20VC Newsletter - 30th March 2025
Here are the transcripts and top takeaways from 20VC episodes released this last week.
Monday’s episode with Andrew Feldman, Founder & CEO @ Cerebras:
Download the full transcript:
My 8 key takeaways:
What Is Nvidia’s Biggest Weakness
The fundamental architecture of GPUs with off-chip memory is not great for inference.
Their biggest strength is now their greatest weakness.
They will continue to do well in inference, but it can be beaten and they know it.
Why the CUDA Lock-in Is BS and Where Nvidia’s Real Moat Is
Modern AI frameworks let you easily switch hardware with just a few tweaks.
NVIDIA's real moat is its position as the market share leader.
When you are the default solution, everybody learns to think about AI in your structures.
Why It Is BS That We Have Hit Scaling Laws
OpenAI’s o1 shows that the scaling law still works for inference.
Many leading models today are now MoEs.
We will discover other ways to scale.
What Happens to the Cost of Inference
It will go down through several factors:
Data centre: Building more efficient data centres to power the models.
Compute: Each new generation of compute will have better performance at a lower price.
Algorithms: Our algorithms today are not efficient enough – Only 5-7% of a GPU is utilized when doing inference..
How Much Synthetic Data Will Be Used in 5 Years and Is It as Useful
Almost all data will be synthetic in 5 years.
We need data that is difficult/painful to gather.
Synthetic data can fill that gap.
The Most Under Appreciated Segment of AI
Sub-milliwatt chips
They are tiny chips next to sensors that do inference & only send back useful data.
It will be fundamental in robotics.
How China Innovated and What the US Can Learn From It?
The creation of economic zones like Shenzhen was a workaround for their own system.
They have a state of the art high speed rail system linking important cities.
We need to look at what we are doing wrong with our infrastructure.
One Simple Question That Guides All Business Decisions
I ask myself “Would my mother be proud if I did this?”
If the answer is no, I don’t do it.
Top comments from the show:
Such an in-depth and technical discussion! Thank you! - @DimaZ-jv1we (YT)
Great chat 👏 thoroughly enjoyed - @weevinweaver (Instagram)
NVIDIA's real advantage is not its chip, but CUDA developer ecosystem. Nothing is stopping NVIDIA from making wafer-scale SRAM chips with minor changes to bypass Cerebras's patents, and buying out TSMC's available production capacity for next two years. - @well5423 (YT)
Wednesday’s episode with Mitchell Green, Co-Founder @ Lead Edge Capital:
Download the full transcript:
My 6 key takeaways:
VCs Learned Nothing From 2021 and It Is Shocking
The venture industry was about to have a rude awakening post 2021.
And then AI showed up.
It looks very similar to the internet bubble & people did not learn a thing.
Why Incumbents Win and Morons Think There Will Be Billion Dollar Single Person Companies
There have only been 3 100BN+ companies built since 2007.
It’s the customer distribution.
The idea of a single-person AI company is comical at best.
Making Money Where No One Else Is: The Hidden Treasure
We try to find the boring companies.
These companies have no chance of becoming the next Snowflake or Datadog.
We invest when they have $10-20M revenue then exit when they’re $60-80M.
The One Question That Tells You if a Business Is Good
Are your revenues today greater than your cumulative cash burn?
We are looking for a 1:1 ratio.
It speaks to many qualities of the business.
Biggest Advice to Emerging Managers
Take advantage of the secondary markets, growth funds have gotten so big & crossover public funds want to get into private investing.
Do the seed, the A & sell some in the B or C.
You don’t need to sell the whole position, just start returning money back to people.
Biggest Advice on How to Sell Your Company?
It is very hard to get bought today.
We encourage all of our founders to get to know the biggest strategics in the space.
Build relationships with the private equity funds that could buy you in the future.
Top comments from the show:
These interviews are incredible – always instantly click when I see a new video come up. - @HHNYC (YT)
Nailed this one Harry!! Delivered! Mitchell thankyou. The big picture to the micro strategy was awesome. Great work guys!! - @EnergyVinnie (YT)
Always delivering the most insightful convos with top VCs! Love the content and the crisp editing. - @primevision_studios (Instagram)
Behind the scenes:
Friday’s episode with Julia Hoggett, CEO @ London Stock Exchange:
Download the full transcript:
My 5 key takeaways:
Why the Domestic Economy Is Fucked Despite the Boom of Financial Services
We used to have huge pension funds investing large amounts of capital into our markets.
Our growth rates were as high as anywhere else in the world.
We have disconnected society from our capital markets.
Why “It Is Better to List in the US” Is BS?
In the last 10 years, only 20 UK companies that listed in the US have raised over $100M.
Of those, 9 have already delisted, 4 are trading up, and the rest are down by over 80%.
The idea that the grass is always greener in the US is not true.
Why Revolut’s Founder Is Wrong About Liquidity in London
The free float adjusted turnover in London is higher than the S&P and Nasdaq.
The volume of shares in the S&P and Nasdaq is higher because they have trillion dollar companies.
The liquidity in London is there.
Stamp Duty Is a Perversity and We Need to Change It
We charge people to invest in UK stocks but not US or European stocks.
It brings in £3-4BN for the treasury every year.
We need to find an alternative.
The Way We Think About Financial Services Is So Fucked
We basically created a world where cheap was good for financial services
Canadian & Australian pension funds charge higher fees but they have higher returns.
In a value added industry, you want to incentivise people to continue to add value.
Behind the scenes:
Let us know what your big takeaways from this week’s shows were in the comments below!
Thank you for reading, and don’t miss the great guests we have next week:
Monday episode: Kevin Scott, CTO @ Microsoft
Friday episode: 20Sales
Thank you for reading 20VC.
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