Mayfield Invests $100M in AI Incubator Inspired by Its Successful Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program

Navin Chaddha, managing partner of the 55-year-old venture capital firm Mayfield Fund, approaches venture investing with a distinctive perspective that sets him apart from other established firms. After raising a remarkable $955 million fund last year, Chaddha emphasized that Mayfield doesn't follow the trend of creating multibillion-dollar funds, stating, “Copying someone else is a strategy for disaster, a blueprint for failure.”

Now, Mayfield is again carving its own path by launching AI Garage, a $100 million initiative aimed at ideation-stage founders eager to create “AI teammate” companies. AI Garage seeks to differentiate itself from well-known accelerators like Y Combinator (YC) and pre-seed programs such as Sequoia's Arc or Greylock's Edge by drawing inspiration from the firm’s entrepreneurial-in-residence (EIR) experience. For the past 40 years, Mayfield has successfully recruited one or two EIRs annually, guiding them from initial ideas to fundable startups.

With this new initiative, Mayfield plans to expand and formalize its EIR program by accepting up to five aspiring founders into its office every six months. Similar to EIRs, participants in AI Garage will not receive immediate funding; however, Mayfield will commit a minimum of $1 million and potentially up to $5 million once a solid business plan is developed in collaboration with the firm’s partners and support teams, including marketing, talent, and business development.

The motivation behind Mayfield's decision to enhance and formalize its EIR program lies in Chaddha's keen interest in gaining early access to AI application startups, especially within the realm of what he describes as “AI teammates.”

“They haven’t even started the company. We will help them start it,” Chaddha explained.

Chaddha clarifies that “AI teammates” go beyond the roles of copilots and agents. Unlike simple assistants that autonomously handle tasks such as booking meetings or processing refunds, AI teammates collaborate with humans on intricate tasks to reach shared objectives. “AI teammates are digital companions that elevate humans to superhumans. They will usher us into a new era of collaborative intelligence,” he asserts.

Although terms like “copilot,” “agent,” and “teammate” can be used interchangeably, branding an AI application as a “teammate” serves as a savvy marketing strategy, presenting the technology as more relatable and human-friendly.

“We see boundless opportunities for AI teammates to work alongside humans, shaping the future of our workplace across various sectors, including product development, engineering, sales and marketing, customer service, IT and security, finance, HR, legal, and a multitude of administrative tasks,” Chaddha elaborated.

Mayfield has already made strides in the AI teammate space with investments in nearly a dozen companies, such as DevRev (customer service AI), Docket (AI sales engineering), and NeuBird (site reliability AI). With NeuBird, human site reliability engineers instruct the AI to monitor for site outages and troubleshoot issues. When the AI encounters a problem it cannot resolve, it seeks assistance from human engineers. “That’s a prime example of a teammate,” Chaddha remarked.