The current venture market is defined by a dangerous decoupling of capital from reality. While the industry chases $10B seed valuations and trillion-dollar infrastructure bets, Brian Smith and S3 Ventures are executing a "Discipline Arbitrage." They argue that the real returns in AI will not come from the massive CapEx spenders, but from the application layer that solves boring, regulated, enterprise problems.

This episode audits the structural risks of the current AI wave and explains why staying as a small fund may be the ultimate competitive advantage.

Agenda

01:30 Cisco Moment & 28 Bellagios
06:31 Applications First, Agents Next
19:06 2021 Bubble vs 2025 Reality
32:55 Defining Patient Capital
44:09 Strategic Advantage of Small Funds
53:03 Return to Atoms

Guest Links
Brian Smith, S3 Ventures (Website, X, LinkedIn)

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Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
Ecosystem Metacognition Substack

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