This Week in Startups · October 8, 2026 · 1h 18m

What VCs Really Think About Personal AI Agents | E2347

Chris Farmer, Deedy Das, Kanu Gulati, Sheel Mohnot

Guest host Deedy Das of Menlo Ventures leads a VC roundtable on personal AI agents, fresh from Instinct's $10B valuation. Kanu Gulati (Khosla), Chris Farmer (SignalFire), and Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow) debate whether a startup can beat Meta's Muse, the real use cases for personal agents, and the risks of herd behavior. The group also touches on OpenAI's math advances, the Factory vs. Cognition spy scandal, and whether traditional SaaS is still worth venture money.

This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.

Preview

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OpenAI’s math breakthroughs raise the bar for startup AI research00:02:11

OpenAI’s release of hundreds of math manuscripts stokes debate over whether startups can still invest in fundamental AI advances.

Claude ChatGPT Gemini

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Turning tax rules into provable logic00:05:10

Kanu Gulati describes how Pramaana Labs is formalizing tax law so AI can prove its compliance.

Claude ChatGPT Gemini

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