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AI OSS tool repo goes archived over night after raising $7.3M Seed

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Re: AI OSS tool repo goes archived over night after raising $7.3M Seed

#131

Post by jdw64 »

Eridrus wrote: post #126
jdw64 wrote: post #16

VCs think, 'Apps are risky, infrastructure is safe,' so they invested in AI infra. "infra is safe" Hmm, but that wasn't a good idea. because if an open source infrastructure project like TensorZero gets shut down this quickly, won't they start to realize that those investment theories are also risky? The difficult thing about AI infrastructure is that, unlike other industries, it will not become fragmented. It will l…

Tell me you haven't talked to a VC. A better model for VCs is: companies are finding tons of budget to allocate to new AI spend. Besides the labs, who is going to be able to capture some of that spend while they're actively looking to spend it? Nobody at the seed stage is investing in things they think are "safe". They are investing in things they think have huge upside.

Sometimes people don't realize that 'professional' ideals and 'reality' are different.

What you're talking about seems like 'ideal' investing, not real world investing at all. Of course, the VCs in your country and the VCs in my country are different.

It's like in software, where everyone says you should write maintainable code within the norms, but in reality, most people don't do that

that investing in 'potential' is the basic principle of VCs. They call it the power law. But when you look at actual investment portfolios, it seems quite rare for people to follow only that principle. I guess you don't think so. Of course, I agree that ideal venture investing follows the power law. But in real world investing, there are pragmatic investors who operate somewhere between the ideal and reality. We always project ourselves onto the 'ideal,' but I don't think there are only people who are immersed in that ideal. Of course, no VC would invest in someone like me. I've met with VCs three times in my career, but they all turned me down. Haha.

Re: AI OSS tool repo goes archived over night after raising $7.3M Seed

#132

Post by bel8 »

GabrielBianconi wrote: post #83

I'm the co-founder and CEO of TensorZero. We started the company two and a half years ago, and raised $7.3m in 2024 (announced only almost a year later). We've spent less than half of this amount. Earlier this week we came to the difficult decision to wind down the project. The open-source repository remains available on GitHub (Apache 2.0) but won't be actively maintained by the team moving forward.

Hi! First of all, congrats on getting much further than any of us will ever be able to dream. Having a well funded startup is no small feat.

Now one question that you probably get a lot and I must ask: why not pivot?

Re: AI OSS tool repo goes archived over night after raising $7.3M Seed

#133

Post by cbsmith »

GabrielBianconi wrote: post #114
faeyanpiraat wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any lessons around the why which may be publicly shared ?

There are many factors at play here but if I had to pick one... an open-source company has to find product market fit twice: first for the OSS project and again for a commercial product. The AI market moves very quickly so it's easy to take a step in the wrong direction and fall behind. I might publish a long-form reflection when the dust settles.

Are there other OSS LLMOps projects that have overtaken you? I couldn't think of one.

Re: AI OSS tool repo goes archived over night after raising $7.3M Seed

#134

Post by jdw64 »

Eridrus wrote: post #126
jdw64 wrote: post #16

VCs think, 'Apps are risky, infrastructure is safe,' so they invested in AI infra. "infra is safe" Hmm, but that wasn't a good idea. because if an open source infrastructure project like TensorZero gets shut down this quickly, won't they start to realize that those investment theories are also risky? The difficult thing about AI infrastructure is that, unlike other industries, it will not become fragmented. It will l…

Tell me you haven't talked to a VC. A better model for VCs is: companies are finding tons of budget to allocate to new AI spend. Besides the labs, who is going to be able to capture some of that spend while they're actively looking to spend it? Nobody at the seed stage is investing in things they think are "safe". They are investing in things they think have huge upside.

Anyway, I wasn't trying to mock your profession. Here's what I think. Most VCs and investors have their own success formula. There will be VCs who succeeded by investing in infrastructure. But the question is whether that same success formula applies to AI startups right now. Of course, from your perspective, it might look like 'this clueless kid is just being cynical without knowing anything.' I partly agree. But that's not the core of my argument.

What I'm trying to say is that those success formulas themselves need to be reconsidered.An insider from up there came out and talked about the next 'Databricks,' believing that's the kind of potential they're looking for. All of them do. Everyone wants to be the first investor in a goldmine. I don't think this is just about greed

The question is whether the traditional infrastructure investment logic holds here. I think most current AI infrastructure tools are closer to 'temporary patches' that exist before the functionality gets internalized.

Let's say infrastructure is like a concrete building. Traditional IT infrastructure basically has a standards committee, and once that committee sets things, changes are extremely rare. It's a kind of 'lake.' But AI infrastructure right now is different from one to another; even the ecosystems differ—the Chinese ecosystem is different from the US ecosystem. It's a flowing 'river.' I just think the question is whether the old grammar can be applied in this situation.

You probably have more money, more investment experience, and more success than I do. I only have a lot of failure. But apart from that, the issue is simply that 'potential' in growth potential ends up being data measured against past examples, and the question is whether that data still holds up now. Anyway, I might have been slightly sarcastic earlier, so I apologize for that. Someone as successful as you, please bear with it a little.

Re: AI OSS tool repo goes archived over night after raising $7.3M Seed

#135

Post by pavlov »

GabrielBianconi wrote: post #104
pavlov wrote: post #17

This is the claim in the repo readme that presumably unlocked the VC investment: “TensorZero is used by companies ranging from frontier AI startups to the Fortune 10 and fuels ~1% of global LLM API spend today.” One percent seems like a lot. Anyone on HN use this?

We raised most of the capital before we had any traction. We raised on a rolling basis and had millions in the bank before we had even published the open-source repository. Ultimately we raised based on the team's background + vision. The ~1% figure might be outdated today but it was a best-effort estimate a couple of months ago. TensorZero powered tens of trillions of inference tokens per month. TensorZero is not wi…

Thank you, appreciate the response. It’s a great part of the HN community that there’s almost always someone around with the first-hand experience and facts.

Best of luck with whatever you do next!

Re: AI OSS tool repo goes archived over night after raising $7.3M Seed

#136

Post by jdw64 »

GabrielBianconi wrote: post #130
jdw64 wrote: post #16

VCs think, 'Apps are risky, infrastructure is safe,' so they invested in AI infra. "infra is safe" Hmm, but that wasn't a good idea. because if an open source infrastructure project like TensorZero gets shut down this quickly, won't they start to realize that those investment theories are also risky? The difficult thing about AI infrastructure is that, unlike other industries, it will not become fragmented. It will l…

Our investors aren't looking for safe , they're looking for a small chance in funding the next Databricks or similar. Most times it doesn't work out unfortunately, but that's part of the game. (Also, we raised the capital in 2024 and didn't burn most of it.)

First of all, I respect your decision. I apologize for speaking too hastily about your choices. What I was trying to do was simply talk about how incredibly fast AI infrastructure changes. I also understand your respect for investors looking for the next Databricks. But the reason I wrote what I did is because the confidence expressed in the README ended so early. That said, such confidence isn't necessarily a bad thing. Isn't it said that victory belongs to challengers like you, not cynical people like me? I feel bad about that part. Still, I have no intention of withdrawing my skeptical view about whether AI infrastructure can succeed as an open source startup. I'm very sorry it came across as if I was mocking your failure. That was not my intent. I was simply trying to leave a comment saying that AI infrastructure has a different direction from traditional infrastructure.

Re: AI OSS tool repo goes archived over night after raising $7.3M Seed

#138

Post by GabrielBianconi »

jdw64 wrote: post #136
GabrielBianconi wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our investors aren't looking for safe , they're looking for a small chance in funding the next Databricks or similar. Most times it doesn't work out unfortunately, but that's part of the game. (Also, we raised the capital in 2024 and didn't burn most of it.)

First of all, I respect your decision. I apologize for speaking too hastily about your choices. What I was trying to do was simply talk about how incredibly fast AI infrastructure changes. I also understand your respect for investors looking for the next Databricks. But the reason I wrote what I did is because the confidence expressed in the README ended so early. That said, such confidence isn't necessarily a bad th…

Thanks, appreciate the follow-up. It's certainly still to be determined if OSS AI infra will pan out, but I hope it does!

Re: AI OSS tool repo goes archived over night after raising $7.3M Seed

#139

Post by jdw64 »

GabrielBianconi wrote: post #138
jdw64 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, I respect your decision. I apologize for speaking too hastily about your choices. What I was trying to do was simply talk about how incredibly fast AI infrastructure changes. I also understand your respect for investors looking for the next Databricks. But the reason I wrote what I did is because the confidence expressed in the README ended so early. That said, such confidence isn't necessarily a bad th…

Thanks, appreciate the follow-up. It's certainly still to be determined if OSS AI infra will pan out, but I hope it does!

I wish you success. I wasn't trying to mock your failure, and I'm truly sorry if I made you feel bad. I don't want to be a cynical person who mocks others' challenges. I apologize again for that. I was just expressing that something doesn't seem right from my current perspective. I hope your next challenge goes well.

I mean it. I'm sorry once again

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