I'm tired about hearing about AI startups

yes, look at real industry: a power plant, a nut farm, a mine, a non-SV OEM, etc.

pure-software plays tend to degenerate into the same SV hustle and no one wants just another SV hustle

I found ‘better’ away from SV in a real power plant. Decades of experience in many other things but I had never worked a power plant before. Been a great couple of years.

I wouldn’t go back to SV for anything.

Seems like it's just a beginning)

Yes, there are, but you're in the home of Silicon Valley investments, so I don't know what you expect to see here. "Look, we're optimizing turbines since the 90's, we need a tech lead for a replacement"?

Same lol