#207 | Agentic Commerce, Energy Theses, State of Gen AI, & more
Nov 24th | The latest from Scale, USV, Madrona, Menlo Ventures, Redpoint, and others
SandHill.io aggregates and shares the latest investment themes, market insights, and best practices for operating and investing from 700+ VCs, analysts, and operators.
This newsletter curates a selection of posts featured on the website each week.
Investment Themes, Theses, & Outlooks
The Dawn of the Agentic Commerce Era – Putting Gen AI to Work for Shoppers (Scott Friend, Partner @ BCV)
2024 Energy Thesis (Silence VC Team)
Building the next generation of hardware: Why AI-powered engineering tools matter (Omar Fidawi & Juliette Chevallier, Scale)
AI Agents Are Stuck in First Gear, but 2025 Will Change That (Jon Turow, Partner @ Madrona)
From alert hell to AI autopilot (Tobi Coker & Astasia Myers, Felicis)
Industry Developments & Analyses
The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise (Menlo Venture Team)
State of Search & AI’s Prosumer Proliferation (Meera Clark, Principal @ Redpoint)
The Foundational Stage of the Energy Data Ecosystem (Grace Penders & Rick Zullo, Equal Ventures)
Redefining the Future of the Creator Economy (Jeff Morris Jr, GP @ Chapter One)
The Siren Song of Services (Euclid Ventures Team)
Opinionated AI Products (Akash Bajwa, Principal @ Earlybird)
Consumer and Enterprise in the AI era (Nikhil Basu Trivedi, GP @ Footwork)
Cross-border payments in ~1,000 words (Matt Brown, Partner @ Matrix)
Collaborative Intelligence (Matt Mandel, VC @ USV)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
Your guide to the 2024 SaaS benchmarks (Kyle Poyar, Partner @ Tremont)
Know Your (Operational) TAM (Tidemark Team)
Advice for the complex sales cycle (Sammy Abdullah, GP @ Blossom Street VC)
AI and The Role of The SDR (Ellen Terlizzi, Director @ Bowery Capital)
Additional Reads
The Emerging ‘AI Native’ Playbook (Jacob Shiff, Co-Founder @ Anomaly)
The New World for Entrepreneurs & Investors (Rick Zullo, MP @ Equal Ventures)
Our Scoring System at NextView (aka How We Evaluate Companies) (Rob Go, GP @ NextView)
The Levers of Innovation (Kyle Harrison, GP @ Contrary)
Heroic Assumptions vs. Heroic Outcomes (Dan Kimerling, MP @ Deciens)
Play It Cool: Chasing Heat vs. Being Contrarian in Venture Capital (Rex Woodbury, MP @ Daybreak)
ServiceTitan S-1 Breakdown (Meritech Team)
Resources & more
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