How 'People First' Shapes Due Diligence

Navin Chaddha has spent three decades at the forefront of innovation—first as a founder, and now as managing partner at Mayfield, one of Silicon Valley’s oldest venture firms. A 17-time member of Forbes’ Midas List, Navin has guided generations of entrepreneurs through waves of technological change, from the dot-com boom to the AI era. At Mayfield, he champions a philosophy rooted in the firm’s founding ethos: investing in people, not markets. That approach has shaped his perspective on what it takes to build enduring companies. In this conversation, Navin shares why $1 trillion in infrastructure spending is fueling a new hardware renaissance, how stealth startups are going from zero to billions in a year, and what it means for the future of innovation.

We explore:

• How “vibe coding” is democratizing technology creation through conversational, collaborative, and cognitive interfaces
• Why Navin believes the “vibe economy” will transform how we work, live, and play
• How Mayfield’s 56-year focus on “backing the jockey, not the racetrack” shapes its investment approach
• The massive opportunity in AI hardware infrastructure
• How stealth AI hardware startups are going from zero to billions in under a year
• How India’s tech ecosystem has evolved and where the real opportunities are today
• How cricket taught Navin crucial lessons about company building

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Transcript: https://www.generalist.com/p/the-trillion-dollar-ai-hardware-opportunity

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Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(04:52) Cricket and its parallels to venture capital

(08:13) Navin’s journey to Silicon Valley

(10:28) Growing up in an entrepreneurial family

(12:00) Early mentors and becoming an “accidental entrepreneur”

(13:46) Navin’s first company and unconventional fundraising approach

(17:35) How Navin moved from founder to venture capitalist

(20:11) What has worked in India’s tech market and what hasn’t yet taken off

(23:31) The future of outsourcing in the AI era

(27:14) How Navin landed at Mayfield

(30:36) How Mayfield’s people-first approach works in practice

(34:50) Why Navin sees AI and vibe coding as the next great wave of innovation

(38:13) Why Navin believes AI will push humans to level up their skills rather than lose them

(44:50) The hardware opportunities that excite Navin and where Mayfield is investing

(48:49) An overview of photonics and why it matters now

(50:06) How Mayfield balances market insight, big ideas, and the people behind them

(52:50) The surprising pace of growth in AI hardware

(54:54) The timeline from idea to product and scale in hardware startups

(56:26) Final meditations

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Follow Navin Chaddha

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navinchaddha/

X: https://x.com/navinchaddha

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Resources and episode mentions: https://www.generalist.com/p/the-trillion-dollar-ai-hardware-opportunity

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