What Investors Actually Want in the AI Era

Maven Club shares insights for serious startup builders. We talk to founders and GTM/Product leaders and share their real playbooks and key learnings—stuff you won’t find on LinkedIn.

Today, we break down an insider conversation with Sanket Bhasin—Managing Partner at Spring Street Capital, serial founder with two exits, and former corporate builder at BCG Digital Ventures and Shell. He’s also a coach for entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago. Sanket brings a rare blend of operator insight and investor perspective—the kind of nuance most founders need but rarely hear.

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1. Build an enduring business

"The numbers might be great, but if the tech stack is outdated, we have to start from scratch—costing time and money."

Many founders fixate on hitting impressive ARR milestones, thinking that revenue alone will attract top-tier buyers. But Sanket makes it clear: metrics are only half the story. What matters more is the quality and durability of that growth.

Spring Street Capital looks for vertical SaaS companies in real estate, energy, and healthcare with $2M to $20M in ARR and 50%+ recurring revenue. Yet even among startups that hit those benchmarks, he often walks away from deals because of foundational problems:

• Recurring revenue that isn't truly sticky

• High churn masked by new growth

• Outdated codebases or fragile infrastructure

Founder Takeaways:

• Growth is meaningless if your backend can't scale.

• Revenue isn't equal; recurring revenue with high NRR is the goal.

• Start thinking about exit readiness as early as your first rebuild.

2. Your Tech Stack Is Part of Your Product

" I often see codebases that are completely unscalable—no frameworks, no architecture. We end up rebuilding from scratch."

In the race to ship MVPs, founders today move faster than ever thanks to tools like Cursor and LLMs. But this speed creates a trap: they mistake prototype code for production-grade infrastructure.

Sanket has seen this play out repeatedly—companies with real traction but no scalable architecture. On the surface, they look like acquisition-ready businesses. Underneath, they require years of rework.

He emphasizes that infrastructure is part of your user experience. If your product can't scale with customer usage, or can't integrate new features (like AI layers), you're capped.

Founder Takeaways:

• MVP is a starting point. Plan for one rebuild once you prove PMF.

• Infrastructure decisions affect everything: reliability, cost, security.

• Investors aren't just buying metrics. They're buying a scalable business that will endure.

3. AI Isn’t a Moat—User Obsession Is

"I’m a huge fan of user-centered building. I spoke to 2-3 customers a day when I was a founder. Most of them don’t care if it’s AI—they care if it saves them time."

The AI hype cycle has every founder racing to integrate "AI agents" into their product. But Sanket warns against chasing buzz over utility. Investors today are skeptical of shallow AI integrations that serve pitch decks more than users.

Instead, founders should build obsessively around user pain, and then explore whether AI is the best way to solve it. He points out that many customers don’t understand what AI can do—but they know their problems well. Your job is to map solutions, not force AI.

Founder Takeaways:

• AI  Is just a tool to solve a problem.

• If you can’t describe the problem you’re solving in non-technical terms, you’re not ready to apply AI

• Good investors will ask: who is your customer and why is your product the best and most cost-effective solution to their problem?

4. What Really Counts as a Moat in 2025

"The strongest moats now are proprietary data, deep workflow integration, and sticky UX. That’s why we invest in vertical SaaS."

In an era where building software is easier than ever, defensibility is harder than ever. Sanket outlines three real moats for modern software businesses:

1. Proprietary Data: If you have data no one else can access or replicate, you can build better models, features, and insights.

2. Workflow Integration: The more embedded your software is in day-to-day operations, the harder it is to replace.

3. Sticky UX: Great user experience isn’t just nice-to-have. It keeps entire teams loyal.

He shares that even industry giants struggle to replace well-designed vertical software once it’s deeply ingrained. Founders should think beyond features and focus on becoming mission-critical.

Founder Takeaways:

• Data is a moat only if it’s exclusive and useful.

• Embed your product into your customer’s workflow, not just their tool stack.

• Make switching away from you feel painful—not just inconvenient.

5. The Exit You Actually Want

"Our goal is to become the most founder-friendly exit in software. We structure deals around founder needs—tax, team, or whether they want to stay or go."

Sanket has built Spring Street to offer the exit he wished he had as a founder. That means no bloated IC meetings or cookie-cutter deal structures. Founders work directly with him. He shares that deals can move quickly, flexibly, and with empathy for what founders actually care about:

• Keeping their teams employed

• Protecting customer relationships

• Having the option to stay on (or not)

Founder Takeaways:

• Know what kind of exit you want—beyond price.

• Choose buyers who care about your people and product, not just your revenue.

• A good exit feels like a handover. A great one feels like a partnership.

6. Doing More With Less Is the New Advantage

"We’re in an era where founders can do a lot more with a lot less. The barrier to build has never been lower."

One of the biggest shifts Sanket sees is how AI tools are changing company formation. Research, coding, and even early product testing can now be done faster and with fewer resources. This leads to leaner teams, more solo founders, and faster iteration loops.

He predicts we’ll see unicorns emerge from teams of one or two—not ten—and encourages founders to embrace this efficiency rather than mimic larger teams.

Founder Takeaways:

• Embrace the new builder stack. Tools like AI and no-code platforms are levelers.

• Leverage small teams for speed and focus. Efficiency is a competitive edge.

• Don’t equate headcount with capability. Your leverage is in how smartly you build.

Final Thought: Don't Just Build Fast. Build to Endure.

The companies that get acquired aren't always the fastest-growing. They're the ones that can - grow consistently year over year  and are highly profitable and scalable.

Sanket's perspective is a reminder that founders should balance urgency with foresight. Build scrappy early, but invest in solid infrastructure once you've found signal. Don't just impress investors—make their job easy when they look under the hood.

If you're in this for the long run, optimize for more than your next round. Optimize for optionality, durability, and the kind of exit you'll actually be proud of.

Until next time,
Maven Club