Investing Secrets from Silicon Valley’s Best VCs

With AI & I on hiatus this month, we’re re-upping some of our best interviews. Today we're featuring a digest from three episodes in which Dan Shipper interviewed three of Silicon Valley's most influential venture capitalists—Sarah Tavel, Mike Maples, and Nabeel Hyatt. Their opinions vary, but they share a focus on founders who can see and capitalize on the paradigm shift that AI has brought about. Whether you're building, investing in, or simply curious about AI's trajectory, their insights prove essential.—Kate Lee

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Sarah Tavel, Mike Maples, and Nabeel Hyatt have invested millions into the next generation of AI startups. Their bet isn’t on raw technology, though; it’s on products that feel magical, new business models, and solutions to wants people don’t even realize they have.

Over the first half of 2025, Dan Shipper interviewed the three on our podcast AI & I. Tavel is a venture partner at Benchmark; Maples is an iconic Silicon Valley investor who wrote early checks to Twitter, Twitch, and Lyft, and now invests through Floodgate, the fund he cofounded; and Hyatt is general partner of Spark Capital, who made early investments in Discord, video editor Descript, and, more recently, AI note-taking app Granola.

Read on for how Tavel, Maples, and Hyatt think about investing in AI. We cover:

1. Their big ideas for the next chapter of AI
2. The qualities of a remarkable founder
3. The kind of startups they’re drawn to

You can also check out the episodes in full here:

Tavel, Maples, and Hyatt on where we go next

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1. AI's evolution from technical to product-centric
2. The coming social layer for AI experiences
3. The "leash length" heuristic for building better agents
4. Why AI should present options, not just answers
5. How startups can exploit AI's business model disruption
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