20VC: You Need $1BN To Do Seed Today: The Untold Truths of Venture | Who Wins and Who Loses in the Next Decade of VC | Why Margin and Price Matter Less in a World of AI with Sameer Dholakia, Bessemer

Intelligence represents a market opportunity potentially larger than oil, as it powers human activity across every sector. Bessemer Venture Partners recently raised $5.75 billion, reflecting the capital-intensive nature of the current AI super cycle. Growth investors must navigate a landscape where capital acts as a critical moat, necessitating large war chests to scale frontier models and purpose-built applications. While the debate between open-source and closed-model dominance continues, the sheer scale of the total addressable market renders the specific ratio of token traffic less relevant than overall value creation. Successful venture firms must balance early-stage bets with late-stage growth, maintaining operational discipline and fostering team-oriented cultures where members act as teammates rather than mere colleagues. Ultimately, the ability to identify generational companies and support them through massive capital deployment remains the primary driver of venture returns in this era.