Founders Are Now Sending VCs a File Written for AI

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Today’s show:

Lerer Hippeau managing partner Ben Lerer predicts that venture funds under $500M will raise less money this year than in any other year this past decade. LPs are piling into megafund platforms, while family offices skip commitments for SPVs. For everyone in between, he says, “the middle is cooked.”

On a new TWiST VC roundtable, Lerer joins Jason Calacanis, Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Ventures) and D.A. Wallach (Time BioVentures) to discuss Beezer Clarkson’s data, showing that family offices now put 34% of their VC commitments into SPVs.

OpenAI and Anthropic obviously skew those numbers a bit, but nonetheless, family offices increasingly want to “play venture capitalist” in hot late-stage deals.

What about LPs who sit in five or more platform funds? Don’t they now own all the same companies?

Plus D.A. warns about “freelance investment bankers” collecting SPV fees, Jason shares his 2% one-time SPV fee and his fights to protect pro rata, Jenny flags LPs asking managers for allocations in companies their funds don’t own, and lots more insights from our panel of insiders and experts.

Guests

Ben Lerer on X: https://x.com/benjlerer

Lerer Hippeau: https://www.lererhippeau.com/

Jenny Fielding on X: https://x.com/jefielding

Everywhere Ventures: https://www.everywhere.vc/

D.A. Wallach on X: https://x.com/dawallach

Time BioVentures: https://www.timebioventures.com/

Relevant Links

Haseeb Qureshi on founders shipping a company.md with their pitch: https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2120531493613400210

Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/travis-kalanicks-robotics-company-raises-1-7b-led-by-a16z/

Jelly, Everywhere Ventures' private market intelligence platform (beta waitlist): https://jelly.buildwitheverywhere.com/

Jack Dorsey takes on Slack with Buzz (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/jack-dorsey-is-taking-on-slack-with-buzz-a-group-chat-platform-for-teams-and-their-ai-agents/

Crosby raises a $60M Series B for its AI law firm (Global Legal Post): https://www.globallegalpost.com/news/cooley-backed-contract-review-start-up-crosby-raises-60m-in-fresh-funding-1011864931

Beezer Clarkson's thread: family offices put 34% of VC commitments into SPVs: https://x.com/Beezer232/status/2120231905618432314

Anthropic's IPO roadshow site and video: https://ipo.anthropic.com/us/

Anthropic sets an IPO price range of $70 to $78 per share (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/10/anthropic-sets-ipo-price-range-of-70-to-78-per-share-to-reach-an-implied-valuation-of-1-404-trillion/

Experts push back on Amodei's disease timeline (Moneywise via Yahoo Finance): https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/wildly-off-impossible-anthropics-dario-104000073.html

D.A. Wallach on TBPN: https://x.com/tbpn/status/2118838400539361298

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's GPU cluster to "cure, prevent or manage all diseases" (Engadget): https://www.engadget.com/the-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-is-building-a-massive-gpu-cluster-to-cure-prevent-or-manage-all-diseases-205454041.html

Neuralink: https://neuralink.com

LaunchPoint: https://www.launchpointhq.com

Abliteration.ai is making a business out of removing AI guardrails (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/03/abliteration-ai-is-making-a-business-out-of-removing-ai-guardrails/

Timestamps:

0:00 AI is moving the ground under every startup’s feet

7:52 Plaud - If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

8:39 Why founders are shipping a company.md with their pitch

10:40 Superhuman - Superhuman Go is an AI chat that's always there when you need it, already aware of what you're doing, and doesn't ask you to start from zero. Sign up to get the best in AI at https://superhuman.com

12:56 When you disagree with your AI

18:23 The one trait founders can’t game

19:20 Is VC still a profession in the future?

22:02 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist

31:40 Stripe - Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits and more. Apply today on https://stripe.com/startups.

32:49 Distribution, data moats, and enterprise hardening

37:58 The AI law firm that charges for work, not time

47:14 Jason’s late-stage SPV program

52:02 Small funds are shrinking

59:32 Athena - Get $1,500 off your first EA at https://www.athena.com/jcal

1:00:50 Dario’s roadshow video highlights

1:09:25 Checking the panel’s P-Dario scores

Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp