Happy New Year from VITALIZE!

Author

Gale Wilkinson
January 16, 2025

Hello 👋 

Welcome back to the new and improved Re:VITALIZE Newsletter! You’re receiving this because you’re a current LP, advisor, angel member, venture partner, prospective LP, or friend of VITALIZE. This monthly newsletter includes our take on the market & investing, updates on our fund and portfolio companies, and our top content picks on work insights, entrepreneurship, and investing.

In this edition, we’ve also shared our latest work insights summary and predictions for 2025, generated by our team and 50-person expert network.

Wishing you all a fantastic year ahead!! New readers can subscribe here. ✨

Gale’s Thoughts on the Market & Investing

AI startup valuations are VERY inflated. We are smack in the middle of what I think will be the great AI bubble of 2024-2025.

Technology is evolving so rapidly that it won’t be the best tech that definitely wins (save for maybe some select deep tech sectors). The startups that sell software to clients who desperately need those solutions because no one else offers anything close, led by the founders who deeply understand their customers’ problems and needs – they will win. (At least they have a better chance of winning in my opinion.)

I would not call myself an AI investor. AI has become table stakes, so that would be like saying I specialize as a startup investor. Yes, I am a startup investor. All VCs are. But the majority of us specialize in something more specific because we have a passion and expertise in something that allows us a unique view into the future state of a market. I am guessing a few VCs have the background to specialize in pure AI, but not many. Definitely not as many as this soon-to-be-bubble suggests.

The only investors who won’t touch AI are those who invest in products and services. But wait! Even those startups will have to incorporate AI elements to stay relevant. So actually, I believe all companies will have some components of AI in their model / offering going forward. But in the software world, senior executives are not buying AI for AI’s sake. They want to make more money, do things better and more efficiently, and cut costs where they can. Aside from a getting few early adopters who love to try the latest tech, the founders who are throwing spaghetti at a wall trying to figure out the best AI for XYZ are going to fail. And the investors who are investing in those deals at huge markups are definitely going to fail.

I love AI. It’s cool. I believe the net gain is overall positive. Someday, we may be ready for AI businesses to truly be 100% AI. But I think that’s at least five years out. So today, I’m not an AI investor. I invest in companies that are solving a dire need for their clients in a way that MAKES MONEY FAST. Because at the early stage right now, it’s not the flashy AI but rather the flashy green bills that start to prove there just might be something there. And the AI will continue to evolve in these businesses as technology rapidly improves.

-Gale Wilkinson

Recent VITALIZE Investments

  • UnVale (VITALIZE Angels, Nov 2024) - Platform and community built for aspiring creators to self-publish their content in a social space.

  • PeakMetrics (Fund II, Dec 2024) - Narrative intelligence platform that helps enterprises and governments identify and combat emerging online threats.

  • Ruck (Fund II, Jan 2024) - Marketplace that facilitates seamless and fast construction material delivery.

A VITALIZE Win!

Going Public announces groundbreaking partnership with 𝕏 licensing the Season 3 of Going Public for distribution on its platform! (Going Public is a VITALIZE SPV Investment)

Work Insights

Summary slides from our Q4 2024 sessions with our team and 50-person expert network:

Some articles we like on work insights:

  • 7 Ways 2024 Was a Year of AI Experimentation and Learning (SHRM)

  • Returning to the Office Can Disrupt Life. Here Are Some Coping Tips (Inc.)

  • This is how DEI will change in 2025 (Fast Company)

  • The Future Of Work We Predicted For 2025—What Actually Happened? (Forbes)

  • 9 Future of Work Trends for 2025 (Gartner)

Our Content Picks for Founders

🥇 Brutal Fundraising Truth

🥈 VC Is Not The Prize

🥉 Be User-Focused

Our Content Picks on Investing

🥇 VC As A Belief System

🥈 Healthy Reset For VCs

🥉 What Founders Care About

VITALIZE in the News

Written by the team at VITALIZE, a venture capital firm and 350+ member angel community for everyone, investing in U.S.-based B2B software founders innovating in WorkTech. Find us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

This is the 111th edition of the Re:VITALIZE newsletter! ✨