Inside tech, AI feels hopeful. Outside, it feels scary.
Investor and creator Claire, known as Zoey, says outsiders mostly see doom headlines while insiders take the hopeful version for granted.
Claire, a venture investor who posts as Zoey Talks to more than 350,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram, found the gap humbling. She had spent six years in venture, starting at a firm called GSV, and had built a newsletter to about 15,000 readers. When she started posting short videos about startups once a day about a year ago, the comments surprised her.
"It just felt like I was navigating two different universes," she said.
On tech Twitter, as she described it, AI conversation is techno-optimist and excited. In her mainstream comments, she argues, the mood was skeptical and angry, with people worried that big tech was coming to take their jobs. She said the split was humbling because, working in venture, she had been insulated in a world that has to believe new technology leads to a net benefit for humanity.
What taught her the divide, she said, were conversations with friends, family, and her younger brother in college. She felt she had a privileged window into the future through her day job, watching high-quality venture analysis, while her friends, family, and brother mostly saw headlines, funding announcements, and fear. She quoted the typical headline as "AI is going to take your job." She said the alternative was get-rich-style posts promising fast money from AI prompts.
She believes people are genuinely curious about innovation and startups but lack an easy entry point. What she wants to bring back, she said, is nuance and excitement, and an older idea of tech as a chance to tinker in your garage and improve society.
She does not ignore the darker headlines, which she said she covers often. But she argues the most exciting story is what AI unlocks in health care, medicine, and climate, told in a way that lets curious people feel included rather than shut out.
Questions people ask
How big is her audience and what does she post?
Posting once a day for about a year built her to more than 350,000 followers across platforms and about 10 million monthly impressions. Her best-known series flags two or three notable early-stage fundings each week, often drawn from public sources like TechCrunch and Crunchbase.
What is her job now?
She recently joined Lightspeed, a large venture capital firm, to help build a new media operation called Light Work. She says she kept editorial control of her own account and continues to invest in very young startups while making videos.
What does a venture investor actually do?
Venture investors give money and advice to very young companies, usually in exchange for part ownership. They see hundreds of startup pitches, so they often hear about new technology before the public does.