Uncapped #49 | Kevin Hartz & Bennett Siegel from A*

Uncapped #49 | Kevin Hartz & Bennett Siegel from A*

From Uncapped with Jack Altman by Alt Capital

May 12, 2026 · 37 min

About this episode

Kevin Hartz and Bennett Siegel discuss the impact of AI on venture capital and the evolving landscape of startup funding.

Kevin Hartz and Bennett Siegel are co-founders and GPs at A*, a five year old early-stage venture capital firm with $1B in AUM. A* has invested in companies like Notion, Cape, Whop, Paraform, Simile, Krea, Mercor, Watney Robotics, Andera and others. Kevin is also the co-founder of Eventbrite (NYSE: EB) and co-founder and board member of Xoom, an online money transfer service that IPO’d in 2013 and later acquired by PayPal for $1.1B. Notable investments, primarily at the seed/early stages, include PayPal, Airbnb, Pinterest, Reddit, Anduril, and Palantir among others. Bennett was previously a partner at Coatue building out their venture capital business where he invested in earliest financing rounds for Ramp and Decagon, among other investments. We discussed how AI is reshaping venture capital, software, and startup building – from the rise of younger founders and AI researcher-led companies to the growing pressure on traditional software businesses. We also covered the changing economics of seed investing, the influx of mega funds into early-stage venture, AI rollups, robotics, and why this may become the biggest technology boom yet. --- Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (0:25) The A*…

People in this episode

Host: Jack Altman

Guests: Kevin Hartz, Bennett Siegel

Topics covered

  • venture capital
  • AI in startups
  • seed investing
  • early-stage funding
  • technology boom
  • founder demographics

Keywords

  • venture capital
  • AI
  • seed investing
  • early-stage
  • technology boom
  • founders
  • investment strategies

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Eventbrite, Xoom, PayPal, Airbnb, Pinterest, Reddit, Anduril, Palantir, Coatue, Ramp

Places: California

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