CapitalG partner Jill Chase breaks down wild fast growth in AI startups
AI startups are hitting massive valuations and revenue in just a year, but the rush comes with serious risks. Jill Chase from CapitalG told TechCrunch AI Sessions that some companies clock tens of millions in ARR and sweep past $1 billion valuations while still lacking basic hiring and executive structures.
Chase called this “really exciting” and “a little bit scary” since these companies barely existed 12 months prior. 
“On one hand, that’s really exciting. It represents this brand new trend of extremely fast growth, which is awesome,” Chase said. “On the other hand, it’s a little bit scary because I’m gonna pay at an $X billion valuation for this company that didn’t exist 12 months ago, and things are changing so quickly.”
“Who knows who is in a garage somewhere, maybe in this audience somewhere, starting a company that in 12 months will be a lot better than this one I’m investing in that’s at $50 million ARR today,” Chase continued. “So it’s made growth investing a little confusing.”
For investors, she says it boils down to betting on the category and founders who can “adapt and see around corners.”
Chase highlighted Cursor, an AI coding startup, as a smart play that picked the right AI code generation use case at the right time.
“There will be, by the end of this year, AI software engineers,” Chase said. “In that scenario, what Cursor has today is going to be a little less relevant. It is incumbent on the Cursor team to see that future and to think, okay, how do I start building my product so that when those models come out and are much more powerful, the product surface represents those and I can very quickly plug those in and switch into that state of code generation?”
The AI startup scene is moving at breakneck speed. Betting on growth means staying alert to tech shifts and fresh competitors always just a step behind.
