December 6, 2024· 47 min

Ethan Kurzweil on Venture Investing in the Post-ZIRP, AI Era

Ethan Kurzweil

Orality

Model

84%

Oral-dominant (speeches, podcasts, storytelling)

Speaker Breakdown

HostJoe Weisenthal(2,346 words)

M:29%

HostTracy Alloway(5,510 words)

M:28%

GuestEthan Kurzweil(921 words)

M:93%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic26%

obviously, basically, literally

Engagement63%

you, our, your

Memory Aids100%

listen, now, right

Repetition100%

like (121x), about (83x), that's (76x)

Parallelism67%

And I'm Tracy Alloway...., And our guest is Ethan Kurzwei..., And prior to that, sixteen yea...

Sound Patterns98%

94 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"

Formulaic Phrases8%

at the end of the day, you know what, i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging9%

could, maybe, quite

Passive Voice6%

were oversupplied, be practiced, been experienced

Abstract Nouns19%

investment, conversation, management

Subordination7%

since, though, while

Sentence Length33%

Avg: 13.3 words/sentence

Word Complexity46%

investment, analyze, anticipate

Academic Markers0%

Impersonal Style37%

601 personal pronouns found

Descriptive Style75%

obviously, basically, literally

Description

In the 2010s, we saw an incredible boom in the venture capital space, fueled in part by cheap capital as well as cheap compute. Fast forward to today, and many things look very different. We're not in the ZIRP era anymore. And computing power has become a scarce resource, particularly when it comes to AI. So how do things look different today from the perspective of a veteran venture capitalist? In this episode, recorded live in San Francisco in November, we speak to Ethan Kurzweil, a founder and managing partner at the new VC firm Chemistry. Ethan spent years at Bessemer Venture Partners, where he was involved in numerous software deals. He talks to us about his strategy for the new fund, the case for starting a small firm, what technologies excite him most right now, and the general landscape for seed-stage investing. Become a Bloomberg.com subscriber using our special intro offer at bloomberg.com/podcastoffer. You’ll get episodes of this podcast ad-free and exclusive access to our daily Odd Lots newsletter. Already a subscriber? Connect your account on the Bloomberg channel page in Apple Podcasts to listen ad-free. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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