Yanda Erlich, General Partner, B Capital
B Capital, a global multi-stage investment firm, has taken a significant step to strengthen its foothold in tech and AI investments by appointing Yan-David (“Yanda”) Erlich as General Partner.
Announced in January, this strategic move underscores the firm’s commitment to backing transformative AI-driven companies across early-stage and growth investments. With a track record of scaling tech ventures and investing in high-impact AI innovations, Erlich’s leadership is expected to further elevate B Capital’s presence in this rapidly evolving sector.
A seasoned entrepreneur, operator, and investor, Erlich brings a wealth of experience to his new role. Prior to joining B Capital, he served as COO and CRO at Weights & Biases, a leading AI developer platform, and held investment roles at Coatue Management.
His entrepreneurial background includes founding and scaling multiple venture-backed startups, including ChoiceVendor, which LinkedIn acquired. With this blend of hands-on operational experience and deep investment acumen, Erlich is poised to drive B Capital’s AI strategy forward.
Speaking about his vision for the firm’s AI investments, Erlich highlights B Capital’s strong foundation of entrepreneurs, operators, and investors as a key advantage.
Also Read: Global risk sentiment holds steady amid tariffs, AI optimism, and crypto shifts
“B Capital already brings together an experienced team; it was a key reason I chose to join. Our strategic partnership with BCG is also a differentiating competitive advantage, as they have a unique vantage point on the AI transformation,” he shares.
In an email interview, Erlich shares his insights about AI and how B Capital is approaching investment in the space.
The following is an edited excerpt of the conversation.
AI is rapidly evolving. What criteria or signals do you prioritise when evaluating potential investments in AI startups? Are there any red flags you watch out for in this space?
When things change quickly, I find it useful to go back to basics. What is true for (most) successful businesses: they are started by founders who care deeply about their customer base and market.
They have a compelling product that is deeply loved and actively used by their customer base. Especially at first, it is better to have fewer, more avid customers than many lukewarm ones.
They move fast: build, ship, learn from the market, iterate. One of my most durable insights has been, “A startup is not a company: it is an experiment to see if a company deserves to exist. Until product-market fit, the speed of hypothesis testing trumps everything. Startups die when they spend faster than they learn.”
They are hyper-focused: startups are better suited to solving a small set of very hard problems than many semi-hard ones.
Also Read: AI agents redefine art: Unlocking boundless creative possibilities in a new digital era
They are talent magnets: great people love to work with other great people.
They think about the whole problem: not just what product to build but also how to take it to market, price it, and market it.
The red flags I watch out for are when folks claim that it is “because of AI”. These axioms of what makes a high-quality startup no longer apply.
As an investor in both early-stage startups and growth-stage companies, how do you balance the inherent risks of nascent technologies with the need for scalability and long-term impact?
The quick answer is that it is not easy. On one hand, I am a huge believer in technology’s positive transformational impact: improving lives and human productivity and creating new category-defining winners. When betting on a company, I always ask myself why now: what new disruption permits this company to win?
On the other hand, business fundamentals apply. You need a great product with high engagement, operate in a large (or, ideally, quickly growing TAM), constantly build and defend your moats, maintain quality as you grow your teams, and more.
Balancing building for the future and “solving the problems of today, today; the problems of tomorrow, tomorrow” is part of the difficulty (and the fun).
It is important to be diligent in what we can: at the earliest stages, that is, the founders and technology, and whether they solve an acute pain in a large or growing market. Later, operational execution and market positioning matter. It is always important to see if the company is a great magnet for top talent across both tech and GTM.
It is also key to help where we can: through my personal network, the whole B Capital network, BCG, and many more. Making the investment is the beginning of the adventure.
Also Read: What we can tell about AI investment in SEA this year
From your perspective, what are the most promising trends in AI today? Conversely, what do you see as the biggest challenges for AI startups in gaining traction or achieving product-market fit?
AI is going to reshape every aspect of the economy. I am particularly excited to invest in startups helping to usher in the era of AI co-workers: intelligent agents working alongside humans in all aspects of work, from functional roles including marketing (B Capital is an investor in Writer), engineering (Poolside), and legal (EvenUp) to verticals across robotics (Apptronik), climate (Overstory), and healthcare (Atomwise).
To achieve this, we will also see more advances at the foundation model layer, including in advanced reasoning, personalisation, context, memory, and the ability to take and act on feedback. We will also see new infrastructure solutions, new security models, and ways to “onboard” agents into your organisation and have them collaborate with humans. Each of these allows for one or more very interesting companies.
The challenge that is top-of-mind right now is how to bridge the gap between the high-quality AI demo and the AI application or agent the organisation feels safe to deploy to production. I am confident this will be solved, but it will not be a silver bullet. It will be achieved through a combination of model advancements, developer tooling, continuous evaluations, guardrails and other safety mechanisms, and novel tech and UX, including better feedback mechanisms, at the application layer.
Are there specific industries or verticals where you see the most transformative potential for AI technologies, and how does B Capital aim to support innovation in these areas?
I will use the opportunity to reinforce that I’m grateful to be part of a team that has both a global purview and where I get to work alongside climate and healthcare investment experts. Our combined and global subject-matter expertise feels uniquely competitive.
—
Image Credit: B Capital
The post B Capital General Partner Yanda Erlich on the red flags he notices when investing in AI space appeared first on e27.