Rants, AI and different notes from Upfront Summit

The enterprise capital stars have been shining in Los Angeles this week on the Upfront Summit, an invite-only VC convention based by Mark Suster and known for going all-out.

For instance, there have been Coco robots serving drinks and lots of pink. AI was the talk-of-the-town once more and even some celebrities graced the stage, together with Girl Gaga, Cameron Diaz, Katy Perry and Novak Djokovic.

What could have been a bit of totally different this 12 months, although, is that it’s been a troublesome one for enterprise capital and startups in search of enterprise capital. Some media outlets even referred to as it out.

Keith Rabois, managing director at Khosla Ventures, briefly addressed rumors about what led him to leave Founders Fund earlier this 12 months. He spent a lot of this time on stage defending his transfer away from San Francisco.

Rabois didn’t come out and name individuals there “lazy,” although he did notice that he is aware of founders who look elsewhere for expertise. That’s as a result of only a few individuals in San Francisco need to work 12 hours a day, six days every week as is the tradition in different cities, like New York, Rabois defined.

He tweeted afterward, calling the The Wall Street Journal story about tech leaders who left the Bay Space and are transferring again now “fake.”

8VC common companion Jon Lonsdale mentioned “Woke mind virus,” which included every part from “ripping business” away from firms like Raytheon to the best way Google units up its search creates a “crazy ideological bent that’s not healthy for our country.”

Another highlights

M13 companion Anna Barber captured Melinda French Gates on stage saying, “I see venture capital as the engine for social progress in the United States.” Whereas Upfront Ventures tweeted French Gates saying, “Look at a barrier in society and see if there is a way to take it down or look for an accelerant in society and find a way to make it faster.”

Journalist Andrew Nusca caught Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon saying, “’Today essentially five companies control the internet … we basically made a Faustian bargain in the 2000s’ when we gave them control in exchange for a richer experience.”

Karan Talati, CEO of First Resonance, tweeted that this was his first time on the summit, and “there is no doubt that this year’s emphasis on hardtech reflects the exciting wave of opportunities in manufacturing, aerospace, and energy.”