Q2 2026 Venture Trends

107 votes in. The picture is getting clearer and stranger.

When we launched this survey, we expected the usual AI consensus. What we got instead is a community holding two completely incompatible positions at once, with a result in the top three that nobody saw coming.

Voting is still live. The results update in real time. And everything gets revealed on March 12th.

Here's what we can tell you right now.

The #1 Bet and the #1 Fear

Autonomous Agents is dominating the positive side.

This isn't about AI tools or copilots. The community is betting on fully autonomous systems, agents that source, diligence, manage portfolios, and run LP communications without a human in the loop for every step. It's leading by a significant margin and it's not close.

Geopolitical Uncertainty is dominating the fear side.

Here's the part that's worth sitting with: every single vote cast on Geopolitical Uncertainty was negative. Not one person in 107 respondents sees a silver lining. That's not ambivalence. That's a consensus on the downside.

The same managers most excited about autonomous AI are also the most scared of what's happening globally. They're holding both positions. That psychological fingerprint is what we're unpacking on March 12th.

The Result Nobody Predicted

The #2 positive trend is not an AI trend.

It's not about exits. It's not about returns. It landed in the top three and when we saw it, it changed how we're thinking about where LP trust is actually moving heading into the second half of 2026.

We're not giving it away before Thursday. What we'll say is this: if you think you know what the venture community is excited about right now, this result will make you reconsider.

Vote to see where it lands. The full reveal is on March 12th.

The AI Bubble Debate

This one is genuinely strange.

Every person who voted on the AI Bubble flagged it as a risk. Not a single positive vote. But a large portion of the community didn't vote on it at all, which means they don't think it's a meaningful trend in either direction.

Two completely different readings of the same market. From people actively deploying capital right now.

We're bringing both sides into the room on March 12th. You'll want to be there for this one.