CapitalG

What’s it like to make big investment bets on artificial intelligence right now, given how quickly the technology is involving, the size and pace of investments, and the rapid rate at which #AI companies are accelerating? CapitalG managing partner Laela Sturdy discussed exactly that with Sarah Krouse, technology and media editor at The Wall Street Journal. Their interview covered the ways in which AI has the potential to transform life and work, as well as the challenges involved in picking AI investments. Read the full interview below. (Link in the comments.)

And that's a wrap on #WSJTechLive2025, which included fascinating speakers like OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport and our own CapitalG managing partner Laela Sturdy who chatted with The Wall Street Journal editor Sarah Krouse about her investment theses in #AI and #ecommerce, opportunities and risks associated with investing in and growing AI businesses during this era (hint: "It takes a strong stomach), advice to tech founders leading during this period of rapid change ("Embrace the change. Change is not the enemy; it's the engine"), and lessons learned from partnering closely iconic companies like Stripe, Duolingo, Databricks, and CrowdStrike. Catch a snipet where she discusses how, despite the level of attention and hype surrounding AI, most of us don't yet grasp how fundamentally it will change the ways we learn, work and live: https://lnkd.in/eaU_TuKc

Live from New York 🗽✨ The Nasdaq celebrated our Series F in the heart of NYC. Behind the billboard: every seller going live, every buyer discovering something new, and our team building the platform that makes it all possible. We're here to help people turn what they love into real businesses and bring people together through commerce. If that mission speaks to you, come build with us: careers.whatnot.com

Ever since our first investment in Armis back in 2019, we've repeatedly doubled down on the company, as our conviction in its technology, its leadership, and its potential has only grown stronger. Armis is redefining cyber exposure management, and we believe deeply in their vision to protect the full attack surface—from ground to cloud—for critical infrastructure worldwide. Gene Frantz, Mo Jomaa, James Luo and I, and all of us at CapitalG, are thrilled to have the privilege of partnering with Yevgeny Dibrov, Nadir Izrael, Jonathan Carr and the entire Armis team! https://lnkd.in/dcJ3DFUS

We are thrilled to continue backing such an extraordinary #cybersecurity company, led by the equally extraordinary Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael. Ever since Derek Zanutto and Mo Jomaa first invested in Armis in 2019, we've been impressed by the company's vision, execution and focus as they've built a market-leading solution in cyber exposure management. Congratulations on this milestone, team Armis. We are proud to continue backing your journey as you pave an eventual path to IPO.

Today we are thrilled to triple down on Whatnot, the clear leader in live commerce across the US, the UK and Europe. We co-led its Series C in 2021 and its Series D in 2022, and today we are proud to co-lead its Series F. The investment was spearheaded by Laela Sturdy, Alex Nichols, and Miriam Finnemore. The transition to e-commerce made shopping efficient but less personal and significantly less fun. Whatnot has brought the joy of the hunt online, blending storefront, show, and community hangout into one platform. Whatnot has successfully focused on enthusiast communities, taking the natural instinct of collectors and hobbyists to trade and giving it structure, scale, and trust. Through this model, Whatnot is not just creating a great marketplace; it is also fostering a livelihood for hundreds of thousands of small business owners. We have been privileged to work closely with co-founders Grant LaFontaine and Logan Head, exceptional leaders who build with velocity, set high standards, and focus relentlessly on customer delight. We have more conviction than ever in Whatnot’s trajectory towards building one of the world’s iconic marketplaces. We encourage you to read more in this thoughtful thesis piece by Laela, Alex and Miriam: https://lnkd.in/gs5NC3AK

#TechCrunchDisrupt2025 kicked off with a meaty session on "How AI is Forcing Late-stage Startups to Rewire GTM – or Be Left Behind," moderated by TechCrunch senior reporter Rebecca Bellan who was joined by CapitalG partner Jane Alexander, Premise co-founder and former New Enterprise Associates (NEA) partner Vanessa Larco, and Nextdoor co-founder and CEO Nirav Tolia. A few key take-aways: 🔹 Must companies really innovate in their use of #AI or risk being left behind? Yes, according to Nirav--and this goes for both native and non AI-native startups. As he put it, "Everyone is using AI to the fullest. If you’re not, how will you survive?" Jane added, “The only certainty is that there is no Everest you will summit. There will always be more that’s new.” Her recommendation: Don't implement one AI strategy and think you're done. Develop a system that allows you to constantly innovate and remain differentiated. 🔹 What would this kind of system look like? Jane offered the following examples of market-leading companies using AI in creative ways: Canva uses Clay to monitor companies’ social channels, checking content against brand guidelines. When off-brand content is found, Clay helps identify the head of design and shows them how to improve the post. OpenAI uses Clay’s AI research agent to mimic and augment the best sales reps’ research processes at scale. Rippling uses Clay for address enrichment and verification, tapping into Google Maps data to correct addresses for global direct mail campaigns. 🔹 Once companies decide they want to implement systems, is it better to build or buy? Vanessa cautioned that when thinking about whether to buy or build AI tools to consider not only the cost of building but also the long-term costs and resources required to maintain. 🔹 Given that AI is so new, how should companies go about teaching employees best practices for using it? Jane added that there's no talent pool yet that knows how to use AI natively. That makes AI talent extremely costly–and should motivate companies to devote resources to internal training and upskilling, such as creating LLM 101 courses for employees. Nirav suggested that AI learning and evangelism are so core that they should reside within companies’ People teams. He proposed the concept of AI business partners—people who follow the latest AI trends and then teach use cases to various teams internally. As Vanessa concluded, the shift to AI is a step function change. Now is the time to develop a system for continuous innovation. One place to start: Asking your AI tool for tips on how to use AI at your company.

We're excited to announce CapitalG's investment in LangChain, the company building the platform for agent engineering. Since LLMs will change what applications can do, the real power comes from turning those LLM applications into reliable agents with access to data and APIs. LangChain's mission is to solve the complexity of shipping these agents to production, a discipline they call agent engineering. The recent $125M raise is a testament to the incredible momentum they've built, powering AI teams at companies like Replit, Workday, and Cisco. At CapitalG, the investment was spearheaded by investors Jill (Greenberg) Chase, Mo Jomaa, Manmeet Gujral, and Alice Yang.  We are proud to partner with founders Harrison Chase and Ankush Gola and the innovative LangChain team. To learn more, check out Sharon Goldman's excellent piece in Fortune: https://lnkd.in/gVWsPvFM as well as this reflective blog post by Harrison: https://lnkd.in/g8Jhrwtu

Congratulations on surpassing $350M ARR to Florian Douetteau, Clément Stenac, and the entire Dataiku team, and welcome to the #CapitalGfamily, Mark Abramowitz! We're proud to support your growth as you help some of the world’s largest companies operationalize #AI with trust and control at scale. Derek Zanutto

We're proud to see Vijay Balasubramaniyan and Pindrop recognized on TIME’s list of Best Inventions of 2025! It's great to see the team demonstrate how #responsibleAI can transform the way organizations understand voice, video and trust. Congratulations to Vijay and everyone at Pindrop for this well-deserved honor! Gene Frantz https://lnkd.in/ebtWGzmU