arian ghashghai
@arian_ghashghai
Investing pre-seed in ar/vr, robotics, ai @EarthlingVC | ex-ai/ml engineer @Meta @RealityLabs | tifoso @ScuderiaFerrari
In what is the least spectacular fundraising announcement you'll read this month — I'm amped to finally share the close of @EarthlingVC Fund I, a $4.5M vehicle investing first round/first check in next-generation computing surfaces and mediums.
Btw not one person came to pitch their startup ( unthinkable for US VC/founder events). Ton of questions, and everyone came to learn (thoroughly enjoyed this) As a VC investing in people, I learned much more about people than at an impromptu pitch fest
Spoke with dozens of young builders at @ETH_en during my few days in Zurich (here with @jjschnyder). High-level takeaways: 1) Strong pull towards the US (both in market and incorporation), but very few perceived paths on how to get there (hence YC is popular as a "straight shot"…
I was in Portugal for a wedding for the last 6 days (best friend married a Portuguese girl) I now understand why I've never seen a Portuguese restaurant abroad
The only "reasonable" argument I've heard for humanoids is that using a human form factor retrofits better into existing processes (like warehouses) Not sure how much longevity there is in that either (vs just e.g. re-thinking how we design warehouses)
why is everyone obsessed with humanoid robots? we need more non-humanoid robots do they need to look like us for any particular reason
Earthling VC’s Zurich portfolio!! I suspect there will be a bigger table for the next one
please make this go viral so I can pay for repairs our humanoid robot boy DeREK completely lost his mind @REKrobot
The romanticization of being a startup founder is kind of insane to me: – You’re statistically unlikely to succeed – You’ll have no life and be totally consumed - Incredible lows – You’re locking yourself in for 10+ years This is insanely hard and NOT for everyone.
Today the tech giants have two assumptions about XR: 1. AR will be bigger than VR. 2. Glasses will be better than headsets. But is that really certain? What if a super giant comes out of the non‑consensus?
Common occurrence in the @EarthlingVC portfolio
Contrarian move that's working out really well for one of my friends: Shack up in a tier 2 city with a great university (Seattle, Austin, Atlanta). Hire the best from that university. Easier to hire and close, better coders than Stanford, less of a retention problem
VC is not collapsing, but yes the b2b SaaS era of VC is dead (often conflated with VC at-large) It’s a new era of VC now. New principles needed, and those that don’t adapt will flame out. Also why you’ll see a lot of net new generational firms established today
Venture capital is no longer a performing asset class and interest rates have been too high for too long. Even seasoned winners are unable to raise. This is what the collapse looks like. Delusions of personal conspiracy read into an iPhone camera for public jeers.
A side perk of doing stuff in Zurich @ETH_en — You’re an hour from the most beautiful places on the planet (Little early excursion before some catchups in Zurich later today)
We are hosting an ETH pitch day, winner gets $100k!! @BoostVC 🤝 @EarthlingVC 🤝 @ETH_en 💰
When I first visited @ETH Zurich, I was blown away. The technical depth, the curiosity, the drive to build; it reminded me why I got into deep tech in the first place. So we’re coming back, with a $100K check for student founders.
When I first visited @ETH Zurich, I was blown away. The technical depth, the curiosity, the drive to build; it reminded me why I got into deep tech in the first place. So we’re coming back, with a $100K check for student founders.
Jack is in the top 0.01% of talented people I've ever met in my life, and certain he will totally crush in his next (bigger) endeavor (also amped to be a tiny supporter)
Big update: I've left a16z and started a company! At a16z, I evaluated thousands of AI companies from seed to scale. This taught me something crucial: innovation is exciting, but true transformation - embedding AI into the core of our economy - is an entirely different…