Patient Capital in the Age of the $10B Seed | Brian Smith, S3 Ventures

The current venture market is defined by a dangerous decoupling of capital from reality. While the industry chases $10B seed valuations and trillion-dollar infrastructure bets, Brian Smith and S3 Ventures are executing a "Discipline Arbitrage." They argue that the real returns in AI will not come from the massive CapEx spenders, but from the application layer that solves boring, regulated, enterprise problems.

This episode audits the structural risks of the current AI wave and explains why staying as a small fund may be the ultimate competitive advantage.

Agenda

• 01:30 Cisco Moment & 28 Bellagios
• 06:31 Applications First, Agents Next
• 19:06 2021 Bubble vs 2025 Reality
• 32:55 Defining Patient Capital
• 44:09 Strategic Advantage of Small Funds
• 53:03 Return to Atoms

Guest Links
Brian Smith, S3 Ventures (Website, X, LinkedIn) 

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