The Learning Corner by Precursor

This week we sit down with Nic Poulos, Co-Founder and General Partner at Euclid Ventures and one of the sharper voices on vertical AI, to pressure test the thesis as we head into the end of Q3. We dig into what defensibility actually looks like when any founder can spin up a vertical AI product in a weekend, why a $500M median exit is great math for some funds and tough math for others, and where "death of SaaS" narrative currently sits. Nic also revisits his 2026 predictions on deep tech fragmenting and religion as a vertical AI opportunity.

This week on The Learning Corner, an observation from investor Matt Turck that startups today are either AI-native rocketships or left for dead opens up a real conversation about what that binary actually means for founders building outside the hype cycle. Michelle Volz's essay "To Be or To Do" uses military legend John Boyd's framework to argue that Silicon Valley has quietly shifted from rewarding builders to rewarding the performance of building, and why discipline is the actual path to the biggest outcomes. We finally close with Vinnie Lauria, Founding Partner at Golden Gate Ventures, who breaks down why a VC who already passed on your company is one of the worst people to introduce you to another investor and why credible signal matters far more than access in fundraising.

This week on The Learning Corner, we dig into three pieces that all orbit the same uncomfortable question: who is actually accountable when things go wrong? Angela McNeal's "The Architecture of Blame" argues that AI does not invent accountability gaps, it industrializes them at machine speed across every workflow at once. New academic research reveals that VC-backed startups are statistically more likely to commit fraud, and that investors are not passive victims but active co-creators of the conditions that make it happen. We close with a Wall Street Journal investigation into how the AI talent war is turning founders into acquihire targets, with VCs now explicitly asking in diligence: will you quit on me?

This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles dig into Nick Chirls' case for patience as an underrated venture strategy, using the owners versus tenants framing to explain why short term thinking is eating the industry. They then explore David Deming's argument that humans still hold a real edge over AI in social learning, especially in reading people and building trust from just a handful of interactions. The episode closes with George Sivulka's provocative piece comparing AI agents to a workforce, drawing parallels between tokenmaxxing and headcount bloat, and looping and meetings about meetings. Tune in for a conversation on long term thinking, the future of human judgment, and how to actually manage an AI agent workforce well.