"Investing in companies that OpenAI won't kill." That's Vanessa Larco's thesis, and in this VC bonus episode of GTMnow she breaks down exactly how she decides what survives. Vanessa, founder and GP at Premise (formerly a longtime partner at NEA, where she backed Robinhood from seed to IPO), joins Max to get into the nitty gritty of how AI is rewriting venture, distribution, and the entire go-to-market playbook.
She makes the case for why "it's just a wrapper" got a lot of VCs in trouble, why she only backs technical founding teams, and why the old GTM playbook is breaking fastest exactly where you'd least expect it. She also opens up about leaving a big platform to build a two-person fund from a blank canvas, and why she treats the fund itself like a startup.
What you'll learn: - The "OpenAI won't kill it" framework for spotting durable AI companies (and why not everything OpenAI ships actually wins) - Why the "it's just a wrapper" dismissal cost VCs real deals, and the kayak/AWS parallels that explain why - Why Premise only backs technical founding teams, and the shipping speed that becomes the real early moat - How the old go-to-market playbook is breaking, especially in DevTools, and what replaces it - Why someone on the founding team has to "nerd out" on distribution, and why no-playbook moments are where you growth hack - How to run a conviction-based investment committee, and why big funds drift toward consensus whether they like it or not - Why running a fund is just running a startup: fundraising, product, and customer success by another name - The unanswered question Vanessa keeps circling: how to give experienced GTM talent space to rewrite the playbook
Chapters:
00:00 Intro & OpenAI Moats 01:12 GTMnow Intro 01:51 Technical vs. Non-Technical AI Founders 04:37 The Bottleneck of Hiring AI Talent 05:15 Do Old Moats Still Exist? 06:36 Cloud Era Lessons vs. Today's AI Layer 09:18 The Shift to the Distribution Era 11:38 Interview: Vanessa Larco (Premise VC) 12:40 Companies OpenAI Won't Kill 13:37 Consumer Habits vs. Enterprise AI 15:05 Moving Beyond the "Wrapper" Stigma 17:39 Thesis Building vs. Founder Curiosities 20:11 Sourcing & The "Surreal" Community 22:26 Learnings From NEA & Lightspeed 24:06 Rethinking the Investment Memo 26:43 Consensus vs. Conviction Investing 31:26 Running a VC Fund Like a Startup 35:04 Building Internal Automation Tools 37:35 Distribution Moats & DevTools 39:38 Sourcing New GTM Playbooks 41:12 Parallel to the AWS Boom 43:55 Human Psychology vs. AI Tools 47:06 SF's Best Cookie Spots 48:32 Outro
Connect with Vanessa Larco: About the guest: Vanessa Larco is the founder and GP at Premise. Previously a partner at NEA, she backed consumer and fintech companies including Robinhood from seed through IPO. She started her career in product and engineering, was a computer science undergrad, and founded and sold her own startup before moving into venture.
Connect with Max: https://x.com/hackitmax https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxaltschuler/
Connect with Vanessa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessalarco/ https://x.com/veelarco
About GTMnow: GTMnow is the media arm of GTMfund, sharing the strategies, tactics, and stories from the operators and investors building the next generation of go-to-market. This is the VC bonus series, where we host VCs and get into the VC ecosystem.
Visit us on: https://gtmnow.com Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow Follow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_ Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_now Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_ Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/
The GTMnow Podcast The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.
Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
GTMnow. Innehållet i podden är skapat av GTMnow och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
