HOC raises down: Victor Taelin cuts round to $8M, invests $1M himself, goes all-in on AI research
basedjensen · x · 2026-11-08
Victor Taelin reveals that none of the big funds he pitched last month believed HOC could become a profitable business — common feedback was "nobody will pay" and "big labs will eat you."
- Downsized round: $8M at a $120M post-money cap
- He is investing $1M himself on the same terms
- Killing the product roadmap to go all-in on fundamental AI research around symbolic models, which he argues are far more interpretable and could improve the odds of safe AGI
"HOC may die, but not today" — he'd rather be a small fish looking where nobody else is than ship "another shitty app."
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