enterprise AI through Rovo and the Teamwork Graph, connecting company knowledge with AI agents.

AGENDA:

03:00 Do AI Agents Turn Traditional Software Into Just Databases? 16:00 Will Enterprises Ever Trust Chinese AI Models? 20:00 Is Building Your Own AI Model a Losing Bet? 24:00 Can AI Startups Survive When They Finally Have to Care About Costs? 30:00 What Happens When AI Gets Cheaper Than Anyone Expects? 35:00 Is Company Context the Real Moat in Enterprise AI? 41:00 What Happens When OpenAI and Anthropic Come for Your Customers? 44:00 Why Are Young Founders Cashing Out More Than Ever? 49:00 What Does Nobody Tell You About Getting Rich?

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected