Context:
I keep coming back to the same uncomfortable thought: I’ve never seen a tech revolution this corporate. AI is supposed to be a paradigm shift—something that shatters assumptions and rewires the system. But right now, it feels less like punk rock and more like enterprise software on steroids.
Market Signal:
The root cause is capital. When it takes hundreds of millions just to get on the field, the market naturally selects for founders with big resumes, clean narratives, and familiar archetypes. The system rewards safety and legibility.
Hackers and misfits—the ones who usually break the rules and build the future are quietly filtered out. Not because they don’t exist, but because the market structure doesn’t reward them yet. When compute is scarce and infra is expensive, capital flows to the fundable and repeatable, not the weird and relentless.
Takeaways:
AI should be punk rock, especially in cybersecurity and other areas where the old rules are breaking down.
The next generation of iconic companies shouldn’t look like incumbents with a model bolted on. They should be built by people who are slightly unhinged in their conviction that the old rules are wrong.
The founders you want to back for the long haul aren’t chasing markets—they’re obsessed with a very specific, long-term vision of the world.
Maybe AI skipped its punk rock phase. Or maybe we just haven’t hit it yet. Historically, the punk phase comes when tools get cheap, access opens up, and the weirdos realize they don’t need permission.
Asks:
I want to fund founders with a hacker’s instinct and a punk rock approach to what comes next.
If you’re building from the belief that the system is broken—and you’re here to replace it—let’s talk.