AI in Investment and the Music of Wealth

Late 1990s:

Interviewer: What are your capabilities?

Job Applicant: I am Microsoft and Cisco certified…

Interviewer: That is enough, when can you start?

(While in Diamond Bank IT Group, three of my colleagues received calls from US recruiters, and within days, their US visas were delivered to them to relocate to the United States. They did not really want to go; one left on the day the visa was to expire).

March 2024:

Startup Investor: what does this company do?

Founder: we’re an AI-company that …

Investor: hold…what is your valuation?

Good People, in Tekedia Capital, we are seeing insane valuations where people are pricing “AI companies” with zero MVP, zero revenue, zero product-market fit (PMF) north of $55 million. Unlike in the past where you could use revenue, PMF, etc, to negotiate valuations, today, you are disarmed because of the “AI” in the DNA of a company. As this happens, we could edit Shakespeares!

Lord Polonius: “What do you read, my lord?”/ Hamlet: “Words, words, words”.  Today, Hamlet could have said “AI, AI, AI”. And Shakespeare would have changed those words out of the mouth of Orsino to Olivia, from “if music be the food of love, play on?” to “if AI is the engine of modern commerce, bring it on”.

We’re Tekedia “AI” Capital because we need to put “AI” somewhere. The world is a market, play. AI will continue to make it better because the universe is numbers, according to Pythagoras. And Sir Oliver de Coque concluded: great music comes from God – and I can join by saying AI is a gift to humanity to fix frictions in markets! New species of companies are being created and they will rule the future.

The Igbo Nation summarizes investments thus: “ego di na ogwu” [money and wealth reside in thorns, implying that only the brave who are bold to seek opportunities in challenging circumstances will find fortune] #braveForAI

Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.