In this episode, Sandhya Hegde and Wei Lien Dang chat about everything that happened in the world of AI Startups in 2023.

2023 was very much an Act 2 for Generative AI as GPT became a household name. We had a long Act 1 during Covid ending with some incredible launches in the second half of 2022 including Stable Diffusion and of course ChatGPT. We take a closer look at what the pivotal moments have been this year and more importantly what they mean for the startups ecosystem.

Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Preview: Strategy to defeat incumbent software companies

3:39 January 2023 — ChatGPT's Success and Consumer Adoption

7:16 February 2023 — Controversies and Legal Issues

12:09 March 2023 — GPT-4 Launch and Multimodal AI

16:04 April and May 2023 — Large infrastructure providers’ AI strategy

20:04 June 2023 — GPU Shortage and Infrastructure Challenges

22:41 July and August 2023 — Fine-Tuning and New Modalities

29:46 September 2023 — Governance and Safety Concerns

32:06 October 2023 — Revenue Generation and Open Source

33:18 November 2023 — OpenAI Leadership Changes

37:17 December 2023 — Google's Gemini and Future Predictions

Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor.

Wei Lien Dang is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures and leads investments in infrastructure software, security, and developer tool. Wei was a co-founder of StackRox, a cloud-native security company prior to its acquisition by Red Hat.

Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Further reading from Unusual Ventures:

Whose responsibility is responsible AI?

How do you navigate AI security in an evolving landscape?

Autonomous AI agents could change the world, but what do they actually do well?

2023 AI Wrapped: The "so whats?" behind this year’s top AI moments

Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast