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How VC Investors Think About AI Startups
83 students
How VC Investors Think About AI Startups
Learn Investor Perspectives and Decision Making Processes Around Investing in Artificial Intelligence Startups
Created bySramana Mitra
Last updated 5/2025
English
What you'll learn
- Through interviews with real-world AI startup investors you will come to understand investor-entrepreneur fit.
- How you can think from an investor's point of view when pitching your artificial intelligence startup.
- What you can do to increase your chances of getting an AI startup funded.
- Where you can seek further mentorship regarding AI startup funding.
Explore related topics
Course content
6 sections • 21 lectures • 8h 56m total length
Requirements
- The only requirement for this course is an open mind and a willingness to learn.
Description
The 1Mby1M Methodology is based on case studies. In this course, Sramana Mitra shares the tribal knowledge of tech startup investors by giving students the rare seat at the table with investors who provide the most instructive perspectives on how to build a thriving business. Through these conversations, students gain access to case studies exploring the alleys of entrepreneurship. Sramana’s synthesis of key learnings and incisive analysis add great depth to each discussion.
There’s a lot of confusion around AI right now. The hype is astronomical. Amidst this noisy environment, we’re trying to bring you some signal, some wisdom. To that end, we’ve been speaking with many VC investors to gain their perspectives and share these conversations in this course to help guide entrepreneurs who are building or interested in artificial intelligence startups that may need funding.
This course is an exploration of AI investment strategies in the current tech landscape, highlighting investor perspectives in the Age of AI. You’ll learn how machine learning is shaping VC decision-making and hear about specific examples of AI companies they invested in and the rationale behind these choices.
Many conversations cover enterprise AI adoption, focusing on what investor portfolios reveal about the behavior of ML buyers in enterprises. Investors share views on the potential of general artificial intelligence versus specialized vertical applications, particularly in sectors they find promising.
Other key themes we explore include the challenge of AI hallucination, where generative AI produces inaccurate information, and its impact on the industry. There’s also a focus on whether the investor is backing AI platforms and applications built on third-party platforms or PaaS, exploring the infrastructure required to scale AI. We talk about superintelligence potentially rendering vertical AI obsolete and what future investments might look like in five years.
Altogether, this course reveals the strategic approach of investors to AI startups, shares current learnings from their portfolios, and their projections for the future of AI technology and its broader implications. Let’s get started!
Who this course is for:
- AI entrepreneurs who want to think like investors and increase their chances of getting funded.
- Aspiring AI founders who want to increase their chances of getting accepted into a top startup accelerator such as Y Combinator, Techstars, or 500 Startups.
- Developing world entrepreneurs who want to increase their chances of getting investment for their AI startup..
- Professors worldwide teaching AI entrepreneurship courses.