AI Progress and Impact on Ecosystem Players with CapitalG’s Jill Chase | AI Basics with Google Cloud

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of AI Basics, Jason sits down with CapitalG partner Jill Chase to break down how AI is reshaping the startup ecosystem — from founders to investors to incumbents. They cover how CapitalG (Alphabet’s independent growth fund) thinks about the AI stack, why speed alone isn’t enough for startups today, and how to build durable advantages in a world where anyone can copy your product. Jill shares insights from portfolio companies like Motif (next-gen CAD for architecture) and Abridge (AI-powered doctor’s scribe), plus how startups can use AI “in the business” (product) and “on the business” (ops, GTM, etc). They also explore the transition from copilots to agents — and what that means for the next wave of software. If you’re building or investing in AI, this is a must-watch.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Jason kicks off the show

(1:10) CapitalG's investment strategy in AI

(3:04) Understanding value in AI investments

(5:16) Durability in AI startups and market challenges

(10:18) Practical applications of AI in business

(17:52) Case studies of successful AI startups

(21:35) Building massive businesses with small teams

(23:55) Evolution from AI copilots to autonomous agents

Uncover more valuable insights from AI leaders in Google Cloud's 'Future of AI: Perspectives for Startups' report. Discover what 23 AI industry leaders think about the future of AI—and how it impacts your business. Read their perspectives here: https://goo.gle/futureofai

Check out all of the Startup Basics episodes here: https://thisweekinstartups.com/basics

Check out Google Cloud: https://cloud.google.com/

Check out CapitalG: https://www.capitalg.com/

Follow Jill:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-greenberg-chase-53747538/

X: https://x.com/jillchase124

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X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

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Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, everybody, welcome back to another episode of AI basics.
0:08.1	Yes, here at This Week in Startups, we like to do basics because we get asked the same questions over and over and over again.
0:14.4	So we catalog them all at this week in Startups.com slash basics.
0:18.5	We have accounting.
0:20.0	We have legal, now AI. Because let's face it,
0:23.6	if you're doing a startup today, you're either using AI to build your startup or your product is going to have
0:30.5	an AI bent to it. If it doesn't do both of those things, well, you're probably missing out on some
0:35.5	huge opportunities. We have a great
0:37.5	partner for this, Google Cloud. They just published a report, The Future of AI, Perspectives for
0:42.7	Startups and Features Insights from 23 leading AI experts, including today's guest, Jill Chase. She is
0:49.6	a partner at Capital G, which is Alphabet's Independent Growth Fund. And, uh, yeah, Jill, you invest in
0:56.9	AI. So welcome to the program. Thanks for having me. We could talk about AI models, agents,
1:02.3	and we'll get into that. But I want to work backwards here from investment and your investment
1:09.0	thesis. You could invest in chips, that power AI.
1:12.9	You could invest in language models that enable the application layer.
1:17.8	And then, of course, there's services.
1:19.9	And as I said in the introduction, my lord, the ability to run a startup and scale a startup using AI tools yourself is just been such an
1:30.1	accelerant to the number of startups created and how quickly they can hit critical mass.
1:34.9	Let's start with maybe how you build a mental model of investment in the startup space
1:41.4	in specifically AI companies.
1:44.0	Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you so much again for
1:45.8	having me. I'm thrilled to be here. And as you noted, just a quick reminder, capital G, is Alphabet's
	...

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