This week, Claire and Josh break down Snap's $2,195 bet on life after the smartphone, Jeff Bezos stepping back into an operator seat with Prometheus, a new AI company that raised $18B to build AI for the physical world, and SpaceX closing the largest IPO in history before turning around and acquiring Cursor for $60 billion.
Lightspeed growth partner James Ephrati joins to walk through his observations on venture scale, including why the biggest companies seem to be compounding faster not slower, what he believes venture returns look like at the top, and where durable value can accrue when models, compute, and distribution consolidate under one roof.
Plus they share updates from the Lightspeed universe, including Chainguard's new industry coalition Athena and Abridge's first-ever keynote in New York.
0:00 Welcome to Lightwork
4:00 Snap Specs: A Computer For Your Face
8:05 Can Specs Be Both Wearable and Powerful?
12:12 Bezos's Prometheus Bets On Physical AI
15:02 AI as the Next Industrial Revolution
20:50 SpaceX IPO: The Largest IPO Ever
24:49 SpaceX Buys Cursor
30:23 Guest Interview: James Ephrati
30:39 James Ephrati on SpaceX's Historic IPO
32:39 Why Are Big Companies Compounding Faster?
36:25 How Does This Change Lightspeed's Investing Strategy?
37:51 Do Mega Companies Change Venture Returns?
40:38 How Should Founders Think About Venture?
43:19 Updates From The Lightspeed Universe
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