Betting on AI startups has never been more exciting than ever. Incumbents like Openai, Microsoft and Google are rapidly expanding their capabilities to engulf many of the small businesses' products. At the same time, new startups have historically reached a stage of growth much faster.
However, defining “growth stages” in AI startups is not so cut out today.
Capitalg partner Jill Chase said he is watching a company from just a year ago on the stage of TechCrunch AI Sessions, but has reached tens of millions of people in its recurring revenues over the year, with a valuation of over $1 billion. These companies may be defined as mature by valuation and revenue generation, but often lack many of the required safety, employment and executive infrastructure.
“On the one hand, it's really exciting. It represents this new trend of growing very quickly. It's great,” Chase said. “On the other hand, I'm planning on paying this company, which didn't exist 12 months ago, at a valuation of $xx and it's a bit scary because things are changing so quickly.”
“I started a company that's far better than this company I'm investing in in 12 months, and I'm $50 million today,” Chase continued. “So, that disrupts growth investments a bit.”
To get through the noise, Chase said it's important for investors to feel good about the category and “the ability of the founder to quickly adapt and see the corner.”
She said that AI coding startup cursors are a great example of a company that “hopped over the precise use cases of AI code generation that are available and possible at the time.”
However, the cursor must be worked to maintain its edge.
“By the end of this year, we have an AI software engineer,” Chase said. “In that scenario, cursors will be a little less relevant today. How can the cursor team see their future, how do they start building products, and when those models become more powerful, how can the product surface represent them and allow them to be plugged in and switched to code generations immediately?”