Sarah Guo - The Power of Conviction - [Invest Like the Best, EP.383]

My guest today is Sarah Guo. Sarah is the founder and CEO of Conviction, an early-stage venture capital firm built to serve AI companies. She started Conviction in 2022 after 9 years at Greylock because she believes AI is the most important technological advancement of our lifetime. In our conversation, Sarah discusses the challenges and rewards of leaving an established investing firm to start her own venture. She shares her unique perspective on the AI landscape and reveals her predictions for what we should expect on the AI frontier. Please enjoy this great conversation with the very impressive Sarah Guo. 

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Our Partners: Ridgeline and Tegus

(00:03:30) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:04:30) Introduction & Recruiting in Venture Capital

(00:05:06) Key Traits for Early-Stage Venture Capitalists

(00:06:57) Lessons from Early Investments

(00:07:47) The Journey of Building a Company

(00:09:01) The Decision to Start Conviction

(00:11:36) Launching Conviction and Initial Steps

(00:13:43) First Investment at Conviction

(00:14:00) Evaluating AI Application Companies

(00:16:29) Challenges and Opportunities in AI Applications

(00:23:57) Minimum Viable Quality in AI Products

(00:33:19) Future of AI and Frontier Models

(00:38:56) The Unpredictable Future of AI

(00:40:16) The Importance of Efficiency in AI Models

(00:44:28) The Business of AI: Costs and Margins

(00:45:47) Infrastructure and Hardware Challenges

(00:48:54) The Competitive Landscape of AI Chips

(00:54:24) The Future of AI and Society

(00:56:34) Opportunities and Innovations in AI

(01:02:09) Concerns and Ethical Considerations

(01:03:36) Debates and Research in AI

(01:09:01) Personal Reflections and Closing Thoughts