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Mayfield’s Navin Chaddha on the firm’s AI Garage and the qualities of a strong prospective founder

October 11, 2024

Navin Chaddha, Mayfield Fund managing partner, wants me to know that the firm’s new AI Garage is meant to actually evoke a garage, the kind where you put your car and the Amazon boxes you’ve forgotten about.

A garage is also the kind of place where, at least historically, legendary tech companies are made.

“We wanted to take Silicon Valley back to its roots, where companies were hatched in garages,” said Chaddha, whose winning investments include Lyft, Poshmark, and HashiCorp. “So, whether it was Hewlett-Packard, whether it was Google, whether it was Facebook, let’s go back to the roots, because old is gold. Hence the concept of a garage. It’s not an accelerator, and it’s not an incubator.”

Mayfield, founded in 1969, is among Silicon Valley’s oldest VC firms—and recently launched a very new program. The firm’s AI Garage program seeks to identify fledgling AI founders before they’re even really, well, founders.

“We’re trying to partner with people who want to become entrepreneurs at the idea stage, even before they’ve started a company,” Chaddha told Fortune. “It’s an ideation garage. The company isn’t even incorporated and it’s going to be t-minus three to six months before incorporation happens.”

Mayfield, which has earmarked $100 million for the AI Garage, has already received more than 500 applications for five spots. But there’s an obvious question here: Okay, so the people you’re looking for don’t have any experience as founders? And not necessarily directly in AI, per se? How do you figure out what you’re looking for?

“We are looking for those kinds of soft skills, more around being secure in their skin and having qualities of vulnerability,” said Chaddha. “To be a great leader, that’s what you need right?… It’s going to be exceptional people who have great EQ, are team players, and are willing to partner with an investor, willing to partner with other team members to create greatness. They’re going to put the company first, their team second, and themselves third.”

The application itself (due next Tuesday, for the aspiring AI founders reading this) is short, a total of six multi-part questions. But it asks for introspection to the extent that I’m not sure how I’d answer quite a few of them myself. Chaddha and I share a favorite application question: What do you consider to be your blind spots?

“The most telling question is that blind spot—70% of applicants say they have none,” he said. That answer earns an immediate rejection from Chaddha. “I ask for your blind spot and areas of development and you say you have none? Great, you’re a dinosaur. As far as we’re concerned, that means you’re not going to grow.”

So, you don’t have to have a business idea to apply to the AI Garage, but you do have to be able to adapt. Chaddha—who’s invested in more than 60 companies that have turned into 27 acquisitions and 18 IPOs—ultimately approaches this process with a warm awareness that there are lots of things we don’t know or understand. This is evidenced in his answer to the question: What does it ultimately take to get one of only five seats in the AI Garage?

“It’s just a human, right? It’s just black magic,” Chaddha said. “We’re going to learn together.”

Just in case there are any founders out there who might be disappointed: Mayfield has confirmed to me there is no actual garage, only a spiritual one. But the successful AI Garage applicants will start work in January in a common space, for which I’ve suggested Mayfield get a spare tire, a few bicycles, and a leaf blower as decorations.

If anyone out there gets in, I dare you to show up in overalls the very first day.

See you Monday,

Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Nina Ajemian curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

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VENTURE DEALS

- Glooko, a Palo Alto-based connected care and life sciences platform for patients, providers, biopharma, and medical device partners, raised $100 million in Series F funding. Georgian led the round and was joined by Health Catalyst Capital, Canaan, and others.

- TOCA Football, a Costa Mesa, Calif.-based soccer experience company, raised $100 million in Series F funding from Jim Kavanaugh, Bill Anderson, Jared Smith, existing investor Harry Kane, and others.

- Farther, a New York City-based wealth management firm, raised $72 million in Series C funding. CapitalG and Viewpoint Ventures led the round and were joined by Lightspeed, Bessemer, Khosla, and others.

- Qantev, a Paris-based AI claims platform for health and life insurers, raised €30 million ($32.8 million) in funding. Blossom Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Elaia, Omnes, and Raise Ventures.

- Relyance AI, a San Francisco-based AI-powered data governance platform, raised $32 million in Series B funding. Thomvest Ventures led the round and was joined by M12, Microsoft Ventures Fund, Cheyenne Ventures, and existing investors Menlo Ventures and Unusual Ventures.

- Liner, a Seoul-based AI search engine for students and researchers, raised $29 million in Series B funding. Intervest and Atinum Investment led the round and was joined by Samsung Venture Investment.

- Scope3, a New York City-based media and advertising decarbonizing platform, raised $25 million in funding. GV led the round and was joined by Aperiam Ventures, Virgo Strategic Investments, and existing investors Venrock, Room40 Ventures, and Craft Ventures.

- Noetica AI, a New York City-based AI-powered software platform for benchmarking deal terms, raised $22 million in Series A funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Thomson Reuters Ventures, Bling Capital, Flybridge Capital, and others.

- FlexFactor, a Dover, Del.-based decline recovery solutions provider for eCommerce brands, raised $16.8 million in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors..

- Zeal, a San Francisco-based payroll platform, raised $15 million in Series B funding. Portage led the round and was joined by existing investors Spark Capital and Commerce Ventures.

- RadiantGraph, a San Francisco-based AI platform for consumer engagement in the healthcare industry, raised $11 million in Series A funding. M13 led the round and was joined by XYZ Ventures and True Ventures.

- Reema Health, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based health care and social care platform, raised $7.6 million in Series A funding. HC9 Ventures led the round and was joined by Ensemble Innovation Ventures Fund.

- Windwalk, a Salt Lake City-based social software platform developer, raised $4.5 million in seed funding from a16z SPEEDRUN, YCombinator, and Tirta Ventures.

- Anam.ai, a London-based real-time AI personas developer for businesses, raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding. Concept Ventures led the round and was joined by Torch Capital and angel investors.

- Vested Impact, a London-based impact and risk assessment and measurement platform, raised £1.1 million ($1.4 million) in seed funding. Impact Shakers Ventures led the round and was joined by HearstLab and angel investors.

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PRIVATE EQUITY

- Syndicate Capital invested $9 million in Dragonz Lab, an Abu Dhabi, UAE-based Web3 gaming studio.

- Ardian agreed to acquire a majority stake in Vista Vision, a Milan-based healthcare services provider for ophthalmic and refractive surgery. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- CC Capital agreed to invest $250 million in Westaim, a Toronto-based investment company.

- Hardenbergh, a portfolio company of BV Investment Partners, acquired National Credentialing Solutions, a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based credentialing services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- SPATCO Energy Solutions, a portfolio company of Kian Capital, acquired Hobby Electric, a Benton, Ark.-based electrical maintenance, repair, and installation services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed..

- SPATCO Energy Solutions, a portfolio company of Kian Capital, acquired UST Services Corporation, a Owings, Md.-based petroleum and environmental services company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

IPOS

- Moove Lubricants Holdings, a São Paulo-based automotive, agricultural, and industrial lubricant producer and distributor, postponed its plans to raise $437.5 million in an offering of 25 million shares priced between $14.50 to $17.50 on the NYSE. Cosan and CVC Capital Partners back the company.

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

- Diagram, a Montreal-based venture capital firm, raised $80 million for its new fund focused on climate tech.

PEOPLE

- Emerald Lake Capital Management, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, added Stephen Burhenn as principal and Derrick Lee as vice president. Previously, Burhenn was at Ares Management and Lee was at Cinven.

- CapitalG, the San Francisco-based independent growth fund of Google parent company Alphabet, hired Monica Plaza as an operating partner and Adam Naor as vice president of business development.

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Revving up the AI Garage