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- Venture is changing. So is product - #5
Venture is changing. So is product - #5
Less polish, more care. Less capital, more action. Here’s what the new wave actually looks like.
Ross Chapman
May 09, 2025
Speed isn’t the problem. Sloppiness is.
There’s a difference between momentum and mess and more builders are starting to call it out.
Karri Saarinen (CEO at Linear) nailed it this week: “Just ship it” is often just shipping your task list. It’s a powerful reminder that care, craft and intention still matter - especially when AI is making it easier than ever to move fast without thinking.
This week’s signals show what happens when that care is applied:
💡 Aaron Epstein says that Designers are the next wave of founders.
💰 Top VCs like a16z and Sequoia quietly turn into operators and PE shops.
🏛️ Ireland’s government starts deploying AI across healthcare, revenue and agriculture.
🧠 Zoe Scaman drops a brutal, essential talk: The Solitude Generation (you can’t miss)
And I’ve shared a simple way to spot real AI opportunities in your business - and sprint toward them, without the fluff.
Let’s get into it 👇
🔗 Signals this week
Aaron Epstein (Partner at Y Combinator) just put it plainly: More designers should be founders — and we want to back them.
With tools like Replit, Vercel, Framer and AI copilots lowering the technical barrier, design-led builders are perfectly positioned to start companies. And YC is signalling they’re ready to fund them.
My take:
Design is no longer downstream from strategy. It’s the strategy - especially when speed, usability, and taste define the winner.
YC knows that an early-stage edge comes from taste + velocity. Designers trained in shipping and iterating already operate this way.
If you’ve led design sprints, shipped features, or obsessed over UX - you’re closer to “founder” than you think.
The killer combo now? Designer + AI fluency + clear user insight. Fundable, fast.
Key quote: “Designers already have so many of the skills needed to be great — strong user empathy, a focus on solving problems, a high bar for quality, and taste.”
Designers? It’s a great time to build.
We didn’t just disrupt social systems: We dismantled them.
In this talk, Zoe Scaman doesn’t sugarcoat what’s happened to Gen Z. She maps the collapse of community infrastructure, the illusion of connection and the emotional consequences of a world optimised for clicks over care.
It’s not hopeful. It’s honest, and we do need more of that.
My take:
If you’re building products, media, or education - this talk is required viewing.
It’s a wake-up call for anyone designing “engagement” without responsibility.
Zoe’s not just critiquing - she’s pointing toward how to rebuild from the roots.
The rot is visible, but so is the path forward - if we stop bullshitting.
Key quote: “We gave them solitude dressed up as freedom.”
Guillermo Flor just dropped a sharp breakdown on how the biggest names in VC (a16z, Sequoia, Lightspeed, General Catalyst) are ditching traditional venture capital playbooks and playing differently.
My take:
Venture is morphing into operator capital. Big firms aren’t waiting for exits - they’re buying, building, and rolling up companies like PE shops.
Sequoia killed the 10-year fund. General Catalyst bought a hospital. Thrive launched a $1B build fund. These aren’t edge cases - they’re new models.
This changes the founder game: top-tier firms may acquire your startup, not just fund it. Or launch something in your space with their own team.
If you’re a builder, this is an opening: think like a studio, an operator, or a platform, not just a startup.
Key quote: “Venture capital is starting to look a lot like private equity.”
Sidenote: Does anyone know any investors interested in pairing up with a fractional chief product officer? Asking for a friend - I can intro on LinkedIn.
Photo: Sam Boal/Collins
Artificial intelligence is now a core tool in government operations. Ireland has just released national guidelines for the responsible use of AI in public services and it’s already in active use across hospitals, tax services and agriculture.
My take:
This marks a shift from AI pilots to AI policy
Ireland is saying: AI is here, and it’s public infrastructure now.
Examples are already in motion:
St Vincent’s Hospital is using AI to assist with heart ultrasounds
The Revenue Commission is using LLMs to triage tax queries
The Dept. of Agriculture is automating grant application checks
Crucially, this is about reducing wait times, improving efficiency and keeping humans in the loop.
Free tools like ChatGPT are discouraged - data control are top of mind.
If you’re not designing for compliance, you’re going to miss the largest buyer of tech = governments.
Key quote: “AI is no longer a distant reality. It’s already shaping our lives, our economy, and crucially how governments serve their people.” — Jack Chambers, Minister for Public Expenditure
💡 Build on this
“Too many understand quality as polish. It's not the same thing.
If you build something good and even if it’s a bit rough, that’s great. But don’t fall into the mindset of “just ship it.”
When “just ship it” is the default, you stop asking if this is actually good for users. You skip the care, intention and move on too fast creating mess for the users. The potential good experience gets lost in all that mess.
Quality is a muscle that you exercise. You try to make things good at every step. You keep asking if this is good for the user and you keep improving it. Quality is the direction you travel, and it's a way to show you care about the users.
"Just ship it" is you pushing your priorities over the customers priorities. You not giving a shit about the users or their experience, you're giving shit about your needs of making progress. It's another version of shipping your org chart.”
This hits. “Just ship it” used to be a cool remark, but shipping fast isn’t the problem. Shipping without care is.
When you ignore quality, you’re not being agile. You’re being selfish. You’re shipping to clear your backlog, not to create a great experience. Get over yourself!
I’ve seen this over and over in sprints and product teams: Polish gets confused with purpose. The real muscle is in asking why something matters, and staying with it just long enough to make it work - not just launch.
Quality isn’t about delay - it’s about direction. If you want trust, loyalty, retention… you earn it by showing that you give a damn.
So… start giving a damn.
📬 From the feed
Been running AI Opportunity Sprints with teams lately, mapping where AI can actually help (not just as a bolt on). If you’re curious where the real value is for your team, here’s more info and an invite to chat.
📲 If you liked this and spend most of your time on LinkedIn, then consider giving me a follow @ross-chapman.
🔚 Until next week…
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