Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy explains what AI startups founders must do differently

Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy says AI startups must focus on building platforms, not just models, citing Anthropic's leap to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May from $9 billion in 2025 as unprecedented growth in his 25-year investing career. Murphy, who led Menlo's $500 million Series D in Anthropic, argues the model was never the real moat and points to Claude Code, MCP, and Claude Skills as turning Anthropic into a full platform. He also notes that startups like Lovable and Legora are growing faster than any he has seen in 25 years, signaling a new speed imperative for founders.

Anthropic leaped to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/08/these-ai-startups-are-growing-revenue-at-faster-and-faster-rates/ compared to $9 billion in 2025. It’s the kind of growth that Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy https://menlovc.com/team/matt-murphy/ says he’s never seen in 25 years of investing, not in the internet wave, not in mobile, not in the first cloud boom. Menlo led Anthropic’s $500M Series D, and Murphy has had a front-row seat as the company went from a pre-revenue, pre-launch bet to one of the most valuable startups out there. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity/ podcast, Julie Bort talks with Murphy about backing Anthropic before anyone else would, why a great model was never the point, and what’s driving the fastest-growing startups he’s ever seen. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: - Why Menlo bet on Anthropic at a $4 billion pre-revenue valuation when the deal didn’t fit cleanly into any of the firm’s funds, and why Google and Amazon signing on as investors was an early “green shoot.” - Why Murphy says the model was never the real moat, and how Claude Code, MCP, and Claude Skills turned Anthropic from a strong model into a full platform. - Murphy’s take on the backlash to Anthropic’s Mythos rollout, and why he pushes back on the idea that it was more marketing than safety. - Why companies like Lovable https://lovable.dev/ and Legora https://legora.com/ are growing faster than any startups Murphy has seen in 25 years, and what that speed means for founders trying to compete. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TechCrunch , Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780 , Overcast https://overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity , Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?si=rZDFHv2sQUul g94iCRgpQ and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X https://twitter.com/EquityPod and Threads https://www.threads.net/@equitypod , at @EquityPod.