#240 | Next Shift in Search, Compliance Opportunities & more
July 13th | The latest from Felicis, Work-Bench, First Round, Madrona, NextView, 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
Next Big Shift in Search: From Product to Infrastructure (Guru Chahal & Nnamdi Iregbulem, Lightspeed)
The $250B Product Certification & Compliance Market (Annelies Gamble, Partner @ Zetta)
The next interface is a face (James Detweiler & Mischa Vaughn, Felicis)
Industry Developments & Analyses
The State of Agentic Systems – June 2025 (Priyanka Somrah, VC @ Work-Bench)
Market Musings (Jamin Ball, Partner @ Altimeter Capital)
Why Insurance AI Must Move Beyond Workflows: The Case for Revenue-Centric Wholistic Platforms (TX Zhuo, GP @ Fika Ventures)
Model Routing Will Decide Who Wins in AI Infrastructure (Astasia Myers & Dan Bartus, Felicis)
Why 2025's AI Shopping Boom Still Can't Fix Broken Business Models (Brian Sugar, GP @ Sugar Capital)
Pins and Needles: Venture Capital Landscape… (Michael Greeley, GP @ Flare Capital)
From Credit Lines to Capital Markets (Robin Butler, Partner @ Sturgeon)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
Building a Scalable Sales Motion: How To Drive Growth with Intent (Anna Baird & Loren Alhadeff, Madrona Ventures)
The Founder’s Guide to Building a V1 of Customer Success (First Round)
Weird Stuff Wins: The New AI Strategy Playbook (Rob May, GP @ Half Court Ventures)
Magic Graph: How Much Seed Capital Should You Raise? (David BEisel, GP @ NextView)
How Much VC $$ to Raise (Geoff Donaker, GP @ Burst Capital)
Additional Reads
How AI Companies Will Build Real Defensibility (Pete Flint, GP @ NFX)
The Pendulum Keeps Swinging (Nikunj Kothari, Partner @ FPV)
Attention first, revenue when? (Abhishek Maran, VC @ Rampersand)
Persuasion Isn't Dead (Susannah Shipton, Partner @ AlleyCorp)
Rethinking VC Evaluation (Loren Straub, Partner @ Bowery)
Where do Tech Returns Come From? (Eric Flaningam, VC @ Felicis)
Did AI Kill the Lean Startup? (Ben Yoskovitz, Partner @ Highline Beta)
Voice Agents: Easy to Use, Hard to Build (Sophia Luo, Partner @ Greylock)
Tech Philosophy and AI Opportunity (Stratechery)
Falling in love with the problem (Parul Singh, Board Partner @ Initialized)
AI Ate Search. Now It Wants the Browser. (Saanya Ojha, Partner @ BCV)
Notes:
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