"Bansal, who built and sold multiple companies before becoming an investor, distilled investor expectations into three core questions. First, he asks whether there is a large enough market to tackle. Does the founder's idea have the potential to become a huge company? And is the problem he or she is solving actually worth solving? The second thing investors want to know is why this founder is the one who should be building the company."
"Their biggest pet peeve? Buzzword overload. The more a founder says AI in the pitch, Agarwal said, the less AI the company likely uses. "The people who are doing things that are really innovative, they'll talk about it, and it's built in, but it's not the core of their pitch," she told the audience. The panel also addressed how AI startups can differentiate themselves as the space becomes saturated. Bansal emphasized the importance of domain expertise and a clear competitive strategy."
Buzzword overload undermines credibility; frequent invocation of 'AI' often indicates limited actual AI integration. Investors evaluate three core criteria: large market potential, founder uniqueness, and customer validation. Market potential requires a problem that can scale into a huge company and be worth solving. Founder uniqueness requires distinct skills or team composition that provide a plausible path to winning against competitors. Validation includes customer traction such as initial feedback, revenue, or other evidence of demand. The ultimate investor litmus test is whether the opportunity can grow to a billion-dollar company. AI startups must demonstrate domain expertise and a clear competitive strategy to differentiate.
Read at TechCrunch
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