Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
From left: GeekWire editor Taylor Soper; TiE Seattle President Prashant Mishra; FUSE founding partner Brendan Wales; Madrona investor Sabrina Wu; Trilogy Equity Partners Principal Elisa La Cava; Pioneer Square Labs CFO Palvi Mehta; TiE Seattle Executive Director Minee Verma; and TiE Seattle co-chair Shirish Nadkarni. (TiE Seattle Photo)
There’s no better time to build a startup — but be ready for some fierce competition.
That was one takeaway from a panel discussion I moderated this week with four Seattle-area venture capitalists, hosted by TiE Seattle.
Investors are bullish about this moment in technology, as large language models mature and software automation products proliferate.
“It’s a time in which every industry can be reimagined,” said Sabrina Wu, an investor at Madrona. “And I think because of that, no matter what background you have, there’s an opportunity to go out there and build something.”
AI is also making it easier to launch a startup with access to various infrastructure tools and open source models.
“You can build companies with a lot less capital and a lot less people than you ever could,” said Palvi Mehta, CFO at Pioneer Square Labs.
That also presents a challenge for startups. Even if you attract customers and capture market share, a competitor could quickly spin up something similar.
“There’s never been more competition,” said Brendan Wales, founding partner at FUSE. “When somebody comes in and shares an idea with us, it’s not unlikely for there to already be 20, 30, 40 competitors in a certain category.”
Pioneer Square Labs, which runs a startup studio and a venture fund, is seeing a record number of founders knocking on its door — particularly from larger tech companies.
“People are really excited — they’re seeing this opportunity, and they’re seeing the ability for them to create incredible things,” Mehta said.
So how can founders build a moat, stay ahead of competitors, and land cash from investors?
Elisa La Cava, principal at Trilogy Equity Partners, advised founders not to get caught up in the “flavor of the month” when it comes to the latest technological advancement. Her firm is focused on learning how well an entrepreneur knows their domain, their target customer, and the specific pain point.
“We think really deeply about the problem to be solved,” she said.
Mehta shared a similar sentiment, noting that it “comes back to the fundamentals.”
“Are you building a company where customers want what you are selling?” she said.
Another question to ask: why are you the right founder solving this problem?
“Founder-market-fit is the number one thing that we like to think about, especially in this really competitive environment,” said Wu.
Wales said speed is paramount.
“You gotta go fast,” he said. “You really have to move quickly and not take it lightly that there’s going to be competition.”
Stay tuned for more from the panel discussion, including suggestions on how to boost Seattle’s startup ecosystem. TiE Seattle, a nonprofit supporting entrepreneurs, hosted the event at Mercer Island Community Center near Seattle.
