My a16z scout thesis: big ideas others would say no to.

<p>Back in 2010, I was starting an AI music generation company. Today we&rsquo;d call it a Generative AI startup &mdash; back then there was no catch-all term. As a result, raising money was all but impossible. I pitched probably 50 investors for my seed round. 49 said no or outright ignored me. Most (if not all) just did not believe that AI could be creative.</p> <p>I got lucky. A single investor at a single fund &mdash; a great guy named Mike, at the spinout fund&nbsp;<a href="https://www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Cambridge Enterprise</a>&nbsp;&mdash; believed in the idea, and believed in me, and invested. Without Mike, I would have given up. And, given that we sold the business to ByteDance and Generative AI proceeded to go mainstream, I would have hugely regretted it.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/@ednewtonrex/my-a16z-scout-thesis-big-ideas-others-would-say-no-to-9e4ad078ce2f"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>
Tags: thesis