Greymatter

Greylock general partner Jacob Andreou reads his essay on how to build valuable products during moments of technology transitions. Having previously led product and growth for one of the iconic native apps of the mobile era (Snap), Andreou developed a perspective on some of the best (and worst) strategic and tactical decisions companies can make during tech shifts. It starts by asking an important question: Are you building a novel solution to an enduring need, enabled by new technology?

Using lessons learned from his hands-on experience at Snap and observations across other companies, Andreou provides a framework for evaluating your product and company to ensure you are building a transformative product and not a toy.

You can read the full essay, "From Ports to Transformations: Strategies for Building Enduring Consumer Products During Tech Shifts here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/building-enduring-consumer-products-during-tech-shifts/

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Building a defensible system of intelligence at a time when LLMs are becoming commoditized (and when all the classic moats like economies of scale are more important than ever) isn’t easy. But Instabase, which provides an applied AI platform for enterprise organizations to run various operational processes, has managed to accrue a large customer base and recently hit $2 billion valuation. The company has gained traction largely because they've taken cues directly from customers since day one while incorporating the latest technology advances to continually expand their product, making it useful across hundreds of different use cases for a range of industries.

Greylock general partner and Instabase board member Jerry Chen spoke with Instabase CEO and founder Anant Bhardwaj about the company’s journey amid the fast-changing AI landscape.

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Greylock general partner Jerry Chen discusses key takeaways from his essay "The New New Moats: Why Systems of Intelligence are Still the Next Defensible Business Model." The essay is a fresh take on his "New Moats" blog from 2017, in which he postulated that startups would be able to build defensible moats using AI. With the explosion of AI activity in recent times, Chen revisited this analysis to see what holds true, what he got wrong, and what is still too early to tell.

You can read the 2023 essay here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/the-new-new-moats/

You can read the original 2017 essay here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/the-new-moats/

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As anyone who has experimented with the latest artificial intelligence tools that generate human-like responses to text, every interaction with technology is increasingly becoming a conversation. Beyond pre-programmed responses based on specific key words, interacting with AI trained on large language models is beginning to feel like a natural back and forth dialogue.

"In the future, I think there will be an ever-present relationship that you have with an AI that helps you to make sense of the world around you," says Inflection AI CEO and co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, whose company recently released Pi, or "personal AI", designed to listen, talk, and provide support like a companion.

Listen to Suleyman and his Inflection co-founder Reid Hoffman on the Greymatter podcast discuss how they approached building the "AI sidekick" that is Pi, and share their vision for the future of the technology.

You can read the transcript of this conversation here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/inflectionai-the-ai-friend-zone/

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Greylock general partner Jerry Chen analyzes top trends impacting funding, company creation, product launches, and partnerships throughout the cloud ecosystem for 2022 and the first part of 2023. This analysis is based on data compiled for Greylock's Castles in the Cloud project, which maps the activity of VC-backed startups as well as that of the Big 3 cloud providers AWS, Google, and Microsoft Azure. AI, an increased focus on vertical specialization, and the expansion of security needs are all fueling activity in the cloud ecosystem. 

The trends in this discussion are also examined in Greylock investor Jason Risch's recent essay, which you can read here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/three-trends-in-vc-backed-cloud/

You can find the entire Castles in the Cloud project here: greylock.com/castles.

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Audio version of Greylock investor Jason Risch's essay "Three Trends in VC-Backed Cloud." As part of our Castles in the Cloud project, which maps the activity in the venture capital-funding startup ecosystem with that of the Big 3 Cloud providers, we compile a database of fundraising at the end of each calendar year and identify trends. Although 2022 and the first part of 2023 has been marked by notable advancements in cloud technology – mostly via AI integrations – there is still considerable restraint in today’s venture capital-backed ecosystem. That figure doesn’t translate to lower activity, however. Many venture capital firms report they are just as busy as prior to the market correction, albeit with a focus on smaller checks for early-stage companies. Technological advancements, partnerships between major powerbrokers, and vertical specialization are all components of the current wave. The top three trends for this period are the rise of AI/ML in cloud, Vertical specialization (or, industry clouds), and security.

You can read this essay here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/three-trends-in-vc-backed-cloud/

You can view the entire Castles in the Cloud project here: https://greylock.com/castles/

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Re-broadcast of Greylock marketing partner Elisa Schreiber's interview with CNBC Senior Media & Tech reporter Julia Boorstin. While there may be plenty of discussion about the disparity between funding for women-led startups and those led by men, women still receive just 2% of all venture capital funding. And yet, many women are still finding success as entrepreneurs. How? Boorstin dug into the stories of women entrepreneurs founding, funding, and running companies, and uncovered a variety of smart tactics and approaches. Those stories and the data are shared in her book, "When Women Lead." Boorstin and Schreiber spoke in front of a live, female-majority audience in late 2022 as part of Greylock's Iconversations speaker series. You can watch a video from the interview here: youtu.be/7moBNBLIVMA

You can read a transcript here: greylock.com/greymatter/julia-b…n-when-women-lead/

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Fintech has perhaps the most to gain from artificial intelligence technology. Even slight improvements in forecasting default rates on a loan or cash flows of a business can have a dramatic economic impact. But for the most part, fintech has been left out of the conversation – partly because there is low margin for error in a regulated space. Encouragingly, this is starting to change. Ramp, a fintech startup that is noted for being one of the fastest-growing companies ever to hit $100M in ARR, is among the fintech frontrunners using automation and machine learning to help customers with expense management, payments, reporting, and more. Greylock investor Seth Rosenberg spoke with Ramp CEO Eric Glyman and Greylock's Reid Hoffman for a wide-ranging discussion on how AI is impacting every profession today – and how there is considerable room for it to impact financial services in the future. 

You can watch the video of this interview here: https://youtu.be/q5Rhetnw_64

You can read a transcript of the interview here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/intelligent-money/ 

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Greylock general partner Mike Duboe talks with Treat CEO Matt Osman, Fermat CEO Rishabh Jain, and independent analyst, consultant and investor Eric Seufert about the changing world of commerce performance marketing following the passage of ATT. For years, targeted ads meant the mechanisms to grow an ecommerce brand were relatively simple, accessible, and fast-acting. But the passage of Apple's App Tracking Transparency policy in 2021 turned that world on its head. Now, companies have gotten creative about the ways they reach their audience, which has given rise to a class of startups like Treat and Fermat that provide the tooling and platform to develop, test, and iterate marketing campaigns.

You can read a transcript of this conversation here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/the-post-att-world/

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Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman talks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about their mutual learnings from the AI tools released to date, primarily GPT-4 4, OpenAI's language model that co-wrote Hoffman's recent book “Impromptu." Keeping up with all the AI advancements – and questioning both the pros and cons of their immediate impact – is why Hoffman wrote Impromptu. As he describes, the book is intended to act as a travelog of his experience with GPT-4. Above all, he sees AI as a human amplifier, but urges it must be developed safely. Safety is exactly what OpenAI is striving for, Altman says, and Hoffman’s detailed chronicle of his experience with GPT-4 is exactly the kind of data the organization needs to continue developing the technology with safety in mind.

You can read a transcript of this conversation here:

https://greylock.com/greymatter/ai-field-notes/

You can access Impromptu for free here:

 https://www.impromptubook.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/impromptu-rh.pdf

And on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BYG9V1RN/

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