a marching band, a red carpet, and a DJ coding his beats are all you can get before coffee (and a business card) at Upfront Summit, one of Venture’s most anticipated conferences. But not even a marching band could divert attention from the real star of the show: the AI.
Upfront Summit founder Mark Suster and partners Kerry Bennett and Kobie Fuller even did an AI-focused sketch. Food to go? AI is a tempting sector to invest in, but it is still too early to trust blindly.
This is not new; Promoted technologies often garner inordinate interest. But the mood is different than it was in 2021 when investors were dumping billions of dollars into 15-minute grocery delivery companies and web3. Risk dry powder is locked in, deals are closing more slowly, and some investors are still licking their wounds from the recession thus far.
AI is feeling it. According to a TechCrunch analysis of PitchBook data, “Generative AI companies won’t even set a local quarterly high for fundraising in Q1 2023.” Understanding how recently humiliated check writers are thinking about AI will help technology better understand how to execute lunar visions.
