20VC: Sequoia's David Cahn on The Winners and Losers in AI | The $0-$100M Revenue Club: Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead? | The Future of Defence: Who Wins and Who Loses | How to Analyse Margins and Growth Rates in a World of AI
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 693 Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2025
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
David Cahn is a Partner at Sequoia Capital and one of the world's leading AI investors. At Sequoia David has led investments in Clay, Juicebox, Sesame, Kela, Stark, etc.. Before Sequoia, David was a General Partner @ Coatue where he led investments in Notion and Hugging Face.
AGENDA:
00:00 We Are in an AI Bubble
05:04 Why Building Physical Data Centres is a Moat
13:58 Winners and Losers in a World of AI
19:13 The Role of Big Tech and Monopolies
23:37 Breaking Down Circular Deals in AI: The Truth No One Sees?
38:19 Why Kingmaking is BS and VCs Do Not Make or Break Companies
41:30 The Importance of Margins in AI Investments
43:41 The Required Growth Rates in AI to Get Funded by Sequoia
45:30 The $0-$100M Revenue Club: Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead?
51:53 Why the Most Important Hire for Startups Today is 23 Year Olds
01:01:19 The Future of Defence: Who Wins and Who Loses
01:10:15 Quickfire: Biggest Miss, Parenting Advice, Doug Leone Advice
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I do think we're in an AI bubble. |
| 0:01.3 | You can see the fragility. |
| 0:02.3 | Everybody can see the fragility. The thing that I think is more interesting is who's going to survive the bubble? Consumers of compute benefit from a bubble. Because if we overproduce compute, prices go down, your cogs goes down, and your gross margin goes up. The lesson that punches you in the stomach in venture is you can't make a company succeed. |
| 0:21.5 | How would you respond to Sequoia were asleep at the wheel when it came to defense, |
| 0:25.8 | not being in Helsing and Andriel, the two clear market leaders in the category? |
| 0:31.8 | This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and one of the most downloaded episodes of last year |
| 0:37.3 | was David Kahn at Sequoia. of the most downloaded episodes of last year was David |
| 0:38.1 | Khan at Sequoia. So much has changed in the last year. I wanted to have David back for a refresh. |
| 0:44.0 | I wanted to understand how he thought about where we were today. For those that missed the last show, |
| 0:48.6 | first it's a must, but David is a partner at Sequoia Capital and one of the world's leading |
| 0:53.5 | AI investors. And before Sequoia, David was a general partner at Sequoia Capital and one of the world's leading AI investors. And before |
| 0:55.0 | Sequoia, David was a general partner at Co2. I loved this conversation today. Let me know your |
| 1:00.8 | thoughts, Harry at 20VC.com. But before we dive into the show today, I love seeing the team come together |
| 1:07.8 | to make this show happen. What I don't love is trying to keep track of all the information, the data and the projects that we're working on across dozens of platforms, products and tools. |
| 1:16.6 | That's why we use Coda, the all-in-one collaborative workspace that's helped 50,000 teams all over the world get on the same page. |
| 1:24.6 | Offering the flexibility of docs with the structure of |
| 1:28.1 | spreadsheets, Coda facilitates deeper teamwork and quicker creativity, and their turnkey AI solution, |
| 1:34.3 | the intelligence of Coda brain, is a game changer. Powered by Grammally, Coda is entering a new |
| 1:39.7 | phase of innovation and expansion, aiming to redefine productivity for the AI era. |
| 1:44.7 | Whether you're a startup looking to organize the chaos while staying nimble or an enterprise |
| 1:49.0 | organization looking for better alignment, Coda matches your working style. |
| 1:54.0 | Its seamless workspace connects to hundreds of your favorite tools, including Salesforce, |
... |
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