Shayan Zadeh

The Google and NextEra partnership makes perfect sense. For years, the model has been: 1. Find a site. 2. Ask the utility for power. 3. Wait for them to deliver or build it. 4. Complain when they're late and over budget. That model is broken. Utilities can't keep up. (and it's not their fault... "keeping up" with demand is an impossible task in this case). This partnership flips the script. Google isn't asking for power. They're bringing their own. They're partnering with the largest renewable energy developer in the country to co-develop entire campuses. Land. Power generation. Interconnection. All bundled together. This is vertical integration. It's Google taking control of their own destiny. And it solves the biggest problem in the industry right now: ...Who pays for the infrastructure? NextEra's CEO said it himself: hyperscalers need to "bring and pay for their own power generation." That's exactly what this deal does. It's faster. It's more certain. And it doesn't stick ratepayers with the bill. This isn't just another PPA. This is the new model for the future of data center development. My question is... Will this just be a behind the meter design? Or will they connect their power generation to the grid? Comment below!

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Sat down with Saurav Shroff, co-founder & CEO of Starpath to talk about what it takes to build a self-sustaining city on Mars, creating rocket propellent production plants, and selling solar panels to satellite companies. Interview is up on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g5xdkK3C

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Last week, we got to do what Mayfield does best - spotlight the rising builders before the spotlight finds them. At the Golden Gate Club in the Presidio, we celebrated the Mayfield | Divot AI List honorees - founders, product leaders, researchers, media voices, and policy leaders who are shaping the next chapter of AI. Based on the energy in that room, it became clear the next decade of AI won’t be written by the usual suspects. The day brought together honorees, founders, and ecosystem partners for meaningful conversations about where AI is headed. Aparna Chennapragada (CPO for AI Experiences, Microsoft) sat down with Derek Andersen (CEO, Startup Grind) for a powerful discussion on how AI is transforming product development and the structure of modern teams. Then came my fireside with Garry Tan (CEO, Y Combinator) - one of the most thoughtful voices in tech today. We even ended on a fun note when I asked: “What’s one idea a founder could pitch where you wouldn’t even need 10 minutes to decide? Maybe not even a minute, just 10 seconds?” Garry smiled and said, “I just love the demo.” That spirit - a leader’s instinct to show, not tell, perfectly captured the energy in the room. From our conversation, a few themes stood out: - The era of abundance has begun. AI represents a 100x shift in how we build and operate. The challenge isn’t adoption, it’s moving fast and responsibly enough to create a durable impact. - The new AI-native company looks very different. Startups with 1/10 the headcount and 10x the output are redefining what scale means. Those that deeply integrate AI into their own operations will have a lasting advantage. - Founders are getting younger and hungrier. A new generation of AI-native, fearless, and global founders is building from first principles and experimenting faster than ever before. - Humans + AI is the next great partnership. The future belongs to builders who see AI not as a substitute for human creativity, but as a collaborator that amplifies it. The energy at the event was electric - hopeful, grounded, and deeply human. For us at Mayfield, this initiative has always been about recognizing the people doing the hard work behind the scenes before the world catches on. A huge thank-you to Startup Grind and Divot for partnering with us and to everyone who joined us in celebrating this incredible community of AI builders. The age of abundance is here - what opportunities do you think it will create for founders and builders? #Mayfield #Divot #AIList #StartupGrind

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio & Health Roundup has a new unicorn, a vision for Healthcare AI, insights on AI deployment, & collaboration across the Texas Bio Triangle infrastructure. 🧬 💰 Funding & Capital Signals Say hello to Austin's newest Bio & Health unicorn! Curative raised a $150M Series B at a $1.275B valuation to expand its $0 out-of-pocket, AI-enabled health plan into new markets. 🤝 Partnerships & M&A L7 Informatics is teaming with Leica Biosystems to integrate L7|ESP with Leica platforms to deliver AI-ready, end-to-end pathology lab informatics. 💡 Insights from Local Builders & Innovators 8VC’s “A Vision for Healthcare AI in America” argues that regulation, not technology, is the main bottleneck keeping AI out of direct care delivery. 🏙️ Community HIMSS Central Texas Chapter's December 12 CXO Forum is bringing together health and technology leaders. I will be moderating a panel with Kevin W. Barron, FHFMA, EHRC, FACHE, Brandon T., and Crystal Kilburn, MHA, RHIA, CRCR on AI in the revenue cycle. Come join us. 🤠 Texas Bio Triangle Houston & San Antonio: Salarius Pharmaceuticals is partnering with Texas Biomedical Research Institute on avian flu studies to generate first in vitro data on pan-influenza candidates, including H5N1. Houston: Avance Biosciences, Inc. opened a Potency and Cell-Based Assay Center of Excellence in Houston to support GMP-compliant potency and functional assays for biologics, RNA therapeutics, vaccines, and cell and gene therapies. What’s Next? 🤠 🚀 🦾 🧬

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The defining metric of this era is velocity. We are watching $10B seed rounds and trillion-dollar infrastructure bets deployed at hyperspeed. But maybe the secret to thriving is patience. In this episode of Austin Next, we audit S3 Ventures' "Patient Capital" thesis and how it leads to a Discipline Arbitrage with Managing Director Brian Smith. The Structural Truths: • The Cost of Velocity (The Cisco Warning): Speed often leads to overbuilding. Brian reminds us that in 2001, Cisco wrote off $28 billion in revenue, the equivalent of 28 Bellagio Hotels, because they financed the velocity of the dot-com boom. While that infrastructure eventually laid the groundwork for what came next, the write-down was massive . • The Small Fund Advantage: You cannot return a multi-billion dollar fund with just good businesses you need generational outliers. By staying relatively small ($250M), S3 preserves the ability to generate alpha without being overrun by the beta of the cycle . • Vibe Coding vs. Enterprise Truth: Vibe coding is fast and powerful, but unfinished. The real returns come from the flywheel of rapid prototyping (vibe coding) and the hard work of building zero-variance, enterprise-ready applications with enriched data sets.

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