VC Intern

🚨BREAKING🚨 I tracked 618 VC signals last week. 20 under the radar founders that top 1% VCs started following this week. The full list + the "Why" 👇 (1/2)

🚨🆕 Annie Case (x.com/anniecase1) from Kleiner Perkins has started following Stephen Haney (x.com/stephenhaney)

Top founders leaving stealth: • ex-AWS AI security → Realis (AI risk) • ex-Tesla → Gridify (climate + energy) • ex-Zoox / agri robotics → Amaru (robotics) • AI infra + hardtech → Cosmic Labs • ex-Anthem founder → Wardly AI (healthcare) Early signals investors watch closely 👀 Full profiles ↓ thevcinternfromx.substack.com/p/vc-intel-dai…

@jxnlco Feels like this becomes a real layer in open source: not just code, but metadata around how it was created Dev tooling is quietly becoming core AI infra Covered this shift briefly here: thevcinternfromx.substack.com/p/vc-intel-dai…

We do not tag PRs and maybe open source orgs are coming out with policies on ai discourse and avoiding co authored by trailers.

@RajanAnandan Thailand? These markets look small on paper, but engagement + mobile-first behavior changes the equation

65 million internet users. $ 5Billion Digital Ad market. Guess the country?

@mattturck @benedictevans "mile wide, inch deep" feels like the real constraint right now Distribution isn’t the problem, depth of usage is Seeing similar patterns across how teams are actually deploying AI: thevcinternfromx.substack.com/p/vc-intel-dai…

My latest conversation with the always incredible @benedictevans: OpenAI’s moat problem, the rise of ephemeral and improvised sofware, OpenClaw & agents. 00:00 Intro 01:06 OpenAI's Focus Shift 03:12 ChatGPT usage: a "mile wide, inch deep" 09:03 Why better models do not solve the real problem 13:58 Why AI product teams are strategy takers, not strategy setters 15:38 Do agents help create defensibility? 20:06 OpenClaw and the "Desktop Linux" moment for AI 25:52 Why "everyone will build their own software" is completely wrong 28:09 Improvised software vs. institutionalized software 29:23 Why there will be more software, not less 36:15 Are we heading toward value destruction before value creation? 38:03 Circular revenue, leverage, and AI bubble dynamics 38:53 Big Tech's Trillion-Dollar CapEx Crisis & Financial Gravity 45:23 Why AI job exposure charts can be misleading 52:15 How Fortune 500 Execs are actually deploying AI today 56:45 The White Space: What this means for founders and investors

@TimDraper This is a different category of startup entirely Most founders optimize for speed, this requires conviction over decades

Jake DeWitte called me with an idea that most people thought was crazy. He wanted to build small fission nuclear power plants. For more than 40 years, the mantra “no nukes” permeated the zeitgeist, and half the people protesting were protesting nuclear war. Jake said he could build a portable nuclear power plant. That could power a small city, be placed anywhere, and even transported. My nuclear physicist friend told me the timeline: "Five years to design. Five years for approval. Five more to build" 15 years. Minimum. I invested anyway. I had faith in Jake that if anyone could get a nuclear power plant built in the US, Jake could. Jake had the energy and drive to actually pull this off. Most entrepreneurs would've given up after hearing that timeline. He doubled down. Fast forward to today: Oklo became the first nuclear power company to get US approval in 40 years. Jake took the company public via SPAC. The Aurora reactor (their flagship model) is a 1.5-megawatt beast that runs for years without refueling. Uses spent nuclear fuel. Cuts waste and environmental impact. Perfect for remote areas and small grids. Oklo today is worth more than $10 billion. Nuclear energy can reduce the carbon emissions damaging Earth. Oklo will be the company that makes it happen.

@JenniferHli Astral’s impact on Python tooling has been insane Feels like dev tooling is becoming core AI infrastructure, not just “tools” anymore

Astral has built some of the most beloved open source projects. It truly changed how developers are using and seeing Python. Many people told me, they love Python again because Uv , Ruff and Ty. I've enjoyed every moment partnering with Charlie & team since leading the series B (which we’ve never announced). Charlie is one of the kindest soul I know. When it comes to building, he pours everything in, and won’t settle until reaching perfection. You’ll be such an amazing leader wherever you go. OpenAI is very lucky to have you. Excited to see this team bring their developer obsession to Codex. Congrats @astral_sh @charliermarsh!

@davidu Feels less like a pivot and more like capital chasing clearer ROI Deep tech always needed long timelines, narrative just changed

Basically every climate fund has pivoted from ecoslop to American Dynamism at this point. Understanding the earth and climate matters, but it's always been a bad financial investment thesis. wsj.com/business/energ…

@omooretweets This is a big shift If ads outperform search/display, AI products stop being SaaS → become distribution platforms Feels like we’re replaying Google/Facebook playbooks but inside chat

A big story that most people are missing in the AI race for the consumer (ChatGPT vs Claude) is ads. Right now, most consumer AI revenue is coming from power users who are willing to pay high cost subscriptions. This currently skews positive for products like Claude - but this will not be the end state. Google makes ~$460/ user/year in the U.S., mostly on ads. Meta makes around ~$250. I would argue ChatGPT’s ad-based ARPUs will be even higher as they will ultimately have deeper / more frequent user engagement. Even at the $460 level - monetizing everyone in the U.S. via ads is $152 billion in annual revenue. By contrast, if you’re able to monetize even 5% of the population on a $200/month subscription (which is a stretch!), that’s only $40 billion 🤔 I suspect this will be even more drastic outside the U.S. where users are even less willing or able to pay directly for subscriptions. And, the earliest data from a very small rollout shows ChatGPT ads are already outperforming Meta in effectiveness - this just gets better over time. TL;DR - I would not count ChatGPT out on consumer AI revenue. Once ads start working, that can quickly become a massive machine.

@pitdesi Feels like design ownership is moving into product teams Figma’s moat gets tested if this trend continues

Figma got crushed on this one :/ Anecdotally seeing more companies task design work to the product team already.

@RajanAnandan $300B is huge, but feels like execution risk is everything here Deep IP + distribution matter way more than market size

Truly giant opportunity for Indian fabless startups! $300B of domestic consumption by 2035! India will certainly have a dozen or more Billion dollar revenue SOC startups in a decade. $1B of revenues will be 0.3% of Indian consumption in 2035...and of course most Indian fabless startups will target the global market. Simply can't be a better time for starting up in semis @_surgeahead @peakxvpartners

@venturetwins @GoogleDeepMind UI generation is moving fast Feels like designers shift from execution → system thinking / product strategy

Vibe design is here ✨ I got early access to Stitch from @GoogleDeepMind and was blown away - it's like partnering with a pro designer. Start with a simple prompt for a mobile or Web UI and iterate through to a clickable prototype (and code!). Watch me make "Finn's Fudge" 👇

@pitdesi Feels like less about timeline, more about guaranteed distribution Partnerships like this solve GTM for capital-heavy bets We broke down this exact shift (Rivian + Uber + infra angle) in today’s VC digest: thevcinternfromx.substack.com/p/vc-intel-dai…

This is great for Rivian and I’m rooting for them But it feels too distant. Deploy in SF and Miami by end of 2028 and full rollout by 2031- far in the future! Uber investing up to $1.25B based on milestones, starting with $300M now

@omooretweets @a16z @Kantrowitz Feels like the shift is already happening: → less “AI apps” → more workflow + infra + vertical systems We’re seeing this across founders + funding today (Palantir vets, AI infra, etc.) Covered a few examples in today’s VC digest: thevcinternfromx.substack.com/p/vc-intel-dai…

How can AI application startups compete with the big labs and incumbents? I shared some of our thoughts on this @a16z with @Kantrowitz 👇

If you want actual early signals (not recycled news): We break this down daily ↓ thevcinternfromx.substack.com/p/vc-intel-dai…

And on VC Twitter: • AI design tools replacing workflows • semiconductors = next trillion-dollar opportunity • early signs of shift in product + design roles Subtle… but important shifts

Most people read TechCrunch We track what actually matters: • founders quietly coming out of stealth • operators going into stealth • what top VCs are noticing early Here’s today’s highest-signal intel ↓