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20VC: Benchmark's Newest General Partner Ev Randle on Why Margins Matter Less in AI | Why Mega Funds Will Not Produce Good Returns | OpenAI vs Anthropic: What Happens and Who Wins Coding | Investing Lessons from Peter Thiel and Mamoon Hamid

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20VC: Benchmark's Newest General Partner Ev Randle on Why Margins Matter Less in AI | Why Mega Funds Will Not Produce Good Returns | OpenAI vs Anthropic: What Happens and Who Wins Coding | Investing Lessons from Peter Thiel and Mamoon Hamid

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Nov 10
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Nov 10
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Ev Randle is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the best funds in venture capital. In their latest fund, they have Mercor ($10BN valuation), Sierra ($10BN valuation), Firework ($4BN valuation), Legora ($2Bn valuation) and Langchain ($1.4Bn valuation). T...

Highlights

In this insightful conversation, Ev Randle, a seasoned investor joining Benchmark as a General Partner, shares key lessons from some of venture capital’s most influential figures and offers a forward-looking perspective on the AI landscape. With a career spanning top-tier firms like Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, and Bond, Randle brings deep operational and investment experience to one of Silicon Valley’s most founder-aligned firms.
08:12
Founders Fund partners must personally invest to test conviction in deals
14:36
OpenAI could raise a trillion dollars by the end of the year or Q2.
25:17
High gross margins in AI app companies may indicate low usage of AI features.
30:28
The moat in AI is still technology, not distribution.
53:53
Models are only useful as a test of conviction, not for predicting success.
54:38
Market is the most fungible element in startup success
1:02:32
Tiger's early investments in OpenAI and Databricks with liquidation preferences could lead to better-than-expected outcomes.
1:13:27
Benchmark could invest in Elizabeth Holmes' new venture and still attract LPs due to contrarian success.

Chapters

Ev Randle Joins Benchmark
00:00
Biggest Investing Lessons from Peter Thiel, Mary Meeker and Mamoon Hamid
05:25
OpenAI Will Be a $TRN Company & OpenAI or Anthropic: Who Wins Coding?
14:36
Why We Should Not Focus on Margin But Gross Dollar Per Customer
22:27
Why AI Labs are the Biggest Threat to AI App Companies
30:25
Do Benchmark Fire Founders? If so… Truly the Best Partner?
44:26
People, Product, Market: Rank 1-3 and Why?
54:38
Why the Mega Funds Have Just Replaced Tiger
57:36
GC, Lightspeed and a16z Cannot Do 5x on Their Funds…
1:04:08
Single Biggest Threat to Benchmark
1:14:09

Transcript

Ev Randle: I think we should not be placing that much emphasis on margins today. We need a new taxonomy for AI companies. Like, Tiger died and we got six or seven more Tigers. I don't think Ravi or Hamant, or even Ben and Mark. At this point, I don't think...