Franz Faerber spent 26 years at SAP building Hana before doing something unusual - walking away to build a competitor. Four years in stealth gave Everest Systems the rare luxury of rethinking ERP from first principles, and what emerged is a philosophy that challenges the entire business software model. Faerber's core thesis: application features are no longer defensible because AI can replicate them too easily. It is deep domain knowledge embedded in platforms that enable radical personalization. His "live sandboxing" technology allows users to experiment with production data in isolated environments - something he was never able to do in 26 years at SAP - and represents a fundamental shift from selling configured software to enabling customers to generate their own. The vision is provocative: 80% of software becomes commoditised infrastructure, while 20% becomes bespoke customization, and markets grow as companies build differentiated software instead of accepting generic solutions.

The conversation reveals hard-won wisdom about fighting bureaucracy, the viscosity of enterprise software markets, and why Germany remains his deliberate choice despite Silicon Valley's pull. His analysis of why technology companies struggle to become business software providers offers a refreshing counter to theories around OpenAI or Microsoft absorbing vertical markets. Most personally, his career reflections capture the tension experienced leaders feel between corporate safety and the life-enriching risk of building something new. At an age when contemporaries were settling into senior roles, Faerber chose to start over, arguing AI makes this the first time in ERP history when newcomers can genuinely out-innovate giants in years, not decades.

Daniël Rood, director of AI go-to-market at Google Cloud, offers a masterclass in navigating transformation from inside a tech giant. Building Google's first European AI team when gen AI was still "a PhD science project," Rood reveals the hidden resistance mechanisms that plague even innovative organizations. His concept of the "corporate immune system"—the culture that protects success for all the right reasons but resists dramatic shifts—explains why customer success stories, not internal advocacy, are what actually move leadership. His hiring philosophy centered on "intellectual humility" and "teams of translators" who bridge technology and business offers a blueprint for staffing AI initiatives moving too fast for anyone to be an expert.

The conversation reveals Google's quiet dominance: AI Mode has already reached 1.5 billion monthly active users, nearly double OpenAI's reach. But Rood's most provocative insight addresses vertical SaaS: he predicts the shift to "expertise as a service," where repetitive professional work gets commoditized and deep human judgment becomes "an API on top of the platform." His framework for the new reality is stark—culture trumps strategy, three-year horizons are irrelevant, the world is "tokenizing," and sales cycles collapse through proof-based processes. By 2030, he argues, AI will have moved so deeply into the background that having a Chief AI Officer will seem as obsolete as having a Chief Mobile Officer today.

From oil rigs to Amazon's machine learning division and now Cambridge's DeepMind chair, Professor Neil Lawrence brings a refreshingly grounded perspective to AI. Lawrence introduces his "atomic human" concept; arguing it's not our capabilities but our vulnerabilities and limitations that make us irreplaceable. Drawing on experiences watching his coding assistant try to claim authorship and building systems at Amazon, he illuminates why accountability requires skin in the game and why machines can never truly stand behind decisions the way humans must. His mechanical engineering background shines through in vivid analogies that make complex ideas tangible and even delightful.

The conversation builds to a genuinely uplifting conclusion about the next generation. Lawrence dismisses the disempowering AGI narrative sold by tech incumbents protecting their turf, arguing instead that today's young people see the world as it is and are excited to shape it. His insistence that "people aren't stupid"—from public dialogues to business customers consistently asking for improvements in healthcare and education—makes the case for staying connected to customers and trusting the next generation to steer technology toward what we care about most. It's a perfect note to end the year on: pragmatic, human-centred, and genuinely hopeful.

In this illuminating conversation from the frontier of AI-native startups, William Fairbairn, founder of Zalos.ai and part of Y Combinator's class of 2025, reveals what it takes to build at Silicon Valley velocity. Just five weeks after launch, Zalos is already deployed with major enterprise customers, automating finance workflows through computer-use agents that execute tasks like humans—extracting contract terms, initiating billing, and reconciling cash.

Fairbairn's insights into Y Combinator's evolved wisdom for the AI era, particularly "forward-deployed engineering", demonstrate how the startup playbook has been fundamentally rewritten. With funding bars rising to $2 million ARR in 12 months just to reach Series A, and "supernovas" scaling from $1 million to $100 million in 18 months, this postcard from the edge of software leadership captures the intensity and opportunity of building in an era where the rules change weekly.

In this fascinating conversation, Perplexity's Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko reveals how a company barely three years old is mounting the first credible challenge to Google's search dominance in two decades. Shevelenko shares the counterintuitive distribution strategy that led Perplexity to partner with mobile carriers and device manufacturers rather than chasing browser deals, explaining how creating mutual value with partners became their path to 22 million monthly active users.

The discussion centres on execution velocity as Perplexity's primary competitive advantage, with Shevelenko openly admitting that six months from now he'll have a top priority he can't even imagine today. From eliminating internal presentations entirely to making hiring decisions "physically hurt," he paints a vivid picture of how Perplexity maintains startup intensity while competing against trillion-dollar tech giants, offering invaluable lessons for anyone navigating the AI transformation.

In this candid anniversary conversation, Hg's leadership team of Matthew Brockman and Nic Humphries reflects on 25 years of building one of Europe's most focused software investors. Humphries shares the challenge of convincing colleagues to abandon multiple sectors for pure software focus, while Brockman opens up about his leap of faith in 2010, leaving Apax Partners for an uncertain bet on Hg's vision and the turbulence of 2012 that eventually led to success.

The conversation hones in on AI as the next major platform shift and Brockman's concept of the "last mile"—the deep understanding of customer workflows required to transform AI capability into practical business solutions. Their discussion reveals a firm that has spent 25 years accumulating the pattern recognition, operational capabilities, and entrepreneurial culture perfectly suited for an era where success depends less on investment judgement and more on building products that solve real workflow problems—making this milestone feel less like a celebration of the past and more like preparation for the defining challenge ahead.

In this compelling conversation, Tidemark Capital founder Dave Yuan shares his journey from Bain consultant to building one of the most thoughtful voices in vertical SaaS investing. Yuan reveals his "control point" philosophy—identifying the mission-critical systems that small businesses would turn off last before going bankrupt—and explains how this approach has guided Tidemark's investments in category leaders like ServiceTitan, Toast, and OneStream. His insights into workflow gravity, data gravity, and account gravity provide a masterclass in understanding what creates defensible market positions in software.

The discussion takes a provocative turn as Yuan explores AI's dual nature as both opportunity and existential threat for established software companies. He introduces the concept of "integrate surround"—how AI point solutions can gradually subsume control points by becoming the system of action rather than just record—and shares his framework for "fast waters" versus "slow waters" in AI adoption. With characteristic humility and intellectual curiosity, Yuan offers practical advice for navigating today's volatile market while building the Vertical SaaS Knowledge Project community that has become an industry touchstone for founders and investors alike.

Orbit 48 sees Dr Amr Ellabban sit down with Des Traynor, co-founder and CSO of Intercom, to explore how AI requires revolutionary thinking from businesses. Des shares the pivotal moment when ChatGPT emerged in November 2022, spurring Intercom's bold 15-day pivot to develop Fin, their AI customer support agent. The conversation reveals how successful AI transformation demands complete organisational commitment—from reimagining pricing models to restructuring teams—rather than incremental changes: "It's not a cherry on top. It's the only game that matters."

Drawing from his experience at Intercom and as an angel investor, Des outlines the three-phase evolution of AI in business: from augmenting human work to handling portions of jobs to eventually performing entire roles. For leaders navigating similar transformations, he offers unflinching advice on the necessity of decisive action and clear communication, predicting that AI may soon handle 60-80% of support volume in what will be "the largest change in how labour is applied in most businesses." His insights on product boundaries and avoiding "MiniDisc" solutions in rapidly evolving technology landscapes provide a compelling roadmap for organisations embracing this inevitable shift.

What happens when AI can code? In this illuminating conversation with Cognition's Founding President Russell Kaplan, we explore how AI is fundamentally transforming the landscape of software development. Drawing from his journey through Tesla's Autopilot team and Scale AI, Kaplan shares profound insights on leadership in rapid technological change, emphasizing that "talent is everything" and that exceptional outcomes come from "small teams of highly technical people." His perspective challenges conventional thinking about software engineering's future, suggesting we're entering an era of "software abundance" where customer expectations will rise dramatically.

The discussion moves beyond theoretical AI potential to practical implementation, with Kaplan revealing how his philosophy of speed as strategy guides decision-making in a world where AI capabilities in software development are doubling every 70 days. Rather than fearing job displacement, Kaplan envisions a future where "way more people are shaping the creation of software" as the nature of engineering evolves. With refreshing optimism, he suggests we're approaching a time when "software is good by default" and shares his excitement for what may be "the most exciting time to be a software engineer" in history.