Rants, AI and other notes from Upfront Summit

The enterprise capital stars were shining in Los Angeles this week on the Upfront Summit, an invite-only VC conference founded by Mark Suster and known for going all-out.

For instance, there have been Coco robots serving drinks and a number of pink. AI was the talk of the town again and even some celebrities graced the stage, including Lady Gaga, Cameron Diaz, Katy Perry and Novak Djokovic.

What can have been a bit of different this yr, though, is that it’s been a troublesome one for enterprise capital and startups looking for enterprise capital. Some media outlets even called it out.

Keith Rabois, managing director at Khosla Ventures, briefly addressed rumors about what led him to depart Founders Fund earlier this yr. He spent much of this time onstage defending his move away from San Francisco.

Rabois didn’t come out and call people there “lazy,” though he did note that he knows founders who look elsewhere for talent. That’s because only a few people in San Francisco need to work 12 hours a day, six days per week as is the culture in other cities, like Recent York, Rabois explained.

He tweeted in a while, calling the The Wall Street Journal story about tech leaders who left the Bay Area and are moving back now “fake.”

8VC general partner Joe Lonsdale discussed “Woke mind virus,” which included every little thing from “ripping business” away from corporations like Raytheon to the way in which Google sets up its search creates a “crazy ideological bent that’s not healthy for our country.”

Another highlights

M13 partner Anna Barber captured Melinda French Gates onstage saying, “I see enterprise capital because the engine for social progress in the USA.” While Upfront Ventures tweeted French Gates saying, “Have a look at a barrier in society and see if there may be a solution to take it down or search for an accelerant in society and discover a solution to make it faster.”

Journalist Andrew Nusca caught Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon saying, “Today essentially five corporations control the web … we principally made a Faustian bargain within the 2000s” once we gave them control in exchange for a richer experience.

Karan Talati, CEO of First Resonance, tweeted that this was his first time on the summit, and “There isn’t a doubt that this yr’s emphasis on hardtech reflects the exciting wave of opportunities in manufacturing, aerospace, and energy.”