20VC: Why VC Today is Worse Than 2021 | Why Vertical SaaS is a Bad Investment Today | Why We Are Deluding Ourselves on Growth Expectations | Revolut Raises $3BN at a $75BN Valuation | Benchmark Adds Their Newest General Partner

**Rory O'Driscoll** (0:00)
It looks like the easiest way to make money in 2025 is to take the very biggest companies and double down one more time.

**Jason Lemkin** (0:06)
My gut tells me we're over romanticizing verticals in the age of AI. Like we're gonna hit the same TAM exhaustion, and it's gonna be worse because expectations are so high.

**Rory O'Driscoll** (0:16)
If any kind of de-acceleration happens cause of year, any kind of saturation or slowdown, everyone's estimates of what's gonna happen here are wrong. Reminder, in a bull market, the most aggressive person will look the smartest just before the crash because the more risk you've taken, the more money you've made. Frankly, it feels tough today, as tough as it's ever been.

**Harry Stebbings** (0:36)
This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings. It's my favorite show of the week, Jason Lemkin, Rory O'Driscoll, and what a show we have in store for you today. Now, there's a record for this one, the longest time that it's ever taken for us to actually get to the schedule. In the schedule, we discussed Benchmark's newest partner, OpenAI allowing Erotica, Revolut's new funding round, and much, much more. This was such a fun show to do. I want this to be the best podcast that you listen to. So let me know your feedback, harry at 20vc.com. I want to hear your thoughts. But before we dive into the show today, now, most people who get scammed never talk about it. And if it can happen to tech savvy professionals, CEOs and investors, it can happen to anyone. But the problem isn't just losing money, it's that today's scams, they're built differently for a very new world, one where AI can generate convincing messages in seconds, and fake sites look more like real sites than the real thing. Traditional tools were not built for this future, and that's why Guardio exists. Guardio is this incredible predictive and proactive engine. It leverages advanced AI threat detection to block highly targeted, socially engineered scams before they ever reach you. From phishing emails and fake login pages to financial fraud, Guardio protects you across the ways people actually live and work online. And security shouldn't be complicated. Guardio continuously monitors across all your accounts and devices, uncovering risks in real time, and guiding you to close gaps before attackers exploit them. Trusted by over a million users, Guardio is setting the new standard for personal cybersecurity. Visit guard.io/20vctoday to start your 7-day free trial. Because the threats of tomorrow, they're already here. And Guardio is built to stop them. And as guard.io defends your clicks, HubSpot turns them into customers. You want to grow your company, right? But instead of having the time to get to the next level, you start maintaining the status quo. It's freaking maddening. Well HubSpot's customer platform, it actually solves this. Breeze. No, it is not a fabric refresher. This is the next generation. Their built-in AI takes over all the busy work. It writes emails, it qualifies leads, it answers common customer questions and even help create content. Also, your marketing, your sales, your service teams can focus on what matters most. And the impact is undeniable. Teams are saving 750 hours a week. One even increased leads by 251%.
And these results show up in days, not months. Over 238,000 businesses already use HubSpot. So join them. Visit hubspot.com/ai.
And while HubSpot builds your funnel, Framer builds the experience around it. Are you still jumping between tools just to update your website? Don't do this. Framer unifies design, CMS and publishing all on one canvas. No handoff, no hassle. Everything you need to design and publish in one place. Framer already built the fastest way to publish beautiful production-ready websites. And it's now redefining how we design for the web. With the recent launch of Design Pages, a free canvas-based design tool, Framer is more than a site builder. It's a true all-in-one design platform. From social assets to campaign visuals to vectors and icons, all the way to a live site. Framer is where ideas go to live, start and finish. No Figma imports, no messy HTML. Just design, iterate and ship all in one place. And it's completely free to start. Ready to design? Iterate and publish all in one tool? Start creating for free at framer.com/design and use the code 20VC for a free month of Framer Pro. That's framer.com/design and use the promo code 20VC. framer.com/designpromocode20vc. Rules and restrictions may apply.

**Rory O'Driscoll** (4:36)
You have now arrived at your destination.

**Harry Stebbings** (4:39)
Team, it is so good to be back. It's slightly earlier for you. Topic number one, Everett Randall joins Benchmark. Benchmark don't add partners very often. It's a big news announcement that he's joining. Joins Benchmark as their latest GP. He was with Kleiner and he was with Founders Fund before. Rory, I always think of you as Benchmark because you quote a fantastic statement being, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. And I always think of Benchmark with this, with the portfolio, with great people like Everett.