Titans of Today

🚀 Titans Then, Titans Now What does it mean to be a Titan in the 2020s? On Episode 59, I sat down with Itamar Novick, General Partner at Recursive Ventures, serial entrepreneur, and a 25-year veteran of building and investing in technology. We explored everything: AI, moats, hypergrowth, mentor leverage, the next wave of job displacement, and the hard truths most VCs won’t say in public. If you want the edge the real edge, not LinkedIn theater, this episode delivers. The Prime Directive: Jump Into the Wave “When you see the start of a new technological cycle, you jump whatever it takes. Take the pay cut, move continents, start from scratch. The upside is global, not local. Don’t miss it.” Itamar’s advice, if he were 16 today with all his experience? Ignore “safe” career moves. Pick the sharpest wave, right now, it’s AI and agents. Get in at the bottom. The upside compounds at the global maximum, not the local max. Lesson: The only way to matter in tech is to run toward discomfort. Relocate. Re-skill. Rebuild your context. That’s the cost of admission. Moat or Die “You’re not looking for purpose. You’re looking for a moat. If you don’t have one, you’re a commodity. Commodities die.” We talked at length about the moat question, not just in startups, but in everything. Itamar’s billion-dollar outcome at Life360 was not luck. It was relentless focus on building what others couldn’t copy, holding the line for years in the face of 77+ VC rejections, and never deviating from the pursuit of differentiation. Lesson: Moat is your only insurance in an infinite-iteration economy. Moat is pricing power, margin, and the right to exist. AI: The App Layer Is Where Trillions Will Be Made Itamar draws a hard line: * The LLM/infra layer is getting commoditized (think “AI OS”). * The application layer: domain-specific, verticalized, high-leverage services, is where the next titans will be minted. Most current “AI SaaS” plays are building in the wrong quadrant: automating jobs no one wants automated, chasing low-value use cases. The gold is in vertical AI that owns data, embeds workflow, and compounds advantage with every user. Example? Legal, accounting, energy, massive service businesses that will see margins jump from 15% to 50%+ as AI eats the labor cost. Hypergrowth, Distribution, and the End of Top-Down * PLG is no longer a tactic, it’s the substrate. If you can’t get bottom-up fanatics, you’re replaceable. * Pricing will move from per-seat → usage → value-based, finally aligning incentives across the value chain. * Open source is now a core distribution weapon, especially for developer- and scientist-facing products. * The new playbook: Build for the sharpest users, let them drag you into the enterprise. Ignore this at your peril. On Job Displacement and Societal Friction “AI won’t just change jobs, it will erase millions, fast. Most people won’t upskill fast enough. UBI is only a half-measure; it doesn’t solve for meaning or impact. If we don’t get radically honest about this, we will fracture.” Itamar is one of the few Silicon Valley VCs willing to say this on record: * There will be massive dislocation. * Capitalism and government must both act—re-skilling, safety nets, and new capitalist models where companies pre-fund education and get a share of future upside. Lesson: The time to prepare is now, not after the break. If you’re a builder, your real advantage is in helping people cross the chasm, not pretending the chasm doesn’t exist. The Founder X-Factor What does he look for in the founders who go the distance? * Uncommon charisma * Infinite curiosity * First-principles thinking with radical humility * Coachability and the ability to metabolize direct feedback If you’re a builder reading this, this is the checklist. Edge Insight: The Service-as-Software Revolution Itamar’s forward thesis: * AI will not just automate; it will transform services into high-margin, tech-driven businesses. * If you can take a 15% margin service and turn it into a 50%+ terminal margin machine, you’ll build the next $100B company. The opportunity is not in automating the edge cases. It’s in becoming the AI-native replacement for white-collar incumbents at massive scale. Final Word: We’re in the First Inning “This is bigger than the invention of the personal computer. The only way to lose is to stand still. Jump into the storm. The rewards accrue to the relentless, not the comfortable.” 🧠 For the Builders * Get inside the AI application layer, not the infra layer. * Build raving fans. PLG or die. * Focus on verticalized, data-compounding, service-disruptive plays. * Embrace mentors and metabolize pain as feedback. * Moat is everything. * If you’re not building, be re-skilling. There will be no third option. 🎧 Listen, Share, Build Catch the full episode for every edge, every tactical story, and every uncomfortable truth: Comment below: What was your #1 insight? What’s your edge play for the next decade? Subscribe to Titans of Today for more edge conversations with the founders, investors, and builders who are actually shaping the future. Let’s build what only Titans dare imagine. — Jake Get full access to True Dopamine at jacobvandersteen.substack.com/subscribe