🚀 Yesterday, Berkeley SkyDeck was thrilled to host a packed fireside chat with Todd Graham, Managing Partner of M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund!
🎤 Having navigated both sides of the table as a founder and enterprise investor, Todd’s conversation with our Executive Director, Caroline Winnett, was a masterclass for early-stage founders trying to raise and survive in the AI era.
The core takeaways:
🏰 The moat is you: When AI can replicate code overnight, traditional software moats shrink fast. Your only uncopyable edge is your hard-won, specific knowledge of the problem and your relentless drive to solve it.
🗄️ Proprietary data is gold. Unique datasets are one of the last true edges in AI. The more specialized the model, the more valuable high-quality, specific data becomes. If you have access to data no one else can get - build around it.
🤝 Start with trust, not leads. At the seed stage, founder-led sales is everything. M12's favorite early signal? The founder’s former employer becoming their first paying customer. Build to the specs of early design partners, then convert them. As Eric Ries reminded us at his SkyDeck fireside earlier this month, trust is the most important asset a company can build. Talent, customers, and investors all show up because of it.
📣 Developer love is earned, not bought. For dev-focused tools, community signal is everything. Are other developers talking about your product on social media? Build a culture, not just code.
A huge thank you to Todd for sharing his time, frameworks, and sharp insights with SkyDeck’s community.
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