"What Makes You Love an Industry for 15 Years?" | A Conversation with Tianfan Wang: I Want to Invest in True Joy, the Purest Vision, and the Brilliance of Human Nature [Highway Podcast]

🚗 This is a "Road Trip Podcast" episode — we took the podcast on the road, recording while driving. The scenery and relaxed vibe along the way brought out conversations we normally wouldn't have.

🚥 What's the underlying motivation behind 15 years of investing and passion? Will 2026 still be a good year to invest in AI applications and AI hardware? When everyone knows there's a bubble right now, what should you chase and what should you let go?

This week on Crossing's Road Trip Podcast, I drove a Mazda MX-5 and talked through these questions with Will Wang Tianfan, Senior Partner at BAI Capital.

This episode has plenty of sharp takes: intelligence is inflating, but wisdom remains scarce; new opportunities in AI applications hide in context and interaction; faced with the "Huaqiangbei can clone it for 80 yuan" critique, what truly scarce in AI hardware is product definition and "infusing human brilliance"; and on the bubble of 2026, he offers an answer on a completely different scale: if 3,000 years of civilization is being compressed into 30, then everything is just beginning.

One thread runs through the entire conversation: when AI makes efficiency infinitely scalable, what's truly worth betting on are founders who've figured out why they started, and products infused with human brilliance that make people genuinely happier.

If you're wavering between AI's bubbles and opportunities, or simply want to know how a 15-year veteran stays passionate, this conversation about joy and vision might give you some long-missing strength — and a little courage to live in the present.

🎬 Our video podcast will simultaneously launch on Koji's WeChat Channels, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, YouTube, and other platforms.

📒 The transcript will be published on the Crossing WeChat official account.

00:21 Rapid-fire Q&A: Age, MBTI, zodiac sign, alma mater

04:01 As foundation models converge and AI intelligence starts inflating, what becomes truly scarce?

05:34 Huaqiangbei can clone it for 80 yuan — what makes AI hardware like Looki truly hard to copy?

07:47 How is AI reshaping VC research, due diligence, and post-investment support?

09:03 What does it take for AI companies to break into the top 5% of their industry?

10:40 After 15 years in VC, do you still love this industry?

15:49 What's the most important capability for an exceptional investor?

15:49 At the peak bubble of 2026, what should investors chase and what should they let go?

19:09 Why shouldn't AI only pursue efficiency — why should it activate human brilliance?

22:19 Opening your phone 97 times a day — that's not right.

26:28 Why does AI infra feel like the crypto infra bubble from three or four years ago?

29:58 Is AI a 30-year tech revolution, or a 3,000-year civilizational transformation?

31:09 Why might only 1% of people cross the threshold in the AI era?

34:21 Why should prompts get longer and longer?

37:49 Last year everyone was chasing AI glasses — why didn't Will invest?

42:31 Early-stage companies are still attacking — why is "moat" the wrong question?

44:08 Why should the perfect investment satisfy the "Three Uns" theory?

46:07 Will 2026 actually be a good year for AI investment?

48:34 Why shouldn't we only invest in AI products that improve efficiency, but rather in founders with ambition and vision?

50:08 If AI is only about efficiency, will people become happier?

Subscribe to Crossing: 🚦 We track the industry shifts and new entrepreneurial opportunities brought by the new wave of AI technology.

🚦 Crossing is Steve Jobs' metaphor for Apple — standing at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, where great products are born. AI is transforming every industry. We find, interview, and bring together a new generation of AI founders and active builders in the AI era, exploring and embracing new changes and new possibilities alongside them.

👦🏻 Host Koji: I founded Crossing, launched AI Hacker House — a community space for the new generation of AI founders — and serve as Venture Partner at ZhenFund. I believe technology, especially AI, represents the greatest value-creation opportunity of our generation. Koji on Jike, Koji's website

View episode transcript on Xiaoyuzhou