Over the past few months in our monthly meetings with startups, we've noticed something interesting: demos are getting faster. A feature that used to take a quarter now shows up finished by the next monthly meeting — AI has made "building things" easier than ever. But another number hasn't kept up: orders aren't closing any faster. More things get built. Not more things get sold. That gap is worth every founder's pause.

In VENTURE+’s monthly meetings with startups and in our business visits with corporates and partners, we have been watching two sides of the same change. On the startup side, pitch decks have become visibly more polished, demos smoother, and pitches more complete: AI has upgraded every team’s storefront. On the enterprise side, however, the room has not warmed up accordingly: decisions are no faster, the door is no easier to open, and some founders feel it has become harder t