Can smaller funds still win in venture? Menlo's Venky Ganesan on VC's new rules

Venky Ganesan, a partner at Menlo Ventures with a portfolio including Anthropic and Lovable, discusses how venture capital is changing in an era of larger funds and AI dominance. The interview covers whether seed investing remains viable, whether AI revenue figures can be trusted, and what separates strong founding teams from weak ones.

Ganesan also addresses downsizing investor psychology, the role of ownership in returns, timing for capital deployment, and signals of a coming M&A wave. He weighs the trade-offs between betting on home runs versus building a balanced portfolio, and reflects on lessons from his own expensive missed investments and major wins like Palo Alto Networks and Upwork.