Scale Venture Partners

Vertical AI is having a moment. What once felt like a market few dared to enter, and many steered away from, has now become the obvious place to build. At @saastr Annual this Thursday, Scale Partner @jkauf_mann will join @CeciliaZin (CEO of @gcai) and @ahejnoszcipher (CEO of @InspirenHealth) for a conversation on what it takes to win in vertical AI today. ⌚️ Thursday, May 14, 12:30 - 1:15 pm PDT

Before AI, software drove scale and returns for investors, while hardware stayed on the sidelines. Now, as AI is moving beyond the cloud into physical systems like infrastructure and healthcare, the venture playbook is being rewritten. Scale Partner @aniehenke is taking the stage at @WebSummit Vancouver on May 12 for the panel “Return of the rack: are hardware and deep tech reclaiming the VC stack?” He’ll be joined by Nicholas Brathwaite (@CelestaCapital) and @luzhangvc (@FusionFundVC) with @dewalt (@sciam) moderating, to talk about how the AI build-out is pulling capital back toward the harder, more physical end of the venture stack, and what it means for the next phase of AI.

Sometimes, against every instinct, startups have to tell customers "no." Next week at the Cerebral Valley Voice Summit, Scale Partner @jkauf_mann is leading a discussion on when and why voice AI startups should do exactly that. Register here: cerebralvalleyvoice.com

Congratulations to @humansand for being named to the AI 50 Brink List by @Forbes! We’re proud to support the team as they build toward a more collaborative future with AI. Read the full list: forbes.com/sites/sofiachi…

tomorrow we kick off the 3rd cohort of startups we've invited to use Autobuild, the internal tool driving the insane autonomous build velocity at @obvious (nearing 1000 PRs a day from 10 engineers) each co is shipping 12 weeks of roadmap this is the frontier, build accordingly

Last night, we brought together one of our favorite groups for our bi-annual leading infrastructure investor dinner in Menlo Park. We went around the table, tackling some big questions: how software companies are being impacted in the age of AI, the pivot of consumer brands into AI, & who will come out on top. Thank you to our friends at @Boldstartvc, @MenloVentures , @scalevp, & more for joining us! CC: @jai_das, @aranum

If AI models can now find vulnerabilities and write code, will we need dedicated security tooling anymore? @Sabina_Smith_ believes we will. She explains why intelligent, purpose-built systems to support security teams are more critical than ever.  x.com/Sabina_Smith_/…

introducing demo night, brought to you by @nozomioai and @scalevp. friday night in SF. builders only. bring what you’re working on dide project, early prototype, or something you shipped last week we’re putting founders in a room with one goal: show what you’ve built and get real feedback with no panels and corporate bs. we are going to have food, drinks, and a great company. apr 10, 6–9pm, sf want to demo? mention it in your rsvp

Event details here: saastock-usa.com/2026-agenda/

AI can do a lot, but it can’t tell your unique story. @anothercohen, co-founder & CEO of @HelloPatient, will join Scale Partner @jkauf_mann at SaaStock USA 2026 to unpack why founder stories are the new moat in an AI landscape rife with sameness.

Our portfolio companies @gcai, @InspirenHealth, @techsee_me are applying innovative tech to solve tangible, urgent problems - and they're all on @FastCompany's Most Innovative Companies list for 2026: fastcompany.com/most-innovativ…

Happy Thursday. On today's show: - @mcuban (Cost Plus Drugs) - @carl_eschenbach (Sequoia) - @gradypb (Sequoia) - @jamesncantrell (Phantom Space) - @thulme (GV) - @0xjohnkim (Paraform) - @EugenAlpeza (Edra AI) - @adversariel (RunSybil) - @alexrkonrad (Upstarts) See you there 🦈

We’re excited to lead @paraformtalent's $40M Series B as they scale to solve one of the hardest problems for companies: recruiting. Proud to back @0xjohnkim & @lijeffrey39 youtube.com/watch?v=eXj3dt…

The land grab is on. Everyone is focused on building more data centers. But Aurelia Han and @siddharthvader_ make the case that the more interesting opportunity is getting more compute out of the ones we already have: scalevp.com/blog/the-big-d…

851 roles open across 64 companies. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to make a move, this is it 👇 @usebland | #content" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">jobs.scalevp.com/companies/blan… Technical Account Manager @tavus | #content" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">jobs.scalevp.com/companies/tavu… Product Manager …and many more: jobs.scalevp.com/companies

Construction is ~5% of the economy, yet software captures maybe ~10 bps of that. That’s about to change with vision-language models (VLMs). @jonasciplickas explains how in his latest blog post: scalevp.com/blog/vlms-are-…

AI can now generate infinite content. What's left that matters? Your human moat. Scale CMO @BeccaHasADHD joined VC Comms Con this week to talk about why your lived experiences and point of view are what make a personal brand compound in VC over time.

Scale Partner @ericmander joined Trevor Neff (Headline), @EthanChoi7 (@khoslaventures) & Ashton Grewal (Dorsal) at Utah Tech Week to talk growth investing in the age of AI. Thanks to the team at Utah Tech Week for hosting!