Ep 150: How AI Is Transforming Diligence, Decision-Making & the Future of Investing with John Melas-Kyriazi

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Apr 17, 2026

John Melas-Kyriazi, co-founder and CEO of Standard Metrics and former researcher-turned-VC, explains how AI is reshaping investing workflows. He talks about AI copilots for technical diligence, agents parsing pitch decks and prepping board meetings, and new moats for SaaS built on data and network effects. Short, forward-looking takes on automating portfolio work and building AI-driven products.

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ANECDOTE

Automated LP Replies With Agent Orchestration

A Singapore customer built agent orchestration that answers LP questions by pulling data from Standard Metrics and drafting flagged emails for humans to send.
This automates internal reporting workflows end-to-end with human review at the finish.

INSIGHT

AI Analyst Excels With Structured Context

Structured, well-harnessed internal context makes AI analyst outputs highly accurate for portfolio-wide queries.
John notes AI analyst can compile top growth companies with ownership and revenue filters, but unknown documents still need human QA.

ADVICE

Automate Data Ops But Keep Humans For Edge Cases

Use AI to scale data operations but retain humans to QA novel or messy inputs like diverse board decks and unlabeled charts.
John describes launching AI agents for the data ops team that now handle most work while humans focus on edge cases.

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John Melas-Kyriazi is the co-founder and CEO of Standard Metrics, which powers portfolio management for more than 150 venture capital firms and 10,000 companies. He runs a high-growth SaaS company at the leading edge of the AI wave. How is AI transforming how investors source and diligence deals? How are agents parsing pitch decks, prepping board meetings, and building powerful new workflows? And as competitive advantages shift, what are the new moats for SaaS companies in the AI age?

We discuss these and other timely topics with John. At an early age, he fell in love with science fiction and built vacuum-tube amplifiers in his parents' basement, before studying physics and materials science at Stanford. There he became a research scientist until pivoting to investing, first at StartX and later Spark Capital. Born out of firsthand experience, he co-founded Standard Metrics alongside the 8VC Build team to create a better solution for portfolio management software.

We begin our conversation with John’s path from academia to investor and founder. Next, we explore how Standard Metrics centralizes data, improves portfolio intelligence, and powers smarter investment decisions. Then we dive into the new possibilities with AI, from technical diligence copilots and investment stress-testing to new workflows and internal AI analysts. In an era of new agentic tools and shifting competitive advantages, we discuss new moats for existing software companies built around network effects, data, and more. The world of finance is changing quickly; John offers a unique perspective on the AI wave and how top investors are leveraging new workflows to get ahead.

00:00 Episode intro

02:10 Academia to investor and founder

08:00 The pain point that led to building Standard Metrics

12:10 How AI is transforming venture capital

14:20 AI as a technical copilot

17:10 AI Analyst vs human in the loop

19:20 Parsing pitch decks and new AI tools

23:10 How AI search is changing marketing

28:30 New capabilities and workflows

33:47 How quickly is everything changing?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.joelonsdale.com