Scott Sandell on venture capital industry
From 250th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Scott Sandell, NEA - 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast · · 1Mby1M Roundtables
“Scott highlights the changing landscape of venture capital, noting that the industry has contracted significantly, with fewer active firms and capital concentrated among the top players, making fundraising more challenging for new entrepreneurs.”
On , Scott Sandell, Managing general partner at NEA at NEA, spoke about venture capital industry during 250th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Scott Sandell, NEA - 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast on 1Mby1M Roundtables.
About Scott Sandell
Scott Sandell, executive chairman and chief investment officer at NEA, has been active in public discussions about the state of venture capital and artificial intelligence. In 2025, he participated in a panel at AI House Davos, where he noted that NEA first invested in AI in 1988 with the company Thinking Machines. He stated that the firm has focused on infrastructure investments, arguing that new AI deployments will require new infrastructure, and emphasized the importance of access to proprietary data as a key barrier to entry. Sandell also commented on the challenge of building durable companies in the AI era, noting that venture-backed firms typically take about 12 years to reach public markets. Sandell has also discussed the broader venture capital environment. In a 2025 podcast, he observed that fundraising had contracted from roughly $450 billion in 2021 to $60 billion in the prior year, and predicted it would take time for limited partners to commit sizable capital again. He has continued to advocate for bootstrapping and capital-efficient entrepreneurship, stating that it establishes an entrepreneur's commitment and leads to disciplined growth. Sandell has also spoken about the importance of diversity in venture capital, saying in a 2023 awards speech that the future of innovation depends on achieving more diverse groups of entrepreneurs and investors.