20VC: Why Now is the Time for the Application Layer | Why OpenAI & Anthropic Won't Win the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Why VCs Should Reduce Weighting on Price & Ownership in an Age of AI with Mike Mignano, USV

We've got this infrastructure and now it's time for the applications to be built. I think we have never handed over so much of ourselves to a technology before than we're about to do with agents. As a startup, you need every advantage you can get right now. If I were the CEO of a startup right now, I would actually still be pounding the table. to maximize token spend, we like to bet on businesses that obliterate, that literally obliterate markets and existing business models.

I think this era of building AI products is in many ways about being first and about moving really, really fast. I think traditional media in many respects is dead. This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and today I'm thrilled to welcome a 10-year-long friendship to the show, Mike Mignano, who is the newest general partner at USV. He's also one of the early investors in Suno and granola in his prior days before joining the USV partnership. He's a former founder, having sold his business anchored to Spotify many years ago, and today we discuss

The really hard questions, which is how much of the value do model layer companies accrue over the application layer? Is there any value in routing layer companies and routing to model providers? And then how do we fundamentally think about who wins, open versus closed? And what does that mean for venture investing today? That and so much more in this discussion with Mike.

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