Fun Things I'm Thinking About for 2024
Some musings that I'll be reflecting on this holiday season
Based on what I know today, being a great venture investor boils down to two things:
(1) Strong Networks: building and maintaining a current and active network of ambitious, high potential people; and
(2) Intellectual Curiosity: an insatiable curiosity for new perspectives and information with the flexibility and willingness to change deeply held points of view as new knowledge becomes available.
With that in mind, here’s some things I’m curious about, and potential areas of opportunity I’ll be reflecting on and researching during some down time this holiday season.
Is the lunar economy real? At what point will this theme become investable for venture capital?
What does the future hold for EVs? If EV demand is truly slowing, what opportunities does that unlock to invest along the value chain as the imperative shifts from deployment speed to cost and cash flow optimization?
Regulation…the EU AI Act is here, and clearly we’re in a tighter anti-trust environment with the Figma-Adobe deal being killed. One door closes, another opens…what new opportunities exist in this new state of the market?
Is ‘24 the year we finally see a robotics unicorn break out? Or are we still too early (we’ve been looking since 2018…)? Have advances in AI and underlying hardware developed far enough to enable the breakthrough applications people have been looking for for decades?
Is there a breakthrough coming in the food & ag value chain? I’ve long held that there are only three problems worth solving with venture dollars: labor, input costs, and cash flow. John Forstmeier wrote a cool piece that touches on this. I think there’s a breakout company that will hit the scene in 2024 that will address one of these three. We’re thinking about what that means for seeding new companies in this space.
Does competing in software become more about a fully integrated offering ("Rippling / Salesforce for X”) vs a single point solution? For expensive to acquire customers, should we set out to build the integrated, full-suite solution from day 1? It’s more capital intensive, but maybe is the right long-term strategy?
Would love thoughts / feedback on areas others find interesting!