Raising a Series A has never been harder as VCs pivot to hardware and Data/RL plays
prasanna_says · x · 2026-11-05
DanielChesley argues "Passing Go" (a Series A) has never been harder: after the first wave of AI-app winners was kingmade, many VCs rotated out of software into (1) hardware-heavy plays with massive contracts and (2) Data/RL plays whose revenue can go vertical overnight. No market-clearing metric guarantees an A round. The quoted take: default to seedstrap — one round, solve a customer problem, build a growth engine, get profitable, so Series A becomes a choice, not a need.
More from Venture
- CPPIB Invests $50 Million in Fast-Rising Toronto AI Startup Beacon Software — professor_ajay · 2026-11-05
- After Agent-Tweaked His Site for AI Search, ChatGPT Drove 57% of Traffic — jamesbrooksco · 2026-11-05
- Applied Compute raises $350M at $3.25B valuation, hits $100M run rate in 18 months — emmanuelvivier · 2026-11-05
- Robinhood CEO: 150,000+ people opened accounts for AI trading agents — No Priors · 2026-11-05
- Teens pay $300 on eBay for old iPods — and Apple's services math keeps it dead — aakashgupta · 2026-11-05
- Studio shares full blueprint for B2B voice AI agents built on Retell API — damienghader · 2026-11-05