Who Wins in the Next Decade of VC | Margin and Price Matter Less in a World of AI | Sameer Dholakia

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. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:59 Why AI Is a Bigger Supercycle Than Cloud and the Internet 04:41 How Bessemer Underwrote Anthropic at a $15BN Valuation 07:37 Why Anthropic Was Bessemer’s Lowest-Voted Deal 08:44 Do Open Models Threaten Frontier Labs? 10:35 Will Enterprises Use Chinese Open-Source Models? 12:23 Is There Actually a Bear Case for Frontier Models? 14:11 The OpenAI Investment Sameer Passed On 15:33 Does Entry Price Still Matter in a World of $2TN AI Companies? 18:48 How Sameer Underwrites Revenue Quality and Margins 20:54 The Bull Case for Legora at a $1.8BN Valuation 23:22 Why Capital Has Become a Moat in AI 26:04 Is Triple-Triple-Double-Double No Longer Enough? 28:22 Does It Now Take a $1BN Fund to Win at Seed? 30:32 Why Venture Is Splitting Into Mega-Platforms and Specialists 33:05 Are Early-Stage Investments Really Just Options? 36:32 How Bessemer Builds a $4BN Growth Portfolio 42:42 Why Culture Is a Competitive Advantage 52:31 When Should VCs Take Money Off the Table? 56:08 Why Companies Will Stay Private Longer 1:02:16 The Bull Case for Fireworks Becoming a $250BN Company 1:05:10 Why Sameer Believes in Sovereign AI Models 1:08:28 Can $5.75BN Venture Funds Still Return 5x? 1:14:40 Why the Open-Model Economy Is Bigger Than Sameer Expected 1:15:17 Why Robotics Could Be at Its “2021 GenAI” Moment 1:16:59 Why Waymo Could Become a $1TN Company 1:18:29 Why AI Drug Discovery Could Compress 50 Years Into 10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on X: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Sameer Dholakia on X: https://twitter.com/spdholakia Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter:…