"The reaction is: 'Oh my God, this is all hype,' 'This stuff doesn't work. We're wasting our time.' Disaster, right? But if you dig into it, the real issue—and this is pervasive—is about evaluations. What are you trying to accomplish, and how do you evaluate it? And that's an organizational issue and a process issue. You have to understand the limitations of where we are with what AI can do, effectively benchmarking and evaluating from there: Is this effective or not?"
"This is a question that, on some level, Kumar, Nagraj Kashyap, and Priya Saiprasad expressly started Touring in 2023 to answer. The group came together over decades, weaving across each other in the realm of corporate venture capital—Kashyap and Kumar were at Qualcomm Ventures together, while Kashyap, Kumar, and Saiprasad all connected at Microsoft's M12, and Kashyap and Saiprasad synced up at SoftBank Vision Fund II. This background, doing venture capital for corporate giants, gives Touring a unique set of touchpoints."
A MIT survey reported that generative AI pilots fail about 95% of the time. Many reacted by labeling AI as hype and concluding deployments are futile, but the core problem is poor evaluation and unclear goals. Effective deployment requires clear objectives, organizational processes, benchmarking, and realistic understanding of AI limitations. Touring was founded in 2023 to address these evaluation and deployment challenges. The three founders bring decades of corporate venture capital experience from Qualcomm Ventures, Microsoft's M12, and SoftBank Vision Fund II. Touring closed a first fund at $330 million, made 12 investments including Numa, Cusp, and Exaforce, and led a $33 million Series B in SafeBase, which was acquired.
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