Greylock aims to be a founder's first partner from day one: with Greylock 17, 'over 80% of the investments we made were Pre-Seed, Seed, or Series A,' and the firm 'expect[s] that every company will become an AI company.' Partners back highly technical, customer-obsessed founders building AI-first software that can rebuild existing categories from scratch — and they weight unique market insight and durable moats (data, network effects, scale) over headline TAM.
Lead with the problem you are solving and the unique insight behind it; Greylock's own pitch checklist opens with the problem before the solution.
“What's the problem you are solving?” — How can I Pitch my Startup to Greylock?
“What's your proposition?” — Greylock
“Making the right foundational decisions, beginning with market identification and product definition, can have compounding effects.” — Saam Motamedi
An enduring, AI-first product (not a thin feature or wrapper) that uses technology to rebuild a category, ideally generating proprietary data through usage.
“I want to back founders who are willing to take the risk to build enduring, AI-enabled products that will change how people work and live.” — Product-Led AI | Greylock
“AI agents will perform the majority of the work and humans will check.” — Christine Kim
“Better data over better models.” — Christine Kim
A unique insight on a real, often constrained market beats a big top-down TAM number; Greylock partners are skeptical of TAM theater.
“I rarely pay attention to TAM. Instead, I look for a unique insight on a constrained market.” — Mike Duboe | Greylock
“AI is an enabling technology wave and it's shifting every category that we invest in.” — Saam Motamedi
“underserved but quickly growing segment...accounting for nearly 80% of the $320B total in the U.S.” — Christine Kim
Evidence of progress and learning velocity; a retentive foothold in one defined segment is a stronger signal than broad shallow usage. Greylock explicitly asks for traction and data.
“What traction (or other data) can you provide us to show your progress?” — How can I Pitch my Startup to Greylock?
“We built a solid foundation of highly retentive customers within one defined segment.” — Mike Duboe
“Growth is about building systems to accelerate a company's pace of learning.” — Mike Duboe
Highly technical, customer-obsessed founders with one foot in industry and one in technology, deep market knowledge, and an obsessive drive — including early-career founders with unique insight.
“I love backing founders who are highly technical and customer-obsessed.” — Saam Motamedi | Greylock
“Why are you and your team the right folks to succeed on this opportunity?” — Greylock
“The best founders I work with are deeply curious & steeped in their market, yet maniacally driven to reinvent it.” — Mike Duboe
“We welcome founders with limited experience — in fact, I find partnering with early career founders with unique market insight, relevant technical expertise, and who are deeply commercial especially exciting.” — Saam Motamedi
A defensible model — beware being a thin layer on a model provider; build advantage through data, distribution and category ownership rather than a wrapper.
“If your theory of the game is a thin layer around the AI model, you'd better be playing on the trend of the large models, right?” — Intelligent Money | Greylock
“the most strategic advantage [of applications] is that you can coexist with several systems of record and collect all the data that passes through your product.” — Jerry Chen
“Who has invested in your company to date, or is committed to this round?” — Greylock
A real, durable moat — data specific to an industry/company, network effects, or scale. 'The new moats are the old moats.' Attack where incumbents aren't competing.
“The new moats are the old moats.” — The New New Moats | Greylock
“Products that use data specific to an industry or unique to a company to solve a strategic problem begin to look like a pretty deep moat.” — Jerry Chen
“the more data you generate and train on with your product, the better your models become and the better your product becomes.” — Jerry Chen
“Rather than being intimidated by the data and distribution advantage of incumbents, I encourage founders to find angles where incumbents are not competing at all.” — Seth Rosenberg
A credible reason this is the moment — the AI wave built on internet/mobile/cloud, with models improving fast enough to make previously impossible products viable.
“This is a wave that couldn't happen without the internet, couldn't happen without mobile, couldn't happen without cloud. But it's building upon all three. It's the crescendo of them.” — AI's Transformative Power | Greylock
“The thing that continues to surprise even us is how quickly and how significantly these models are improving.” — Saam Motamedi
“We expect that every company will become an AI company.” — Greylock
Clarity on company status and round: where the company is, who's already in, and what's committed. Best entry is a warm intro to the relevant partner.
“What status is your company/opportunity?” — How can I Pitch my Startup to Greylock?
“A warm introduction helps us tremendously.” — Greylock
“a bespoke company building program designed to advance select pre-idea, pre-seed and Seed founders...from inception to product market fit, with fully flexible financing options” — Greylock
“I love backing founders who are highly technical and customer-obsessed.”
“This is a wave that couldn't happen without the internet, couldn't happen without mobile, couldn't happen without cloud. But it's building upon all three. It's the crescendo of them.”
“The new moats are the old moats.”
“I rarely pay attention to TAM. Instead, I look for a unique insight on a constrained market.”
“I want to back founders who are willing to take the risk to build enduring, AI-enabled products that will change how people work and live.”