E67: Defense Tech’s Rise with 8VC’s Alex Kolicich

This week on Turpentine VC, we’re releasing Sourcery’s Molly O'Shea’s interview with Alex Kolicich, founding partner at 8VC to discuss Alex's H1 2024 report on the venture landscape, covering AI investment challenges, the resurgence of defense technology, and broader economic trends impacting markets. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/3f9d98f9-c3d6-42c9-b2cc-e6ba32c668e4 —📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse—RECOMMENDED PODCASTS:🎙️ SourceryInterviews with the top VCs & Founders leading the next tech innovation cycle.Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Ni3Tese9CtZa3oxpCjgTg?si=9b01b3dbcca242f0 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sourcery/id1738124704Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SourceryVC—SPONSORS:📑 Discover Carta, the innovative end-to-end accounting platform revolutionizing private fund management with streamlined operations and on-demand insights. Experience the new standard at carta.com/investors.☁️ Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at oracle.com/turpentine 💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.—LINKS:8vc: https://www.8vc.com/Alex’s Substack: https://www.alexkolicich.com/ Alex’s first appearance on Sourcery: https://www.sourcery.vc/p/exclusive-alex-kolicich-8vc-exodus Alex’s latest H1 2024 report: https://www.sourcery.vc/p/alex-kolicich-8vc-ai-and-defense —FOLLOW:@AlexKolicich@MollySOShea@eriktorenberg@TurpentineVC—TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Intro(00:59) Meet Alex Kolicich(01:50) Diving into the H1 2024 venture landscape report(02:03) The AI investment paradox(03:31) Challenges and opportunities in AI(07:25) Public vs. private market dynamics(08:24) The role of AI in software and market valuations(12:32) Fundraising strategies in the AI era(13:01) Sponsors: Carta | Oracle(19:12) AI capabilities and the future of technology(25:58) The Gartner hype cycle and AI's future(28:08) AI market trends and valuations(29:00) The exit environment and acquihires(29:28) Challenges in IPOs and M&A(32:03) Opportunities in secondaries(32:52) Sponsor: Squad(33:58) Defense wave: A new frontier(43:52) Changes in defense procurement(49:31) Advice for defense startups(52:09) Reflections on AI and market surprises(55:32) Wrap