20VC: Why VC Today is Worse Than 2021 | Why Vertical SaaS is a Bad Investment Today | Why We Are Deluding Ourselves on Growth Expectations | Revolut Raises $3BN at a $75BN Valuation | Benchmark Adds Their Newest General Partner

Looks like the easiest way to make money in 2025 is to take the very biggest companies and double down one more time. My gut tells me we're over romanticizing verticals in the age of AI. Like, we're gonna hit the same TAM exhaustion, in, and it's gonna be worse because expectations are so high. If any kind of deacceleration happens because of, you know, any kind of saturation or slowdown, everyone's estimates of what's gonna happen here are wrong. Reminder, in a bull market, the most aggressive person will look the smartest just before the crash. Because the more risk you've taken, the more money you've made. Frankly, it feels tough today. As tough as it's ever been. This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings. It's my favorite show of the week. Jason Lamkin, Rory O'Driscoll, and what a show we have in store for you today. Now there's a record for this one. The longest time that it's ever taken for us to actually get to the schedule. In the schedule, we discussed Benchmark's newest partner, OpenAI allowing erotica, Revolut's new funding round, and much, much more. This was such a fun show to do. I want this to be the best podcast that you listen to. So let me know your feedback. Harry@20vc.com. I want to hear your thoughts. But before we dive into the show today, now most people who get scammed never talk about it. And if it can happen to tech savvy professionals, CEOs, and investors, it can happen to anyone. But the problem isn't just losing money, it's that today's scams, they're built differently for a very new world, one where AI can generate convincing messages in seconds, and fake sites look more like real sites than the real thing. Traditional tools were not built for this future, and that's why Guardio exists. Guardio is this incredible predictive and proactive engine. It leverages advanced AI threat detection to block highly targeted, socially engineered scams before they ever reach you. From phishing emails and fake login pages to financial fraud, Guardio protects you across the ways people actually live and work online. And security shouldn't be complicated. Guardio continuously monitors across all your accounts and devices, uncovering risks in real time and guiding you to close gaps before attackers exploit them. Trusted by over a million users, Guardio is setting the new standard for personal cybersecurity. Visit guard.io/20vc today to start your seven day free trial because the threats of tomorrow, they're already here and Guardio is built to stop them. And as guard.io defends your clicks, Hubspot turns them into customers. You wanna grow your company. Right? But instead of having the time to get to the next level, you're stuck maintaining the status quo. It's freaking maddening. Well, Hubspot's customer platform, it actually solves this. Breeze. No, it is not a fabric refreshener. This is the next generation. Their built in AI takes over all the busy work. It writes emails. …