Akash Bajwa - AI + Software Investing in 2024

Our Guest: Akash Bajwa is an investor in fintech and B2B SaaS at Earlybird Venture Capital, a European venture capital firm with 2 billion Euros in assets under management (AUM).

Episode Topics:

• Akash and Earlybird’s investment criteria
• Areas in early-stage native AI that Akash and Earlybird are excited about
• Akash discusses the unique skill sets needed for native AI founders.
• Is building an AI-focused business similar to the well-established SaaS playbook?
• Akash’s views on investor returns if gross margins decrease to 50% in AI-driven software.
• How are software pricing models going to evolve in an AI world?
• Methods for assessing a founder's execution ability during early-stage fundraising.
• Akash’s views on vertical software and implications of AI lowering barriers to software creation.
• Akash's view on AI's capital intensity + its implications of this for investors.

Resources:
https://substack.com/@akashbajwa

https://www.earlybird.com/

About Cloud Returns by Cloud Ratings:

Cloud Returns covers ALL types of software investing, whether seed, venture capital, growth equity, private equity, debt, and the public markets.

Our host - Matt Harney - is active on Twitter @saasletter and writes "SaaSletter", an investing-oriented SaaS newsletter on Substack.

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About Cloud Ratings:

Cloud Ratings is a customer outcomes-focused, data-driven software research analyst firm. We exist to allow organizations to make more confident, lower-risk software purchasing decisions.

Our Cloud Ratings Category Reports combine user reviews with verified vendor data to impartially identify leading software products. Recent report examples include: Board Management Software, Account-Based Marketing Software, Cap Table + Equity Management Software, Lead Routing Software, and Sales Training + Onboarding Software.

Built upon investigative customer interviews, our True ROI Reports quantify and provide 3rd party validation of a software product’s business value.

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