How to win in the AI hype, is Growth Financing back? & European venture ecosystem with Matt Turck, FirstMark Capital

Unicorn Bakery - For the World's Most Ambitious Founders & Teams

In this episode, I talk with Matt Turck General Partner at the New York based Venture firm Firstmark Capital about succeeding as a VC. Firstmark invests in a very focused way, primarily in Series A rounds.

Matt himself has been focused on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Data for more than 10 years.

AI Hype: What do companies and founders need to survive the hype?

Growth Fundraising: Matt's portfolio companies Pigment and Synthesia just raised large growth roungs. Are growth financing rounds back?

European Startup Ecosystem: As a French living in New York for 20 years, how does Matt perceive the European ecosystem?

ALL ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY:

https://zez.am/unicornbakery

What you learn:

What makes a good VC? How should startups choose their investors?

What founder qualities are most important to Matt?

Matt's take on the European ecosystem comapred to the US

Matt Turck

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turck/

FirstMark: https://firstmark.com

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(00:00:00) What makes a successful venture investor?

(00:06:36) How do you personally manage FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)?

(00:12:58) What should founders look for when fundraising and choosing investors?

(00:20:51) Why did your opinion change from looking for technical founder to accepting business founders, too?

(00:24:52) What are your thoughts on the AI hype?

(00:30:24) How do I survive the hype cycle as an AI startup?

(00:38:07) How important is defensibility for startups in the (pre-)seed phase?

(00:42:39) How is the growth financing dynamic changing at the moment?

(00:46:14) How would you compare the European startup ecosystem to the U.S. ecosystem?