Jenny Fielding

So, I wrote a book! It's basically a love letter to everyone brave enough to buck convention and start something hard. Pre-sales open today for friends, founders and trolls alike!♥️

@mpd @EverywhereVC So much fun recording this one live, thx for having me! 🙌🏼

What happens when technology evolves faster than the venture capital model built to fund it? In this episode, I sit down with my longtime friend @jefielding , Cofounder and General Partner of @EverywhereVC , to explore how venture capital is adapting to a world where competitive advantages can disappear faster than ever. We discuss what it takes to raise a pre-seed round in today's market, why traditional assumptions around defensibility are being challenged, and how AI is reshaping the economics of software companies. Jenny also shares lessons from her time as a Managing Director at Techstars and explains why Everywhere Ventures built a community-driven approach to investing — leveraging founder networks and real-time market insight to identify breakout companies at the earliest stages. Whether you're a founder raising capital, an investor navigating a changing market, or simply curious about where technology is headed, this conversation offers a practical look at how venture is evolving for the next generation of companies. Special thanks to Jenny for joining the show and sharing her perspective on the future of venture.

@tmrohan And yet so many LPs are uncomfortable with first check / pre seed.

The current top 5% of seed deals are the worst asset class in venture. They carry the loss ratio of a seed deal with the upside profile of a Series B. Seed risk at Series B prices.

@pavelprata We’ve been asked by potential LPs and peer VCs to sell the AI tools we have developed. But we’re still keeping the investing day job… for now.

Everyone is building internal tools across VC because this is how you actually raise capital today as a fund. Having spoken with a bunch of GPs and been part of fundraising for a growth-stage fund last year, I’ve seen this firsthand. You can pitch your AI thesis, vision, and portfolio construction to LPs all day (especially big institutional LPs who might not know much about AI technically), but these folks deeply understand the operational need to adapt AI to run their own businesses. @usv and @creandum are great examples of this. @a16z also shared this exact sentiment at the @murphcapital event two months ago in SF. When you actually show LPs how you are building an AI-native firm, it resonates far better than any slide deck. That said, some funds go beyond internal tools to build commercial software for other firms. Personally, I think there is limited space to build something truly radical there, though @hanoverpark’s approach to AI-driven administration is a notable exception.

Heard about a venture fund where one of the General Partners stopped investing completely to focus on building internal AI tools. Strong belief that the way VCs source, diligence and support founders will be upended. Seems a tad extreme but I also like it.

@micahjay1 Dark

If you put VCs on truth serum, I wonder what % would say they came up with their fund size based on their desired personal fee income vs. their fund strategy.

@richardchen39 I don’t care about either 🤔

Increasingly the VC/LP world is bifurcating into two camps: 1) Those who care most about concentration and ownership 2) Those who care most about access to the hottest companies regardless of price

@whynesspower @garrytan No

@jefielding You talking about @garrytan

@Besciai Back of the house ops

@jefielding What part of the job do you see as having the most potential benefit from these internal tools? Sourcing? Decision making?

@RandianCapital Ha

@jefielding Seems like a case of ai psychosis

@jonoringer And wdyt?

I see this as well…

@shemtovo Meaning what?

@jefielding And how would they know if the tools are working if they aren’t using them?

@alexisohanian Ya agree. Tools are super useful but a commodity in a way that spending time with founders is not.

@jefielding You can do both!

@vaibhavbetter I’d agree that the tools being built are becoming a commodity in a way that spending time with founders is not.

I don't get this at all. Why would you spend the most precious time that should be spent meeting founders and improving decision making and picking the next potential winners on building stuff yourself just because you can? All of these stacks look the same anyway. And what the incremental value add is, is yet to be discovered. An intern can do it and save the GPs time. Or just hire any of the 1000s of AI services firms. Do LPs want GPs to "build"? I know I am likely in the minority here but I have thought about it a lot (and have a Claude system in place for a bunch of things but that barely took anytime) and could never understand why you'd spend time on anything but actual investing. "Build so you can learn how everything works so you can make better investing decisions" also makes no sense - investors did just fine investing all these decades without building SaaS or Silicon ourselves :)

@akinayoUI That’s the bet!

@jefielding Every industry is becoming a software company. Maybe every VC firm is becoming an AI company too.

@armenberjikly no sé

@jefielding porque no los dos?

@btcframe What’s the advantage you think being an Ai native VC provides?

@jefielding Extreme? Maybe. But that's exactly how you build an unfair advantage before everyone else catches up.

@Maaland Ha!

@jefielding Nothing to give LPs a good return on their money like internal AI tools

@CamiloBAcosta Good pt

@jefielding So many great off the shelf tools out there that rolling your own is hardly necessary anymore. Definitely a year ago but not anymore

@barookhian Not sure I agree they will be left behind but they will def have less free time.

@jefielding We’ve invested a lot of assets internally to build out tools. Whomever won’t will be left behind. I wouldn’t take off from my day job but it’s definitely worth investing into.

@PadraicMcC Nice. We’ve gone down this path as well.

@jefielding haven't stopped investing but are about 5 months into our internal ai project. use cases outlined here 👊: docsend.com/view/eh95dkqwu…

@shzhv13 How so? I’m not sure early stage venture is a data pipe game in the end.

@jefielding Dumping deals to build internal AI tools is bold. The funds optimizing their data pipes now will scale circles around the rest.