Video summary
Guy Oseary recounts his decision to invest $35 million into Anthropic when the company was valued at five billion, a move driven by an overwhelming personal reaction to the emergence of ChatGPT. He describes the release of the AI model as a life-changing moment comparable to hearing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," sparking an obsession that led him and his partner Ashton Kutcher to immediately pursue investment in foundational artificial intelligence models. Recognizing that such transformative technologies could redefine how businesses like Uber, Airbnb, and Spotify operate over the next decade or two, Oseary felt there was a critical three-month window of opportunity following OpenAI's launch on November 30th, 2022, during which they aimed to deploy eighty percent of their fund.
The investment process relied heavily on strategic relationships rather than traditional fundraising before capital deployment began. Leveraging close ties with Marc Benioff and the smart investors at Salesforce Ventures, Oseary was introduced to Anthropic's founders, Dario Amodei and Neerav Bajaj, leading directly to the deal. His research highlighted that top talent in the industry was overwhelmingly flocking to Anthropic rather than competitors like OpenAI, a signal of immense potential he could not ignore. Unlike typical venture capital strategies where money is raised first and then pitched, Oseary presented his vision for an AI-focused fund as a unique opportunity with limited time, asking Limited Partners to opt-in or out based on their confidence in this specific future trajectory.
Looking beyond the immediate success of Anthropic and other companies within that initial three-month window, which included eight exits and twenty-six IPOs, Oseary emphasizes his continued focus on identifying exceptional talent and supporting visionary founders regardless of industry sector. While he acknowledges having access to top-tier opportunities due to their unique position outside Silicon Valley in Hollywood, he maintains a generalist approach for future investments unless specific thematic ideas emerge that warrant dedicated funds. He remains committed to helping great teams scale quickly by providing marketing expertise, narrative building, and strategic partnerships, believing that the right people will naturally find each other without needing aggressive self-promotion or traditional advertising channels.
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I want to hop back to the investing. I
mean, you've you've had a lot of hits.
Airbnb, Uber, Spotify, it goes on and on
and on. I mean, I don't know how many
IPOs and so on that you've had. I mean,
the gazillion. Let's talk about one. So,
you put in, tell me if I'm getting this
right, 35 million at a 5 billion
valuation into Anthropic. This is a
company that's been in the news a lot. I
think the last round is what? 965
billion, something like that. Are those
numbers roughly accurate?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. So, that's pretty nice multiple so
far. You know, we'll see
how things go. How did that
Anthropic deal happen?
>> Well, it starts a little before
the day that OpenAI came out, which was
on my dad's birthday, ChatGPT.
It was life-changing.
And I You remember those moments. And
again, I go back to music. I remember
when I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit by
Nirvana. I pulled over the car and I
went, "What is this?" And when ChatGPT
came out,
that was a what is this moment for me.
And if you saw me
anytime after ChatGPT came out, I would
have harassed you to show you ChatGPT.
There's no one every artist, every
actor, everyone I walked around and met,
I like, "Check this out. Check this out.
Check this out." And
I was obsessed. And I called Ashton and
I said, "Ashton, this is it. OpenAI,
we're doing OpenAI. This is the greatest
thing I've ever seen. We have to do it.
Have to do it. Have to do it." And so,
that was our first
this is the one we're going to go after.
But then, when we first started
investing, Ashton and I, it was when the
iPhone and the App Store were happening.
And so, for the first time ever,
you can scale companies like never
before.
And I think anyone would have done well
at that time. We were like lucky people
that came in at the right time and were
looking at the right time and started
our fund at that very moment, which is
crazy. And so, we had this incredible
success because of that. I saw it again.
Back to pattern recognition.
If you fast forward, we're we're still
using Uber and Airbnb and Spotify. We're
still using those things from that time
period. And we felt that this is it.
These foundational AI models
in 10 or 15 years will be how we plug
into
all these things.
So,
we really felt like we had a 3-month
window. We told people, "We have a
3-month window." Now, it came out
November 30th, uh 2022.
So,
there's not much you can do. This people
are going away. This this Christmas time
break, blah blah. But as soon as January
came, we went out there and told people,
"This is the vision. We're going to do a
foundational AI model fund." I got it.
LPs. Meaning Yeah, raise money.
>> Yeah.
>> Raise money and create this fund, which
is which was a crazy idea at the time.
>> Now, had you already confirmed that
you'd be able to get allocations or you
just had complete confidence?
>> Ashton spoke to Sam. We were able to get
OpenAI. What happened was is I'm very
close to Marc Benioff.
And Salesforce Ventures,
people don't really understand how
smart they are. They don't get
They don't get all the press on They are
one of the best investors in the world.
There's two guys there, John Somorjai
and Paul Drews, who were when I was
doing my research, cuz now I'm on the
I'm on the lookout. What should I know
about an AI? Once I find out about
something, I just lock in.
So, and I and I and I want to know
everything about it. And I I was as I
was doing my research,
I was finding out that they were going
to do Anthropic. And they were very
bullish about it. And I found out from a
friend that works with like a job hunter
kind of
people who help find jobs for people.
>> Oh, like head hunters.
>> Head hunters. That everyone's going to
this company called Anthropic, you know?
Like people are really going to this
Anthropic place and they're not going
anywhere else. I'm like, "Wow, okay. I I
I need to pay attention." So, I I asked
Paul and John connect me with with this
founder,
Dario. So, they connect me with Dario
and Neerav. They come here in this room
and that's where we made the deal to
invest in in Anthropic.
So, we did a bunch of other companies in
that foundational AI fund. It was a
3-month window. So, it was before a
bunch of other things that have come out
since. But we we set ourselves up for
exactly what we did. This is going to be
within 3 months. We're going to deploy
80% of the money in the next 3 months.
And that's what That's what we did and
that's over 3 years ago.
>> How did you know the window was going to
be so narrow? I imagine
Did you get any pushback from LPs when
you said we're going to deploy 80% of
this in 3 months?
>> Well, we didn't have There was no LPs.
Meaning, we just It was That was the
pitch.
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> So, it wasn't like we It wasn't like we
raised money
Yeah, it wasn't like we raised money and
then told them the pitch. It was like,
"Here is the pitch.
>> Here's what we're going to do.
>> There is a window of opportunity here.
We think this is the future and
that was it."
>> They opted in.
>> Yeah, opt in or opt out. We didn't know
what we were going to raise. It's just
whatever came up is what it was going to
be.
>> So, I was trying to pull from memory,
but looks like
Sound
at this point is at 86 exits and 26
IPOs. That's insane. I mean, that is
>> It's been fun.
>> [laughter]
>> You have
>> [snorts]
>> seemingly different batteries,
certainly. I mean, you've got good
batteries.
What does the next
5 years do you think look like for you?
I mean, it it Is it more of this type of
investing? What do you see? Is it
switching gears entirely and looking at
the prism through a totally different
way? I mean, what is
What is next for Guy?
>> I feel like
going back to the core, really
honing in that antenna for
the greatest talent in the world,
the greatest ideas in the world.
This is an incredible time where
people can scale up a company
in in the quickest ways and I'm excited
about the potential of what's to come.
I've already identified three things I
want to do today.
So, [snorts]
I can only imagine what's to come, but
it's just really just I don't I'm okay
doing a version of what I've been doing,
which is
identify great talent and help them help
them in every which way that I can and
pick the teams that you want to
back.
So, I I I'm I'm feeling pretty good
about that.
Just continuing on this
best-in-class talent idea.
The hard part is
for a lot of people is the access.
So,
we're very lucky. We have access and we
also do the job. We We have more than
enough
proof of
people that come through when you work
with them. And we're a different kind of
investor on the cap table.
We're not in the valley. We're here in
Hollywood. And we bring a different
dynamic, different, you know, obviously
narrative is something that I that I'm
very focused on. Marketing is something
I've been doing since I was a a teen.
And so, you know, marketing strategy,
media, partnerships, narrative,
storytelling,
hey, if you want someone like that on
your cap table, it might be interesting
to you. And hopefully I can be helpful.
And that's what I
need to find that dynamic of a company
that I'm in love with and hopefully the
founder believes that having me would be
a great
advantage to them.
>> Mhm.
A lot of founders listen to this
podcast. Is there any Are there any
particular things that's
have your interest right now or types of
companies, types of founders, anything
that you'd like to
sort of make
clear to people who are
listening or otherwise. Also, where can
people learn
more about what you're up to? Like is is
there anywhere that you would point them
in particular?
>> I'm a generalist.
>> Mhm.
>> I don't I don't care. That particular AI
fund was very specific. And we may have
thematic funds from time to time. If an
idea comes and you go, "You know what?
I've got an idea. It's going to be built
around this one idea." But usually I'm a
generalist. I really like I just like
talented people. And in regards to
sharing,
you know, where can they find out what
I'm up to?
I'm not really This is it.
>> Yeah, this is it.
>> You know, as you know, this is my first
podcast.
>> Yeah.
>> And depending on this goes, could be my
last.
If it goes well, maybe one more. But I
I'm I'm not out there
Everything is is has been fine without
doing
that.
>> Yep.
>> You know, people either find us word of
mouth through friends or I find them.
It's okay. It all works out. I'm not out
there, you know, yelling, "Hey, find me
1-800 whatever." Or it's like it'll
it'll work itself out. The right people
will find each other.