Greymatter

Greylock partner Corinne Riley reads her essay "Code Smarter, Not Harder: Solving the Unknowns to Developing AI Engineers." Building AI tools for code generation and engineering workflows is one of the most exciting and worthy undertakings by startups today. But there are still many open questions about the technical unlocks that must be solved to make coding tools that work as well as (or better than) human engineers in a production setting. Riley explores these core questions alongside an analysis of the current ecosystem of startups developing AI coding tools. You can read the essay here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/code-smarter-not-harder/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

App-tracking rules closed the door on user-tracking and targeted ads, but AI opened up new channels of engagement and personalization that previously weren’t possible. Commerce infrastructure company Fermat ushers businesses into this new era of online retail. CEO and co-founder Rishabh Jain talks with Greylock partner Saam Motamedi about the double impact of ATT and AI on commerce, and how Fermat is helping to build the next generation of online businesses. You can read the transcript of this interview here on greylock.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Audio version of the essay "The Big 4 Era: Shifting Power Dynamics in the AI-Focused Cloud" written by Greylock partners Jason Risch and Jerry Chen (read by Greylock head of editorial Heather Mack). It’s never been harder to compete with the Big 3 cloud providers. As the AI revolution has shifted NVIDIA into the central power broker of the tech ecosystem, AWS, Azure, and GCP have rushed to build their AI edge. In this “Big 4” era, What’s left for startups? At Greylock, we see ample opportunities in developer tools, infrastructure, agents, apps, security, codegen, and robotics. These observations our based on our daily work, as well as our ongoing data collection and analysis for our Castles in the Cloud project. This essay outlines those areas of opportunity, as well as those that are better suited for incumbents. You can read the essay at greylock.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest episode of Product-Led AI, a new podcast series hosted by Greylock partner Seth Rosenberg featuring conversations with leading AI builders. Adept CEO and co-founder David Luan has been riding the LLM wave since the early days of the modern AI boom: an early OpenAI employee, he led the company’s engineering team before serving as the tech lead for Google Brain’s work on LLMs. He co-founded Adept in 2022 to develop multimodal agents built to work alongside humans in any profession. Believing computers should work more like humans and not the other way around, Adept has stood out for its human-centric approach to AGI.  In this episode, David talks about the moment he realized building a new product (and a startup) was a faster track to AGI; breaks down the frameworks for Adept; and shares his view of a future where AI functions almost invisibly below all software we use.  Check out the whole series at productledaipod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest episode of Product-Led AI, the new series hosted by Greylock partner Seth Rosenberg where he chats with builders who put the power of AI into products that people love. This week, AI visionary (and fellow Greylock partner) Reid Hoffman talks with Seth about the main opportunities in the application layer of AI, with an extra deep dive on AI-powered networks and marketplaces. Having been instrumental in building and scaling several iconic networks throughout his career, Hoffman has learned the core fundamentals of building these types of businesses don't change much - they just look different, depending on the latest tech platform shift. About the series: Investor and former product builder Seth Rosenberg talks with founders about their inspiration and process to build, test, and continually reimagine how AI and humans work together. You can find more about the series at productledaipod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special guest episode of Product-Led AI, a new podcast hosted by Greylock partner Seth Rosenberg. In this series, he focuses on the central question: How do you make AI useful? While plenty of money and attention goes to large language models and GPUs, it takes a different skill set to build AI products that change the way we work, learn, and live. We’re seeing this in AI co-pilots, AI-first networks and marketplaces, and entirely reimagined software categories where AI is solving long-standing challenges in new ways. But how do they actually do it? Investor and former product builder Seth Rosenberg talks with founders about their inspiration and process to build, test, and continually reimagine how AI and humans work together. You can find more about the series at productledaipod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greylock general partners Saam Motamedi and Reid Hoffman talk with Umi Mehta, who is the Global Head of tech Private Equity and Venture Capital Investing at Morgan Stanley. In this conversation, they discuss the current investing environment in the context of artificial intelligence technology – specifically, its impact on pretty much every industry across enterprise and consumer sectors. AI has evolved rapidly in recent years, and that pace of advancement is only getting faster. Saam and Reid explain how AI is becoming an enabling platform technology, much the same as previous waves of tech transitions like mobile and cloud did in earlier eras. This conversation was recorded at Morgan Stanley’s annual TMT Conference, which draws an audience of more than 3,000 investors and members of tech companies. On that note, the audio quality isn’t the highest, but each speaker is clear. And if you have any difficulty hearing some of the parts, rest assured that you can find all of the conversation in the transcript here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/ais-transformative-power/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greylock welcomes Jacob Andreou as the firm's newest investor. Andreou joins Greylock following 8 years at Snap, where he most recently served as SVP of Growth. There, he ran teams across growth, data science, analytics, and user research, and helped scale the company to more than 360 million daily active users and $4.5 billion in revenue. At Greylock. Andreou is eager to partner with founders building the next generation of consumer products. You can read Greylock's blog post and a transcript of this interview here: https://greylock.com/firm-news/welcome-jacob-andreou/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greylock general partner Asheem Chandna talks with Rubrik CEO and co-founder Bipul Sinha about a core leadership lesson he's learned: not losing sight of one's own intuition, especially during times of high growth. Today, the data security company works with more than 5,000 customers around the world and across nearly every industry. When Rubrik launched in 2014, its mission to secure the world's data resonated immediately with clients, and the company grew rapidly in the first few years. Then came a rough patch, as the company's relentless push for expansion – and the many more people involved in every decision, from hiring to product pipeline – impacted Sinha's ability to listen first to his own assessment and judgment. Recognizing this, Sinha recalibrated his approach, and Rubrik got back on track. In this discussion, he shares his strategy for collaborative decision-making without losing sight of one's own ideas. You can read a transcript of this interview here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/rubrik-scaling-with-intuition/  You can watch the video of this interview here: https://youtu.be/wIjkX2gfzmE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Audio version of the introduction to Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman’s latest book, entitled “Impromptu: Amplifying Humanity Through AI." Impromptu was co-written by Hoffman and ChatGPT-4, OpenAI’s latest and most powerful large language model. The book aims to serve as a sort of “travelog” of Hoffman’s experience with GPT-4, as he explores the tool’s strengths and limitations. Through hundreds of prompts, Hoffman and GPT-4 discuss the potential advantages and drawbacks of AI, argue about human nature, conceive original sci fi plots, and even try to make a few jokes. As AI is quickly advancing, Hoffman hopes his book can serve as a guide to encourage people to learn more about the technology, consider how we might use it, and ponder the complex questions about how our choices might play out in the future. You can read the text of this chapter here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/amplifying-humanity-through-ai/ ‎ Impromptu is now available: As a free PDF: https://lnkd.in/eZSsGYgB  On Kindle: https://lnkd.in/eUE2ukM3  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices