How Gradient Ventures is Shaping the AI Startup Landscape with Eylul Kayin

Equity

TechCrunch

Founders, Silicon Valley, Finance, Ipo, Vc, Technology, Business News, Startups, Business, Venture Capital, News, Stock Market, Entrepreneurship, Techcrunch

4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today on Equity, Mary Ann Azevedo sits down with Eylul Kayin, a partner at Gradient Ventures, to dive into the evolving AI startup landscape. The pair dig into what makes a successful AI startup, the importance of quality product offerings, and the fast-moving nature of AI innovation. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Key challenges founders face, from building strong customer relationships to navigating technical hurdles. Gradient Ventures’ approach to funding and supporting AI startups, especially how to strike a balance between vertical expertise and rapid product development. Eylul's experience as a judge for TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 2024, and tips for entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to investors. And if you’re a founder interested in applying, the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 applications are officially open — so be sure to check it out! Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Race the rudder, raise the sails, raise the sales!
0:05.0	Captain, an unidentified ship approaching. Over.
0:07.0	Roger that. Wait, is that an enterprise sales solution?
0:13.0	Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors.
0:17.0	With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title, and more.
0:21.4	To get £100 off your first campaign, go to LinkedIn.com slash lead to claim your credit.
0:26.7	That's LinkedIn.com slash lead. Terms and conditions apply. Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of
0:46.4	startups. I'm Marianne Acevedo, and this is the episode where we bring on industry experts to
0:51.6	help us explore a trend in the tech world and dive deep. I'm super excited
0:56.2	to share it today. We're joined by Alou Kian, a partner at Gradient Ventures. Aul, welcome to the show.
1:01.6	Thank you so much for having me. What a pleasure and honor. Yeah, no, we're very excited. Now,
1:05.7	for those listeners who aren't familiar, Gradient Ventures as a venture fund started by Google.
1:10.7	It was about eight
1:11.7	years ago, 2017, and it offers technical mentorship for early stage startups focused on AI.
1:18.5	So, you know, I guess you could say they were doing it before it was cool.
1:23.0	Talk about visionary.
1:24.8	So gradient ventures invests in what they describe as AI-driven startups across a variety of
1:30.2	sectors, including health care, finance, transportation, and agriculture. The firm has managed over
1:36.0	a billion dollars in assets and invested in over 50, sorry, 150 companies since its inception. Is that
1:43.3	right? Is it 150, hello? 250. Ah, 250. Okay. We must have had some
1:48.1	for a small but mighty team and a huge portfolio. That's a lot. Yeah. So the firm typically makes
1:54.0	initial investments ranging from one to $10 million, focusing on early stage seed and series A.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 12 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TechCrunch, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of TechCrunch and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.