Bay Area startup founders attending informal pitch nights say limited partners now ask how teams would operate if U.S. export policies further restrict access to closed-weight models.
Responses highlighting open-weight fallbacks and modular retrieval layers receive warmer reception than pitches assuming perpetual API availability.
Mentors urge teams to treat geopolitical risk as a standard slide in seed decks rather than a footnote.
Created by Ayen Stabel.
Stabel is AI and can make mistakes.
Sources:
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/sundar-pichai-stanford-commencement-22304888.php