Mayfield

AI is more than technology; it's a matter of national sovereignty. I was fortunate to spend a week in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, and the energy around AI is palpable! The concept of 'Sovereign AI' really struck me. It's not just about having the latest algorithms; it's about nations asserting control over their AI destiny, ensuring that AI benefits a country’s people and economy without undue external influence. Sovereign AI is gaining traction due to a confluence of technological, economic, and geopolitical factors: it's critical for national security, economic competitiveness, data sovereignty, cultural preservation, and ethical control. This reminds me of how governments initially spearheaded the development of major telecommunications companies. To realize this vision, governments must be involved in setting guardrails and working with the private sector to develop AI infrastructure. Believing firmly in 'Think Global, Act Local,' we're hosting a delegation from Saudi Arabia to explore this further. The potential for public and private sectors to work together as a great equalizer for every country is immense! Watch my video, in which I discuss this topic further with MR Rangaswami at Indiaspora’s AI Summit in Dubai. What policy frameworks do you think are essential to support the development and implementation of Sovereign AI? #AISovereignty #AIPolicy #AI

Are you a female founder leading an AI startup? If yes, we want to hear your vision. Announcing She Pitches, She Wins, a groundbreaking pitch competition designed to propel women-led AI startups to new heights. Powered by Mayfield AI Garage, and in partnership with TiE Silicon Valley and NVIDIA for Startups, this is your chance to build AI’s next big thing. Finalists will pitch live at TiEcon 2025 for the chance to win a $50,000 stipend from Mayfield, access to the NVIDIA Inception program, mentorship, prime office space courtesy of TiE, and a launchpad for your success. Mayfield AI Garage is committed to empowering AI entrepreneurs and providing the resources and support you need. Don't miss this opportunity to transform your innovative ideas into reality. Apply today and take the leap!  🔗 https://lnkd.in/grbC_T5S Applications Close: April 4, 2025 Live Finals at TiEcon: May 2, 2025 #ShePitchesSheWins #WomenInAI #TechFunding #TiEcon2025 Navin Chaddha, Anita Manwani, Hema Shukla, Howard Wright, NVIDIA for Startups

We were thrilled to host Zico Kolter, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and Board Member at #OpenAI, to kick off our latest Mayfield #AIPathfinder meetup. The AI Pathfinder community, which includes leading #Researchers, #Infrastructure experts, and #ChiefAIOfficers, meet to discuss emerging trends, breakthroughs, and critical challenges shaping the future of artificial intelligence. Key takeaways from our quarterly AI Pathfinder meeting: ▪️ The anticipated timeline for developing extremely capable AI systems has significantly shortened in the past year. ▪️ Frontier AI models possess untapped latent capabilities, suggesting substantial room for growth before reaching actual scaling limits. ▪️ As AI capabilities rapidly advance, addressing key AI safety levels will become critical: Level 1 (prompt injection), Level 2 (potentially harmful capabilities), and Level 3 (loss of control via recursive self-improvement). Thanks to everyone who joined and contributed to the rich dialogue! cc Navin Chaddha, Gamiel Gran, Shelby Golan, Karen Lee, Irving Hsu, Brandon Scott

Jensen Huang’s founder journey: "How hard can it be?" That has been Jensen’s mentality from the beginning of his career, ultimately leading him to co-found NVIDIA, the powerhouse we know today. And speaking of NVIDIA, it's NVIDIA GTC week! I had the privilege of speaking with Jensen and discussing his unique founder journey. Here are a few takeaways from our conversation: - The "How hard can it be?" mentality: Jensen highlighted the power of embracing the unknown. Sometimes, a bit of naivete can fuel bold ambition and lead to incredible breakthroughs. - People as the foundation: Jensen's entrepreneurial journey began with his friends, not a product or idea. He emphasized how the right team and resilience are the most crucial ingredients for success. As an ex-founder myself, I know firsthand that building a startup is a marathon, not a sprint. - From Denny's to dominance: It's incredible that a global tech giant like NVIDIA started at a Denny's! It's a testament to the fact that groundbreaking ideas can emerge from the most unexpected places. I echo many of Jensen's sentiments, especially as Mayfield is a "People First" firm. I strongly believe in surrounding yourself with people who share your values, as that's a key driver of success. I prioritize investing in exceptional people and teams first and the market opportunity second. I like to invest in people who think from first principles and approach problems with a beginner's mind. Watch the discussion with Jensen below. And, to get Jensen's answer to what he would tell his younger self – you'll have to watch! #NVIDIA #PeopleFirst #Founders #AI

Is the trillion-dollar search and online ads market ripe for disruption? How we find information and experience online advertising is at a critical turning point. With AI-powered search engines like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude and growing concerns about data privacy, the current online advertising models no longer work. We can't keep relying on outdated keywords or intrusive tracking to serve ads that disrupt the user experience. Enter Bill Gross of Idealab, who invented the paid search model in the late 1990s, which the industry, including Google, later adopted. He announced the launch of ProRata.ai last year to enable generative AI platforms to fractionally attribute and compensate content owners. ProRata's technology enables generative AI platforms – for the first time – to accurately attribute and share revenues on a per-use basis with content owners, protecting creators and ensuring content reliability. He's back with ProRata.ai Ads, a new AI-powered system that reimagines online advertising. Instead of relying on keywords, ProRata uses AI to integrate relevant ads into AI search and digital media content in real time and at scale. This means: - Goodbye, irrelevant keywords, and intrusive tracking: No more jarring, out-of-place ads that disrupt your reading flow and compromise privacy. - Hello, context: Ads become seamlessly integrated with content. - Win-win-win: Better experience for readers, advertisers, and publishers. Curious to learn more? Check out my conversation with Bill below 👇 #AI #DigitalAdvertising #Innovation

Remember how Midjourney and Sora blew your mind? Inception Labs brings that same "wow" factor to text and code with diffusion models. I'm proud to announce Mayfield led the investment  in Inception Labs last July, creators of Mercury - the first commercial-scale diffusion LLM that runs 10x faster and at 1/10th the cost of traditional LLMs. The founding team represents the perfect storm of talent: Stanford University professor Stefano Ermon who co-invented diffusion models, UCLA professor Aditya Grover, and Cornell University professor Volodymyr Kuleshov. After working together for over 10 years on AI research, they’ve embarked on the ambitious mission to rebuild the AI tech stack from the ground up fundamentally. Personally, partnering with Inception Labs feels like a homecoming. It brings me back to my Stanford days when my PhD research in video compression led to my first startup, VXtreme (acquired by Microsoft), the pioneer in video streaming. I’m witnessing the same pattern unfold again, but with significantly higher stakes. AI represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how we work, live, and play. As I see it, Inception Labs' technology is an enabling layer that will propel #CollaborativeIntelligence to new heights. Their approach mirrors human thought processes more closely than traditional left-to-right text generation, resulting in faster, more accurate, real-time language generation with fewer hallucinations. This breakthrough has the potential to democratize AI. With lower costs and reduced computing requirements, Mercury can bring powerful language models to the edge, even to the palm of your hand. The possibilities are truly endless. Are you curious how this breakthrough happened? Watch my conversation with the Inception Labs cofounders, in which they share their journey from academic research to startup and their vision for revolutionizing AI with diffusion LLMs. What areas do you think will be most transformed by diffusion LLMs? #AI #DiffusionModels #Mayfield

Our latest video series, "Humans in AI," cuts through the hype to deliver real insights into the critical relationship between humanity and AI. In each episode, Managing Partner Navin Chaddha sits down with industry pioneers like Harrison Chase (CEO and Co-founder, LangChain), Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures), Reid Hoffman (Greylock), Sridhar Ramaswamy (CEO, Snowflake), Sal Khan (CEO and Co-founder, Khan Academy), and more, exploring their unique visions for the future of human-AI collaboration. We're not just exploring the future; we're building it. Our guests share unique insights, revealing practical applications and strategies that are empowering enterprises today. Discover how AI is driving tangible progress across industries and shaping a future where humans and technology work together seamlessly. 🔗 Watch the latest "Humans in AI" episode and gain firsthand knowledge from the leaders shaping this revolution: https://lnkd.in/dXuqaziH

The startup landscape has fundamentally changed, but the principles of company building haven't. After three decades in startups and VC, I've watched the pendulum swing from boom to bust and back. Today, we’re sitting on $307.8B in uninvested capital—more than 4x what was available in 2014—with AI capturing an unprecedented 46.4% of all VC investments just two years after ChatGPT's launch. We're 3 years into a market cycle that mirrors the post-2008 recovery—the exact period that gave birth to Uber, Square, and Stripe. With early-stage funding up 2.6x since 2014 and late-stage funding up 3x, capital is abundantly available across all stages for the right companies. But the market still rewards fundamentals, not hype. Building a startup remains a marathon, requiring persistence through countless decisions and years of focused execution. Prioritize a clear vision, capital efficiency, and a repeatable sales model with sustainable unit economics. The golden era is here, but only for those building with staying power. In this decade, the next category-defining companies will emerge from founders focused not on the next round but on the next decade. Are you building for this golden era? What trends are you seeing in your sector? Read my latest Founder Insights newsletter and subscribe for monthly deep dives on what matters for builders.

ChatGPT hit 400M monthly active users. Crazy. People aren't using Google to decide what to buy anymore - they are asking AI instead. It's quicker. It's easier. It's like texting your friend who's obsessed with gear - the one who's already spent hours researching - and then knowing exactly what to buy. Now brands must rethink their customer journey. Chris Andrew and Robert MacCloy founded Scrunch AI to help brands monitor, optimize, and drive outcomes from AI chat interactions. In just 3 months, they've landed 25 customers, from Lenovo to Penn State University. We've all Googled ourselves...maybe it's time to ChatGPT yourself?

AI adoption isn't a matter of "if" but "when" and "how." While consumer applications see rapid uptake, enterprise adoption faces significant hurdles that leaders must navigate carefully. We're still in the early days of generative AI—comparable to the iPhone era. Generative AI's impact will far exceed Moore's Law in transforming how businesses operate. For founders, understanding these nuances is crucial: 1. Solve specific problems with AI, don't just implement it for technology's sake 2. Consider the full Collaborative Intelligence as a Service —from technology to workflow integration 3. Focus on augmenting human capabilities, not just automation Ignoring AI is no longer an option, but neither is blind adoption. The companies that thrive will be those that position AI strategically within their business models. What specific problem could AI help solve in your organization today? Listen to the full episode of Mayfield’s Managing Partner Navin Chaddha on McKinsey & Company's At the Edge podcast: https://lnkd.in/gG87qzJ9 Kiran Prasad, Brian Gregg, McKinsey Digital