‘To raise money in 2025 you need to be an AI-native founder’

The future belongs to those who ship products, not just publish papers.

“Founders worth backing are AI-native founders – operators who treat LLMs like AWS or Stripe: powerful infrastructure that lets them focus on the hard part of solving real problems for customers. The next Salesforce or Facebook won’t be a foundation model, but it will surely be built on top of one.”

That’s a part of a manifesto published by Kenneth Auchenberg, a VC investor focused on AI, dev tools, and infrastructure.

The future belongs to those who ship products, not just publish papers.

He adds that AI research labs still matter, but most of the long-term value creation will come from leveraging AI, not building technology in search of a customer.

Auchenberg is also vocal about how AI changes the reality for startup founders and will give rise to a new kind of AI-native founders.

ShiftMag sat with Auchenberg during the Shift Conference in Miami and asked him to share his thoughts on the new startup landscape, what he looks for in AI startups as an investor, and how AI is disrupting software engineering.

AI-native founders move fast

If you’re trying to raise capital in 2025 without a working vibe‑coded prototype, you’re signaling something very clear: you’re not an AI‑native founder.

While before, founders could have raised money purely based on their background, team, and idea, with AI-powered prototyping, you’re expected to have a working product before pitching investors.

Capital is spent on distribution, not engineering

Before, funding was spent to hire teams of 5-10 engineers to build working products. Now, thanks to AI tools, the same can be done with two engineers. Seed dollars are better spent on brand, distribution, and inference costs. Some AI-native startups barely need VCs; others need deeper pockets to blitz scale, indicating a shift in funding strategies.

Build for agents as your clients

We now live in a world where 80% of code is created by humans and 20% by AI, but Auchenberg predicts it will soon be exactly the opposite. That’s a fact that founders, especially dev tool founders, can’t ignore.

Just as we used to have desktop software, when the shift to mobile happened, every company had to think about what their mobile experience would be.

Soon, software companies will have to think about what their agentic experience is.