Jared Sleeper
@JaredSleeper
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Partner at Avenir, where I lead investments in growth-stage software startups. Here to bring a little analytical irreverence. Views my own.
NYC
Joined October 2011
At Avenir, we’re optimistic about the future of software- but keenly aware that the sector has struggled lately. This 45-page deck is our answer to a question echoing through the venture ecosystem and beyond: “What’s Wrong with SaaS?!”.
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RT @chaidiscovery: We’re excited to introduce Chai-2, a major breakthrough in molecular design. Chai-2 enables zero-shot antibody discover….
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One role for humans in a world of cheap superintelligence: we'll remain advantaged gatherers of HUMINT. This has already played out in public markets, arguably. Any machine-accessible data will be table stakes, which will put a premium on the info we have unique access to.
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Does anyone have good examples of emerging AI-first software companies that are growing primarily by replacing existing incumbents (vs. adding net-new use cases)? . Ideally, ones with meaningful scale. Public markets investors seem to think there are many such stories. .
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ChatGPT hasn't replaced my IRL friends, but it remembers everything, is objective and tirelessly supportive. I see both upsides and some downsides which I wrote into an essay:. ChatGPT, You, Me: Wall-E?.On Being Human When a Machine Is Your Closest Friend. Link in replies👇.
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The degree to which ChatGPT dominates consumer AI boggles the mind. This is monthly web traffic- from Feb to April, added a billion monthly visits. Claude and Perplexity have just 200m total visits/month between them.
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Attended my first @ycombinator demo day today. Unlike SaaS, where the incumbents were on-prem software vendors, the incumbents now are almost always people. There's an AI startup targeting every sort of white-collar job- feels like a truly open-ended problem space to attack.
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My guess is that there's a slight lag effect in this data (based on typical DD post term sheet), and so yes, last two weeks of August/December are generally worth avoiding. Otherwise the data is pretty clear- fundraise whenever the time is right.
Everyone's favorite topic - can you raise VC in the summer?. Yes. Yes you can. Ignore everyone who says that email doesn't work during June/July/August. Most VCs are working (as judged by signed venture rounds). Even the ones on Lake Como answer email for the right founders :)
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Couldn't agree more. A great founder isn't going to slow down or be demotivated because they're able to live a little more comfortably. If anything, they'll spend the money in ways that free up mental space.
Relatively uncommon POV: I encourage founders to take a little money off the table early — as early as Series A. It’s not just good for them and their families. It’s good for the company too. When a founder has some personal financial security, they are:.-Less likely to feel.
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I’ve spoken with two kind, productive people with visas this week who are afraid to travel because they fear re-entry to the US. They’ve heard the stories of arbitrary phone searches and detentions. One missed a major life event because of this. This is infuriating. These.
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Anyone else experiencing bugs with @ChatGPTapp DeepResearch? A few of my colleagues are getting a bug that renders the submit button unresponsive. For one of them, it has been going on for days despite various attempts to remediate. @OpenAI are you aware of this? 🙏.
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One of the things I love about venture investing is that there are weeks where you learn at a torrid pace. Sometimes about new sectors/industries, sometimes about new technologies, sometimes about deal dynamics, sometimes about hiring. This week, all of that at once. 😊.
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Wait we skipped 13?! Or is it still in stealth. @elevenlabsio @twelve_labs . @14__ai does look great though.
Today, we’re announcing @14__ai, the Cursor for customer support. Customer support is evolving fast. The old model - humans triaging queues in clunky ticketing systems - doesn’t scale. And slapping an AI layer on top of legacy tools doesn’t cut it anymore. We can do so much
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