A few months back, we signed a term sheet with a London AI startup. Then one of the founders quit to join a big AI lab and the deal was dead before any money went out. "That was a big disappointment" is what I told @ychernova at the @WSJ. That's the printable version. I get it, I spent my career as a founder before I started writing checks and a much larger, very hot, tech co dangling life-changing money is hard to say no to, but this poaching of founding teams is happening at every stage. PitchBook counted 322 US AI startup acquisitions with undisclosed values last year, up from 181 the year before (undisclosed usually means "we wanted the team"). 2026 is running hotter. Venture only works if founders play the long game - this means a growing chunk of our @ZeroPrimeVC diligence is me sitting across from a founder trying to figure out if they'll still be at the wheel in year 3 when a lab comes calling. Their story ran this morning and the headline made me laugh: "VCs Are Asking Founders: Will You Quit on Me?" If you're a founder raising right now, expect a version of that question. If you're building AI infra and don't have to think before answering it, I'd love to speak with you. Worth a quick read. I'm the guy in the first paragraph who got left at the altar 🤓 wsj.com/pro/venture-capital/…