Series A Market for AI Startups is Structurally Broken, VCs Avoid Early Risk
JosephJacks_ · x · 2026-08-06
Investor Greg Dibner points out that the Series A market is fundamentally broken. Series A investors, who are supposed to provide the first scaling capital, are no longer playing that role effectively. Instead, they are choosing three alternative paths:
- Investing way after PMF: Waiting for abundant evidence of product-market fit (e.g., the "0 to $100M in 18 months" trajectory), failing to take appropriate risk.
- Investing way before PMF: Investing at the extremely early stages but at valuations that fail to account for the risk.
- Buying into hype: Only backing heavily contested deals.
Joseph Jacks agrees, noting that this holds true but primarily in highly status quo scenarios.
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