I am thrilled to have Ron Levin, Managing Partner at Alumni Ventures Seed Fund and co-founder of Perk, formerly TravelPerk, which scaled to a $2.7 billion valuation. He has backed 1,600+ companies and written Higher Purpose Venture Capital.

In this episode, Ron Levin, Managing Partner at Alumni Ventures and co-founder of TravelPerk, shares insights on venture capital, startup fundraising, and the future of AI. Discover how founders can decode a VC pass, what a real moat looks like for AI companies, and why social impact and strong returns aren't mutually exclusive.

Timestamps

00:26 From McKinsey to Booking.com to Co-Founding TravelPerk

02:53 Building TravelPerk: The First 12 Months and Manual Grind

05:48 Crossing the Table: What Founders Get Wrong

08:11 The Alumni Ventures Model: Co-Investing Alongside Top VCs

09:44 Decoding a VC Pass: When It's Really About the Team

13:18 Securing a Lead Investor Without Social Proof

16:13 What's Moving the Needle: AI-First Investing Now

17:44 The AI Wrapper Trap and What a Real Moat Looks Like

20:08 Why SaaS Metrics Don't Map to AI Companies

21:49 Who Wins the AI Model War

23:42 The Anthropic IPO and AI Valuations

26:06 Higher Purpose Venture Capital: Returns Meet Social Impact

29:30 IPOs, Secondaries, and Staying Private Longer

31:48 Should VCs Ignore Price for Generational Companies?

33:50 Structuring a Seed Raise With No Warm Network

Ron's Links

LDN/ X – https://www.linkedin.com/in/levinron/

Website – https://www.av.vc/

My Links

Podcast: https://lifeselfmastery.com/itunes

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YouTube: youtube.com/lifeselfmastery

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohitmal

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohit857/

Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/outbound-sales-mastery/