The teams and investors that will shape the new start-up era
I don’t believe that we will see many 3-person unicorns in the future thanks to the use of AI. Sure, there will always be spectacular examples like WhatsApp – only a few people, but a billion-dollar valuation. What about the enourmous amount of start-ups?
This is exactly where the fundamental shift will take place. I see a different model: the successful start-up of the future will need an experienced specialist for every area – product management, sales, marketing, etc.
It is precisely these experienced minds that can efficiently develop and market new products or services with AI support. Where necessary, they also bring in external specialists. This creates teams of senior operators with proven pattern recognition who then manage specialized agent systems.
The future belongs to agent teams: Got any examples?
Some current examples impressively show how companies are already working with autonomous agents today:
- Onyx, founded in San Francisco in 2023, offers an open-source AI solution that enables companies to find information efficiently across different tools and documents. Onyx’s AI agents can perform complex analyses and make recommendations to optimize business processes. In March 2025, Onyx secured seed funding of 10 million US dollars, backed by investors such as Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital and Y Combinator.
- Palona AI, based in Palo Alto, develops AI agents that mimic human interactions and are specifically designed for the retail industry. The agents can recognize customer needs, provide personalized recommendations and thus increase sales. In January 2025, Palona received seed funding of 10 million US dollars from investors such as UpHonest Capital and Fusion Fund.
- Augmenta, a startup from Toronto, uses AI agents to automate the design process in the construction industry. The agents can analyze construction plans, make optimization suggestions and thus increase efficiency. In March 2025, Augmenta raised 10 million US dollars in a seed round, led by Prelude Ventures.
These examples underline the fact that AI agent models are already working in practice and offer enormous potential.
AI to execute – humans to be creative
Yes, AI is replacing junior staff and operational activities. But we will still need the brains behind them, the visionaries and strategists.
The next generation of successful companies will not be based on co-pilots or simple SaaS tools. Instead, specialized, autonomous AI agents based on proprietary logic and individual data will be used. These agents reliably perform over 90% of the tasks in their respective areas. The key difference is that the IP is not in the tool, but in the specially developed and continuously optimized agent architecture.
The resulting consequences of this model will be
- No junior positions or traditional middle management level
- No “wrappers” or traditional SaaS products
- A small team of highly qualified specialists with exponential leverage and continuous IP value enhancement
However, the teams must also overcome enormous challenges in previously personnel-intensive cross-sectional functions in order to be able to advance into the new efficiency dimension: Data quality, data protection regulations, the management of infrastructure and computing power must be mastered across domains.
There are also industry-specific differences: software start-ups can implement agents more easily and flexibly than hardware or deep tech companies, for example. Regulated industries such as healthcare or financial services in particular require specific adjustments in technology development and compliance.
How does this change investors and the investment process?
These teams of professionals cost money because they have to be lured out of comfortable jobs and embark on a new startup adventure. Some companies will conclude that we no longer need the usual 500k seed financing, but much larger sums to finance these experts right from the start.
But of course, capital is not only needed for senior salaries, but also for infrastructure, AI agent training and operating costs. The classic small seed rounds, which previously served primarily to test and train founders, no longer seem to fit into the new scheme. But will this work? Can rich professionals be motivated by high salaries alone?
Yes, we will see this pattern – and are already seeing it. But we are also seeing another, more exciting pattern: Teams of four to ten hungry professionals who only need the bare minimum of capital for operating costs and infrastructure go “all-in” again. Such teams are particularly exciting and good investors will find and support precisely these founders. Because good investors offer far more than just money!
Which investors fit the bill?
Today’s venture funds are not prepared for this new model, because the AI agent model fundamentally changes the requirements for investors. It is no longer just capital that counts here, but a deep understanding of technology and a close partnership with the founders. The following investor groups will be able to develop completely new opportunities with the founders:
- Active family equity firms that not only have capital, but also entrepreneurial experience. These family businesses invest for the long term and understand that building complex agent architectures takes time and intensive support.
- Strategic investors with shared long-term goals, such as established companies that are working on AI agent systems themselves or would like to use them in the future. They can provide not only capital, but also direct market access, data pools or technological infrastructure. Collaborations like these help start-ups to scale faster and position themselves clearly in the market.
- Operator investors with a tech background, former founders or senior managers who have already successfully developed and scaled complex technologies themselves. In addition to financial resources, such investors primarily contribute technological expertise and experience in operational business. They have a direct understanding of the hurdles that start-ups face and can proactively help to overcome these challenges at an early stage.
New, specialized investment vehicles such as AI-focused funds and syndicates that invest specifically in autonomous agent technologies are currently emerging at the top. These funds bundle capital and specific expertise. They offer start-ups an additional network and in-depth industry knowledge.
In order to exploit the full potential of the AI agent model as a founding team, start-ups should therefore not only pay attention to the amount of funding, but above all to the suitability of their investors in terms of knowledge, experience and long-term strategic interests.
New genre or complete shift in the industry?
The exciting question is whether we will still see traditional start-ups at all in ten years’ time, or whether every company will have to be built with maximum AI agent efficiency from the outset. Exactly what this might look like for deep tech, infrastructure or hardware companies is still open today – but this is precisely what we should be thinking about.
It is already becoming apparent that AI agents could fundamentally change the way companies create value. But what does this mean in concrete terms for traditional companies? Ultimately, every company will be forced to completely convert its processes to autonomous agents in order to remain competitive. This will massively change the skills of traditional managers and employees in all sectors in the future.
The days of lean startsup with iterative, experimental methods and in-depth expert knowledge seem to be over for the time being. New companies are no longer scaling via growing employee numbers, but via entire fleets of autonomous, highly developed agents. They are not helping established players to gradually reduce their workforce, but are stepping up to replace them completely!
Conclusion
What does this mean for the exit channel of strategists: will strategists be able to buy such companies in the future and then integrate them later? Or are these agent-based companies doomed to either become market leaders themselves or go under because they cannot be integrated in terms of structure and model?
The option of operating profitably in a niche and simply “developing” is not feasible for VC-financed companies in terms of systems technology – a real problem. The low fixed costs actually make such companies ideal evergreens for family offices.
So will we still see “normal” start-ups that become successful after all?
All in all, more questions than answers – let’s think about it together and give it a try.
What do you think?
