Anthropic & OpenAI Have Changed What Moving Fast Means | Krishna M, Elevation Capital
Summary
Krishna Mehra, AI partner at Elevation, discusses the India-US startup corridor, highlighting how fearless Indian founders are building category-leading AI infrastructure companies like Portkey. He emphasizes that velocity and technical depth now outweigh traditional GTM skills in early-stage AI investing. Mehra shares insights on evaluating founder ambition, the importance of open-source distribution, and why infrastructure remains a key focus area for his fund.
Topics discussed
Introduction: Portki exit and the India-US corridor
Guest background: From IIT to Meta and Elevation
Evolution of the India-US tech corridor and talent
Why India is early compared to Israel in VC
Can India produce $50B AI outcomes?
Founder hustle vs. thesis in early-stage investing
Case study: Investing in Cynthia Labs (Pharma AI)
Velocity and urgency in AI vs. traditional SaaS
AI resets the field: White space for young founders
Modern founder tools and increased ambition
Elevation's investment process and tracking founders
Learning from scale at Cohesity and Big Tech
Deep dive: The Portki investment thesis and execution
Elevation's conviction-driven, sector-based process
Portki's market leadership and traffic capture strategy
Indian founders solving frontier infrastructure problems
Investment focus: Infrastructure vs. SDLC and verticals
Challenges in AI services and infra differentiation
Open source distribution and US-India infra parity
Case study: Innovesar's pivot to healthcare data
Advice for founders: Problem selection and serendipity
Conclusion: Patience, hustle, and long-term vision
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