A photo taken in Istanbul on December 7, 2021 shows US dollar banknotes. – After last month’s currency crisis caused the Turkish lira to hit an all-time low against the dollar, Turkey’s annual…(+) Inflation rate surged by more than 20 percent in November, official data showed on December 3, 2021 It was shown in (Photo credit: Ozan KOSE/AFP) (Photo credit: OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)
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No one would call General Catalyst a small fry. However, recently released news has many new and interesting details about how this VC firm is spending approximately $8 billion pursuing novel strategies that apply AI to the business world. Included.
Obviously, there are almost infinite ways to do this. General Catalyst is well-positioned as a company with approximately $30 billion in assets and a track record of backing startups like Airbnb, Instacart, and Stripe.
A new investment strategy for artificial intelligence
General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja recently announced that the company will put $4 billion into its core VC account and $800 million into “creative” strategic initiatives involving startups. GC describes the fund as follows:
“The $800 million Founding Fund allows us to renew our focus on company building and commercialize that approach. We work with entrepreneurs and executives to build companies in our core areas of interest. GC’s hatch strategies have always been the cornerstone of the company and were the driving force behind some of its notable early successes (Kayak, Livongo, Commure). With the support of our growing resident executive team, we intend to expand our proprietary paper development and company-building efforts.”
One thing to note from related reports is that General Catalyst appears to be the first to build a technology stack and insert it into newly acquired enterprise systems across a variety of industries. This is strange enough, but when Mr. Taneja suggests that the company wants to “build a company rather than provide capital,” you wonder what form that will take.
apply the brakes
However, if there’s any reassurance, Taneja seems to be hinting at some caution when it comes to advancing AI, going back to comments from 2019.
“Many of today’s entrepreneurs live by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s now-famous motto: “Move fast and break things.” It was meant to inform the process, but it aptly captures how entrepreneurs view disruption: more is always better. Regardless of the merits or rationale behind their governance systems, they are desperate to get products into consumers’ hands as quickly as possible. This is becoming increasingly unsustainable.”
Such a word of warning may be what we need right now, as hype is always a temptation.
Bigger with AI
Anyway, it was also interesting to read Mr. Taneja’s thoughts on the growth of this particular sector in a recent interview. He said:
“Behind the moves we are making is the fundamental idea that venture capital doesn’t scale. No matter how big or small your fund is, there are just as many outlier companies. Masu.”
It seems strange for people in venture capital to think that AI injection, or anything else for that matter, is infinitely scalable, but that’s Taneja’s disclaimer. He also talked about directly acquiring healthcare providers and integrating AI into that space, suggesting that in some ways this kind of investment should be done in a hands-on way.
Is AI destructive?
In related news, Janet Z Fürstenberg, head of La Familia in Europe and managing director of General Catalyst, talks about the importance of national technological sovereignty and global resilience, and fellow managing director Director Ken Chenault suggests that the company’s plays will include the following elements: “I don’t see any conflict between profit and purpose.” It had a huge impact.
Fürstenberg also made some interesting comments about the nature of AI investing. Look at this, which was reported as her words.
“Our belief system is that AI is not inherently a disruptive technology; it does not provide new means of distribution; it essentially provides a transformational angle to existing categories. …If you look at Europe, the real benefits we get from AI will depend on how it intersects with many of our vertical strengths.”
The idea that AI is “non-disruptive” requires some qualification, but there is a lot to unpack. Indeed, General Catalyst is focused on the big technology wave we’re all experiencing right now. Regarding risk-taking, Taneja also declared, as reported by TechCrunch: “We are in the business of taking risks.”
(Original caption) September 1958 – Las Vegas, Nevada: A man rolls dice at a crappy hotel table… (+) Flamingo in Las Vegas. BPA2#2068
Bettman Archive
As OpenIA creates new models and new kinds of neural networks solve resource problems, this news finds out how the business world is leveraging new-found capabilities. It gives you a window for. Inevitably, there will be early adopters who come in from the ground floor and dominate this stage of AI advancement in business. What happens next is a kind of black box.
