Silicon Valley has been fascinated by the outlook of AI not only as a productivity enhancer, but also as a catalyst for creating successful companies with a team that is far more lean than it had in the past.
The rich stories of AI startups are reaching tens of millions of revenues, with fewer people up to 20 people. Due to the low overhead, some startups can be inspired by reducing venture capital funds, especially in the early stages.
Terrence Rohan, a fund investor who has been investing in Y-combinator since 2010, says he has noticed a “shift in atmosphere” from the founder of the current batch of famous accelerators.
He explained how the founder last week felt about it with X. “People were climbing Everest, so they needed oxygen. Today people are climbing it without oxygen. I want to summit Everest and use as little oxygen (VC) as possible.”
This founder wasn't just saying this because of the VC's lack of interest. Rohan said the round was oversubscribed.
“Smart Founder” was the response from Alexis Ohanian, founder of VC Firm Seven Seven Six and co-founder of Reddit.
By meaning less, it means founders maintain greater ownership of the company. By doing that, the founder would give him more continuous business and perhaps ultimately left, providing the option, Rohan told TechCrunch. Last year, TechCrunch said it has actually become more common for YC startups to raise less capital than investors provided.
A big mistake with low funds?
However, Rippling co-founder and CEO Parker Conrad is the CEO of HR Tech, a startup valued at $13.4 billion, disagreed that low capital would help startups succeed.
“The way this plays is for competitors to raise a ton of funding, invest more deeply in R&D, build better products, and absolutely crush this guy with sales and marketing. You need to play the game on the field,” he wrote to X.
It may be possible to build a great product with a small engineering team, but Conrad points out that having more money can accelerate the growth of a company.
Rohan told TechCrunch that Conrad's point is a classic point, but he believes that “the game on the field is changing.”
“People are reaching quite a bit faster and with fewer people, and I believe that they may be able to maintain that income with fewer people,” Rohan said.
In the AI market, it's too early to say whether Rohan and the founders of the startup are right. The first example suggests that fast-growing AI companies are growing as much as possible.
For example, Anysphere, which creates the popular AI coding assistant cursor, reportedly reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) with a team of 20 people earlier this year. Anysphere reportedly is in talks with Secure Capital for just $10 billion since its previous round up.
Meanwhile, ElevenLabs, an AI-powered voice clone startup, has hit a similar ARR with only 50 people. The company announced a $180 million Series C in January with a $3.3 billion valuation. This is a round that is likely set aside when the company's ARR was around $80 million, as reported previously by TechCrunch.
In the meantime, Anysphere's personnel have grown to 90 and 11 people, according to data provided by Pitchbook.
Other AI startups are also securing funding at a rapid pace. It also shows that startups want to accumulate capital, even when staff is relatively small.
“VCs are very attractive, persuasive and throwing money,” Rohan said, adding that these companies are likely to win funds at low dilutions. In other words, you have not waived any material ownership.
However, he said the founder of YC now knows much more about the pros and cons of venture capital.
Many startups that secured funding in 2020 and 2021 with inflated ratings have since been forced to raise capital at a significantly lower rating known as the Down Round.
Perhaps more importantly, sourcing a lot of venture capital from elite VC companies is no longer a goal for some YC founders.
“This is what I want to raise this round, and then I want the Sequoia and the Benchmark to lead my Series A,” Rohan said.