TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC evening in Los Angeles late last week brought together two of the more straight-talking investors working in AI right now. Carter Reum is co-founder of M13, an early-stage firm with $2.5 billion in assets under management that has been a seed or Series A investor in 17 unicorns, he says. Chang Xu is a partner at Basis Set Ventures, which launched in 2017 as one of the first early-stage funds focused exclusively on AI and is now investing out of its fourth fund, with nearly $1 billion in assets under management.
On stage, in a sun-filled room in El Segundo, the two were as entertaining as they were illuminating, covering how to price deals in a market that has never moved this fast, how to find companies that won’t get steamrolled by the hyperscalers, and what the SpaceX IPO is about to do to L.A. The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
