Date: 2026-09-03 Attendees: Michael Houck, Jeffrey Evans (Mantis VC, jeffrey@mantisvc.com), Blake Stewart, Blake Emal
Summary
Content interview for Jeffrey Evans / Mantis. Two posts were under review: a Wile E. Coyote analogy post needing a framing correction (entrepreneur = roadrunner, not coyote) and a second post with minor edits. Jeffrey shared intelligence on Instinct, an AI-native product with no interface, whose valuation jumped from $50M (April) to $2.5B (late August) with a rumored $12B round forming but unconfirmed. Discussion also covered AI-native team dynamics, Tesla Cybercab vs. Waymo on robotaxi, Mantis investment philosophy, the Q2 quarterly letter (sent during call), and cyber as the most-shifted sector in Q2. Jeffrey has no X account and is undecided on starting one.
Decisions
- Wile E. Coyote post: entrepreneur = roadrunner (not coyote). Blake to fix framing before scheduling.
- Competitive deal access angle (Instinct round) flagged OFF-LIMITS during active Mantis Fund IV fundraise.
- X account for Jeffrey: no decision yet; team happy to support if Jeffrey chooses to pursue.
Action items
- Blake Stewart: edit Wile E. Coyote post (roadrunner-as-entrepreneur framing) and schedule both posts.
- Jeffrey Evans: send 2-3 new content topic ideas (cyber, AI-native teams, robotaxi) within the hour.
- Jeffrey Evans: Q2 Mantis quarterly letter shared during call; team to use as source material.
Notable transcript excerpts
On Instinct valuation trajectory:
“50,000,000 valuation in April. Then 500,000,000 the first week of August, then 2,500,000,000 the third week of August. And the rumor right now — not yet confirmed — is that they’re taking additional money at 12,000,000,000.”
On AI-native team thesis:
“The impediment to growth is less about headcount. It’s about finding the right few people, not necessarily building a big team.”
On how Mantis evaluates founders:
“It’s all about the network they can build, their ability to tell a story, ability to create a cult.”
On robotaxi cost differential:
“Waymo vehicle cost around 125k (LiDAR-heavy). Tesla Cybercab cost around 30k. Tesla doesn’t have any LiDAR, it’s only got cameras.”
On cyber shifting most in Q2:
“Cyber keeps changing because of the ability to attack. We wrote about negative response time in Chainguard — need to think of something new on that front.”