Steven Lee, Seven Stars GP, on Backing Generational AI Founders Early

Steven Lee is the Founder and General Partner of Seven Stars. ~~~~~ This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to manual reconciliation and repeated follow-ups - raise and deploy capital faster and with greater transparency. Ready to make your fund operations smoother? Visit https://bit.ly/3GrB4Qj and see how easy it can be. ~~~~~This episode is in partnership with Notion. Notion is the AI workspace that works for you. Startups move fast - and Notion helps you move faster. From idea to exit, build docs, manage projects, and run your team and startup in one connected workspace powered by Notion AI. And because you’re part of the show’s community, Notion’s giving you up to 6 months of the Business plan with Notion AI—worth up to $12K—free. Apply here: https://ntn.so/gracegong~~~~~Seven Stars is a $40 million seed and pre-seed venture fund backing AI applications across consumer and enterprise sectors. A former partner at SV Angel, Lee helped lead investments in over 35 AI startups including ElevenLabs, Captions, Mercor, Reflection AI, and Skild AI, and personally invested in OpenAI. Inspired by his immigrant parents who ran a clothing shop called Seven Star Fashion in L.A.'s Koreatown, Lee named his firm in their honor and brings a deeply founder-first approach to investing. With a focus on hands-on fundraising support, talent access, and advisory networks from top tech companies, Lee aims to empower the next generation of visionary AI founders and ensure AI benefits not just the first billion users, but the next eight billion.Topics:

• Which AI application areas are still underexplored or overhyped
• Common fundraising mistakes AI founders make and how to avoid them
• Thesis on AI reaching "the next eight billion users"

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