How to build a great AI company – Kevin Tu, DFJ Growth | Productive AI podcast with Troy Angrignon
What will the next ten years of AI bring? What are VCs looking to fund? What are some things that will increase your chance of building a successful AI company? Hear from Kevin Tu, investor at DFJ Growth.
Listen in to my conversation with Kevin Tu from DFJ Growth while we discuss the next ten years of the AI market, the difference between AI-enabled companies and AI-first companies, characteristics of well-funded startups, the structure of the AI ecosystem, whether AI businesses are really different from a business model perspective, when to build vs. buy AI infrastructure, and finally, some advice to entrepreneurs building AI focused companies.
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-- Timing –
00:00 Introduction
01:35 Kevin’s background from engineering to finance and then venture capital
05:38 The next ten years of the A.I. market
09:31 AI-enabled vs. AI-first companies
14:23 What is DFJ Growth looking for and what are a couple of examples of recent funding? (Neocis and DataRobot)
21:06 What are some characteristics of companies that will have a higher chance of success?
23:23 Structure of the ecosystem – layers of the stack
28:20 Are the business models of AI companies really that different?
29:50 In the early days you do the unscalable work, and then optimize and scale later
31:56 Should startups roll their own infrastructure or leverage existing cloud infrastructure?
35:05 Advice to builders and entrepreneurs
38:21 When should a startup reach out to you or your team?
40:28 Contact information
41:09 Wrap-up
-- Links --
https://www.dfjgrowth.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenjamintu/
https://twitter.com/kevbtu