The Twenty Minute VC (20VC)

40 episodes scanned.

Recent Episodes

1. 20VC: Who Wins the Inference Market | Has Open-Source LLM Inference Peaked? | What Happens to the Cost of Compute | The Real Limits of Post-Training and RL with Erik Bernhardsson, Modal CEO

   Nov 2, 2026

   Erik Bernhardsson, co-founder and CEO of Modal, discusses building an AI infrastructure platform for inference, training, and agents, including his path to founding the company in his mid-30s. The conversation covers inference market structure, gross margins in AI infrastructure, GPU procurement and pricing, competition and brand, and talent and equity compensation. Topics also include Modal's Series D fundraising and his views on defensibility and moats.

2. 20VC: David Tisch on Why High Ownership and Concentration is BS | Why No Manager Actually Wants to Stay Small | Why Competing with the Mega Platforms is a Losing Game | Why the Lean Startup is a Fake?

   Oct 31, 2026

   David Tisch, an early-stage investor at Box Group, discusses how venture market conditions have changed, including larger seed round sizes, lower dilution in later rounds, and how concentrated funds compete for deals. He also argues that the Lean Startup methodology is flawed, that pro rata rights must be earned, and that Box Group's approach of smaller checks and non-ownership-focused investing has worked. The conversation with host Harry Stebbings also covers LP frustrations and his views on the best venture firms and business models.

3. 20VC: Anthropic Files S1 Ahead of $2TRN IPO | Instinct's Rumoured $30 Billion Fundraise | Microsoft Laysoff 27,000 While Meta Taps Equity Markets for $95 Billion Capex Spending Spree

   Oct 29, 2026

   This 20VC episode is a panel discussion among Harry Stebbings, Jason Lambkin, and Rory Driscoll on the week's tech and venture news. The main topics are Anthropic's S-1 filing and its implications for an IPO, Microsoft's voluntary buyout offer to about 60,000 employees, and Meta's equity raise to fund AI capex. The panel also covers Chinese open-weight models, the Cohere/Alibaba data-transfer controversy, and several large private rounds.

4. 20VC: Satya Nadella on Open vs Closed Models: Who Wins | Whether to Trust Frontier Model Providers | Why Companies Need to Own Their Own Intelligence | The Importance of Verticalisation: From Chips to Models and More

   Oct 26, 2026

   Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella joins Harry Stabbings on 20VC to discuss AI safety, trust architectures for AI agents, and the economics of model access. The conversation covers whether to rely on frontier model providers' disclosures, the future balance of open-weight and closed models, and why firms need to own their own intelligence and private evaluations. They also discuss the implementation economy, vertical integration across the AI stack, energy and compute constraints on training runs, and AI's potential effect on global GDP growth.

5. 20VC: Why Robotics Will be 100x Bigger than Coding Agents | Inference Will Be a $10TRN Market: What No One Sees | Why Software Investors are F***** Today with Naveen Rao, Unconventional

   Oct 24, 2026

   Naveen Rao, founder of Unconventional AI and a serial entrepreneur who previously sold MosaicML to Databricks, joins Harry Stebings for a wide-ranging 20VC episode. The conversation covers energy supply constraints for AI data centers, the shift from model-first to hardware-software co-design and energy efficiency, and the future of chip specialization and commoditization. It also touches on open versus closed model token share, overrated AI investment areas, and how investors should evaluate deep technical startups.

6. 20VC: Trillion or Bust: The New VC Game | Coreweave Sell-Off Creates Panic | Town at $1B, Anduril at $90B: Revenue Multiples Out of Control | General Atlantic Eyes IPO & Modal Raises $750M at $15.75B

   Oct 22, 2026

   This 20VC market roundup episode features Harry Stebbings with regular panelists Rory O'Driscoll and Jason Lampkin, with no separate external guest. The discussion covers the AI infrastructure sell-off led by CoreWeave, Anthropic's rumored IPO valuation and revenue trajectory, Modal's $15.75B raise, and the concentration of venture capital into a few late-stage AI names. The hosts also discuss what the trend means for seed investors, the economics of firms like General Atlantic going public, and Harvard's endowment returns.

7. 20VC: You Need $1BN To Do Seed Today: The Untold Truths of Venture | Who Wins and Who Loses in the Next Decade of VC | Why Margin and Price Matter Less in a World of AI with Sameer Dholakia, Bessemer

   Oct 19, 2026

   Sameer Dholakia, a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and former CEO of SendGrid, discusses Bessemer's $5.75 billion raise across a seed fund and a growth fund. The conversation covers Bessemer's investments in Anthropic, Fireworks, and Legora, and how he thinks about valuation multiples, gross margins, and revenue quality in AI. It also touches on capital as a competitive moat, the future of venture returns, and his views on robotics and autonomy.

8. 20VC: Horizontal vs Vertical Agents: Who Wins | Model Routing: Commodity or Increasing in Value | The Future of the Inference Market | Why Founders Should Take Discounts for Tier 1 Firms with Harrison Chase, LangChain

   Oct 17, 2026

   Harrison Chase, founder of LangChain, joins Howard Stubbings on 20VC to discuss why building reliable AI agents remains hard, how LangChain's open-source framework and LangSmith observability product are positioned, and how model routing, memory, and the harness layer may evolve. The conversation also covers whether companies should fine-tune open-weight models, the value of vertical agents, and Chase's views on fundraising, taking discounts from top-tier VCs, and the durability of first-mover brand advantage.

9. 20VC: The Pro-Rata Battle: Valar Atomics Sues Day One Ventures | Meta Returns to the AI Frontier With Muse Wonder | NVIDIA Eyes $30B Reflection Deal & Jev Raises $870M at a $7.5B Valuation

   Oct 15, 2026

   Host Harry Stebbings joins co-hosts Jason Lambkin and Rory O'Driscoll for a weekly news roundup of venture and tech stories. Topics include the Valar Atomics vs. Day One Ventures dispute over pro rata rights, Meta's Muse Wonder model, NVIDIA's reported interest in Reflection, Jev's $870M Series A, and the state of the SaaS market and exits. The panel debates investor conduct, open-weight model economics, and whether a $500M ARR bar still supports an IPO.

10. 20VC: Atlassian CEO on Why Agents Won't Replace Interfaces | Why Enterprises Won't Trust Chinese Models | Why The Jury Is Still Out On The Benefits of Specialised Models with Mike Cannon-Brookes

    Oct 12, 2026

    Atlassian co-founder and CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes joins host Harry Stabbings to discuss how AI agents may change the value of traditional enterprise software, arguing that user interfaces and design will matter more, not less, in the AI era. The conversation also covers Atlassian's Teamwork Graph and context layer, customer trust in Chinese versus open-weight models, whether building specialized models is worthwhile, and AI cost and price-performance. The episode closes with more personal reflections on founder burnout, wealth, and what he has learned about energy and leadership.