But before I dive into my classes and provide some insight into what I’m looking for now (tune in for the second episode where I’m exploring this!), the reasons why I started this quest may offer an interesting precursor story.

1. The Story of the Incognito Founder and the Hidden Gem

VCs all have their go-to method for deal sourcing. From scouring the realms of Crunchbase and Pitchbook, to attending pitch events, to referrals within their own network, to founders they’ve worked with before – all equally valuable methods that have led to success.

However, one working theory behind this ‘hunt’ were often brilliant founders and brilliant ideas that slip through the cracks.

Founders who are new to the startup world who haven’t yet appeared on database radars, founders who have great ideas but don’t have a direct connection to investors, founders who pre-pre-pre-product, pre-pre-website, pre-anything but a great vision and/or interesting research.

So as I went through my canvas of the AI ​​ecosystem, my intention was to be thoughtful find founders who otherwise wouldn’t appear on our radars – the incognito founder who is on an idea, research or platform that can really make an impact hidden gem.

2. Let’s address (and kill) the elephant in the room.

During my first few days working in deep-tech VC, I came across some alarming statistics that allowed me to draw the unsurprising conclusion that VC funding has a diversity problem. Globally, only 2.3% of venture capital funding goes to all-female founding teams.

Similarly, alarming figures emerge when looking at other forms of diversity, such as ethnic diversity. While Australia appears to be doing slightly better than the global average, the problem persists and may become even more pronounced in deep-tech spaces.

Accordingly, the second reason I started a manual but deliberate scan through the AI ​​ecosystem was to make sure I could find several founders who would traditionally have more difficulty accessing VC funding or appearing on VC radars/circles.

This manual approach to sourcing allowed me to find brilliant people from diverse backgrounds who were very “incognito” founders sitting on beds of great ideas.

3. The potential of AI is still untapped

Now, you might think why AI? Besides my own personal passion for all things AI, the potential of AI is still untapped. When I started my search (and before ChatGPT brought generative AI and AI more broadly back into the spotlight), the chatter about AI had subsided and the startup community was completely engrossed in all things web3, metaverse and blockchain. has to do.

However, the reality remains that the transformational impact of AI has barely surfaced. A 2022 study by Data61 found that only 25% of organizations have used AI to enable process automation.

This suggests that there are still a plethora of vertical applications of AI, as well as fascinating developments in the world of AI, particularly generative AI, worth exploring.

Indeed, what counts as an interesting application of or development in AI is in itself another potential paper and something that, like an AI model, I’ve come to understand through the 50+ data points I’ve consumed.

So the last reason I found and talked to so many AI founders was because I think the next big and impactful AI companies and founders are there.