Investing in the AI Boom - Hype vs. Reality (Oct. 15th)
Lunch Salon: AI Investing in Silicon Valley 2025 — Hype vs. Reality
Join us for an intimate lunch with Itamar Novick, Founder & General Manager of Recursive Ventures, as we dig into where value is actually accruing in AI—beyond the headlines.
When: Monday, Oct 15, 2025
Where: Garibaldi, Singapore
Format: 30-minute talk + candid Q&A + open discussion
AI has been the talk of the town in Silicon Valley, with $100B+ invested in 2024, yet only ~1 in 3 pilots make it to production. Are we in a bubble - or just early?
We'll cover topics such as:
Where do the real opportunities lie?
Does it make sense for family offices and LPs to participate?
What strategies can produce outsized returns investing in AI?
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About Itamar Novick: Itamar has spent the last 20+ years as a serial entrepreneur/exec (Life360, $6B NASDAQ mkt. cap, Gigya sold to SAP for $350m) and investor (2 Decacorns, 5 Unicorns, and counting).
About Recursive Ventures: Recursive is a Silicon Valley VC fund investing in US Pre-Seed vertical AI and data. Recursive outperforms most US Venture funds and generates high DPIs.
Recursive II: 9.1x TVPI / 4.0x DPI.
Recursive I : 7.7x TVPI / 4.4x DPI.
Previous winners: Deel (>$12b), Life360 (IPO), Honeybook (>$2b), Placer ($1.4b), Credible (IPO), May Mobility, Tile, SafeGraph, Cherre.
Recursive Ventures has been named to Business Insider’s Seed 100 for the past four years.
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A Few Hot Takes
Investors are focused on the wrong things—headline model providers—while most value will accrue to applications, not semiconductors and infrastructure.
Incumbents and pre-AI SaaS will be disrupted by AI-first startups.
“Everything is AI” is as broad as “everything is software.” You must define context (consumer, enterprise, security, healthcare, etc.).
The VC & startup landscape is fast-changing—new funding models (e.g., seedstrapping) and VCs using AI to compound edge.