20VC: Sequoia's David Cahn on The Winners and Losers in AI | The $0-$100M Revenue Club: Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead? | The Future of Defence: Who Wins and Who Loses | How to Analyse Margins and Growth Rates in a World of AI

**David Cahn** (0:00)
I do think we're in an AI bubble. You can see the fragility. Everybody can see the fragility. The thing that I think is more interesting is who's going to survive the bubble? Consumers of compute benefit from a bubble, because if we overproduce compute, prices go down, your cogs goes down and your gross margin goes up. The lesson that punches you in the stomach in venture is you can't make a company succeed.

**Harry Stebbings** (0:21)
How would you respond to Sequoia were asleep at the wheel when it came to defense, not being in Helsing and Andrill, the two clear market leaders in the category?
This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and one of the most downloaded episodes of last year was David Cahn at Sequoia. So much has changed in the last year. I wanted to have David back for a refresh. I wanted to understand how he thought about where we were today. For those that missed the last show, first it's a must, but David is a partner at Sequoia Capital and one of the world's leading AI investors. And before Sequoia, David was a general partner at Coatue. I loved this conversation today. Let me know your thoughts, harry at 20vc.com. But before we dive into the show today, I love seeing the team come together to make this show happen. What I don't love is trying to keep track of all the information, the data and the projects that we're working on across dozens of platforms, products and tools. That's why we use Coda, the all-in-one collaborative workspace that's helped 50,000 teams all over the world get on the same page, offering the flexibility of docs with the structure of spreadsheets. Coda facilitates deeper teamwork and quicker creativity, and their turnkey AI solution, the intelligence of Coda Brain, is a game changer. Powered by Grammarly, Coda is entering a new phase of innovation and expansion, aiming to redefine productivity for the AI era. Whether you're a startup looking to organize the chaos while staying nimble or an enterprise organization looking for better alignment, Coda matches your working style. Its seamless workspace connects to hundreds of your favorite tools, including Salesforce, Jira, Asana and Figma, helping your teams transform their rituals and do more faster. Head over to coda.io/20vc right now and get six months off the team plan for start oda.io/20vc and get six months off the team plan for free, coda.io/20vc. And speaking of tools that give you an edge, that's exactly what AlphaSense does for decision making. As an investor, I'm always on the lookout for tools that really transform how I work. Tools that don't just save time but fundamentally change how I uncover insights. That's exactly what AlphaSense does. With the acquisition of Tegus, AlphaSense is now the ultimate research platform built for professionals who need insights they can trust, fast. I've used Tegus before for company deep dives right here on the podcast. It's been an incredible resource for expert insights. But now with AlphaSense leading the way, it combines those insights with premium content, top broker research and cutting edge generative AI.

**David Cahn** (3:01)
The result?

**Harry Stebbings** (3:01)
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And if AlphaSense helps you spot the winners, AngelList helps you hire them. If you're listening to 20VC, you know we have a really freaking high bar. Well, AngelList is the modern platform used by the best in class venture funds, where over 40% of top endowments and banks are LPs. Their customers include a top five venture firm, 20VC and they now have, check this out, $171 billion of assets on the platform. They combine an all-in-one software platform with a dedicated service team that moves as fast as you do. One manager said this awesome quote, AngelList feels like an extension of my fund. Another said AngelList gives me total peace of mind, the attention to detail, lightning fast response time and just real sense of ownership from the team are exactly what I need to stop worrying about back office ops. So if you're starting a new fund, don't be a moron, just use AngelList. They're incredible. Head over to angellist.com/20vc to learn more. You have now arrived at your destination. David, I love your writing. Our episode last year was one of the most downloaded shows. I had like the CMO of Meta tell me that it is the single show that he has forwarded to more people and sites more often than any other, not to make you nervous or set the pressure for this episode. But thank you so much for joining me again, David.