Sixty percent of US venture capital dollars in the first half of 2026 went to just two companies, but Sunil Dhaliwal argues that much of this money should not be considered traditional venture capital at all.
In this episode of the Post Money Podcast, Sunil Dhaliwal, founder and general partner at Amplify Partners, breaks down how AI is changing startup formation, fundraising, hiring, growth expectations and the venture capital industry itself.
With approximately $2.5 billion in assets under management, Amplify Partners invests at the earliest stages of company formation, backing deeply technical founders across infrastructure, developer tools, data, AI and the intersection of technology and biology.
Sunil explains why massive late-stage technology rounds are distorting venture funding statistics, creating unnecessary anxiety for founders who are still raising traditional seed and Series A rounds. He also discusses the growing divide between highly capitalized founders who can raise tens of millions before launching and everyone else who must prove product demand before scaling.
Inside The Episode:
The difference between venture capital and private technology capital
Why most founders should ignore the noise around $100 million seed rounds
How AI has raised investor expectations for early revenue growth
Why large amounts of capital cannot compensate for weak product understanding
How attention now influences hiring, fundraising and customer acquisition
Whether AI will allow startups to operate with much smaller teams
Why successful companies may continue hiring despite AI productivity gains
The three options available to overfunded, slow-growth software companies
Why AI regulation will be far more aggressive than many founders expect
How AI startups should engage with policymakers
Whether AI agents will replace venture capitalists
Why long-term AI value will extend beyond frontier models
Amplify’s investment in Swamp and the limits of AI-first infrastructure
Watch Full Episode On Youtube
About Sunil Dhaliwal
Sunil Dhaliwal is a General Partner at Amplify Partners, a venture capital firm with $2.5 billion under management focused exclusively on backing technical founders at the earliest stage. With founding investments in companies like Datadog, Fastly, Temporal, Chainguard, Modal, Runway, Hightouch, Luma, and Hex - Amplify has been at the forefront of infrastructure and AI investing for over a decade.
Sunil founded the firm after spending over a decade at Battery Ventures. He has been named to the Forbes Midas list multiple times in his career and recently launched Amplify's first dedicated fund focused on the intersection of AI and Life Sciences. He is a native of Western New York, a Red Sox season ticket holder living in California, and faithful alumnus of Georgetown University.
Connect with Sunil Dhaliwal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunildhaliwal
About the Host
Nilanjana Bhowmik is a General Partner at Converge and host of the Post Money Podcast, where she speaks with founders, investors, and industry leaders shaping the future of technology, innovation, and venture capital. Through in-depth conversations, Post Money Podcast explores the ideas, decisions, and trends driving the next generation of transformative companies.
Connect with Nilanjana Bhowmik: linkedin.com/in/nilanjanabhowmik
Converge VC website: converge.vc
