"Turpentine VC" | Venture Capital and Investing

E60: How Lightspeed Invests in AI and Beyond with Arif Janmohamed

Oct 15, 2024

Arif Janmohamed, a Partner at Lightspeed Ventures and expert in AI investment, discusses the firm's impressive growth from early-stage enterprise investing to managing a whopping $7 billion globally. He delves into identifying lucrative market opportunities and the frameworks behind AI investments. Arif also predicts the future of AI in corporate travel and workforce dynamics, emphasizing its potential to transform businesses and cybersecurity practices, while adapting to the evolving tech landscape.

36:08

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Arif Janmohamed

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Quick takeaways

Lightspeed Ventures has evolved from a focus on early-stage enterprise investing to a global multi-stage firm with diverse sector engagement.

The firm emphasizes the importance of advanced cybersecurity solutions to counteract AI-driven threats, showcasing a commitment to innovation in this field.

Deep dives

Evolution of Lightspeed Ventures

Lightspeed Ventures began with a strong focus on early-stage enterprise investing, capitalizing on the gaps in the market during the dot-com boom. The firm recognized the potential for building significant companies by partnering closely with founders and supporting them through their multifaceted journeys. Over the past 25 years, Lightspeed has expanded beyond its initial enterprise focus to become a truly global firm, investing across various sectors such as healthcare, fintech, and consumer technologies. This evolution allows Lightspeed to support companies at any stage of their development while maintaining an early-stage ethos that emphasizes collaboration and partnership.

Intro

4min

Global Venture Capital and AI Evolution

6min

AI Innovations in Enterprise and Healthcare

5min

AI's Impact on Technology and Workforce Dynamics

7min

Navigating Market Trends and Engineering Talent Solutions

2min

AI Transformation in Business and Cybersecurity

10min

This week on Turpentine VC, Erik Torenberg is joined by Arif Janmohamed, partner at Lightspeed Ventures to dive into the world of AI investment. They explore Lightspeed's evolution from a strong focus on enterprise early-stage investing to becoming a global multi-stage firm with a $7 billion capital reach. Arif shares insights on identifying market opportunities, their frameworks for investing in AI, and the future of cybersecurity.

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LINKS:

Lightspeed: https://lsvp.com/

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Intro

(01:06) History and Evolution of Lightspeed Ventures

(03:16) Lightspeed's global and multi-sector approach

(06:12) AI investing at Lightspeed

(08:24) Foundation models and AI applications

(12:09) Sponsors: Rippling | Carta

(14:19) The future of AI and enterprise software

(18:25) AI in corporate travel

(19:00) AI agents in enterprise

(19:35) The future of work with AI

(21:19) Historical tech shifts and AI

(21:42) Sponsor: Squad

(22:48) Market timing and investment

(23:19) AI's impact on business models

(27:36) Cybersecurity in the AI era

(32:09) Global entrepreneurship

(33:13) Wrap

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