This episode is likely my favorite of the year. We've just updated our selections for the artificial intelligence startup fantasy draft, which means swapping out fading stars and adding new picks. Last year, Max Child, James Wilsterman, and I picked the most promising generative AI startups that had raised at least $100 million. This episode involves making tough decisions: letting go of startups that have fallen out of favor, capitalizing on early acquisitions, and selecting new ones. We also discuss some of the most talked-about AI startups. **Sponsored by Brex** Brex understands the importance of runway for venture-backed startups, so they've created a banking solution to help extend every dollar. Unlike conventional banking, Brex has no minimums and offers startups access to 20 times the standard FDIC protection through program banks. Additionally, startups can earn top industry yields from the first dollar and access their funds anytime.

If you want to ensure your portfolio companies have a secure place to save, spend, and grow their capital, explore Brex. **Explore Brex** **Recap of Last Year's Picks** To update you: last year's draft began with me taking a $75 billion handicap to pick first and choose OpenAI. Following a snake draft, Max picked second, and James picked third. Here are the five companies each of us selected last year: **Eric's Picks:** - OpenAI - Inflection - Character. AI - Glean - Mistral AI **Max's Picks:** - Databricks - Pinecone - Cohere - Modular - Imbue **James's Picks:** - Hugging Face - Anthropic - AI21 Labs - Replit - Adept In this week's episode, we collectively dropped three companies, exited three, and added twelve startups. I won't reveal our picks here—you'll need to listen to the episode to discover them. (Remember, the goal is to accumulate the most total value by November 1, 2028; we're not focused on ROI, just the final valuation. ) We welcome your thoughts in the comments, including your own seven startup picks, and feedback on our choices. **Listen now on Apple**