InterGen PowerPlay: How AI-Native Scaleups Are Changing Venture Capital

For this discussion, InterGen ventures will join Raif Barbaros, Partner at Mistral Venture Partners, for a candid look at how AI-native companies are changing how capital is allocated — and how investors are evaluating companies across every sector as a result.

AI-first scaleups are raising faster, operating with different cost structures, and scaling with smaller teams. That shift is already influencing what investors consider defensible, what “traction” now means, and how they assess product, margins, and hiring plans — including for companies that are not built around AI.

We will cover:

• how investors are currently comparing AI-native and non-AI-native businesses
• where traditional SaaS and vertical software companies still have real advantage
• what founders should rethink (and what they shouldn’t)
• how to position a company credibly in an AI-shaped market