#247 | Future of Services, Software 3.0, Public Safety AI, & more
Aug 31st | The latest from General Catalyst, Bessemer, Altimeter, Gradient, SignalFire, 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
The Future of Services: Pioneering the AI‑Enabled Roll‑Up (Marc Bhargava & Kate Bender, General Catalyst)
Roadmap: Developer Tooling for Software 3.0 (Bessemer Team)
Roadmap: Public Safety AI (Caty Rea, VP @ Bessemer)
How Hotels Can Thrive in an Agentic AI World: From SEO to MCP (Thomas Reiner, Partner @ Altimeter)
The New Industrial Intelligence Stack (Annelies Gamble, Partner @ Zetta)
Beyond Words: Why Physical AI Is the Next Frontier (Kahini Shah, Partner @ Obvious)
Industry Developments & Analyses
The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps -- 5th Edition (Olivia Moore & Daisy Zhao, investing partners @ a16z)
Transforming Voice: Market Map of 150+ Voice AI Companies (Ashish Kakran & Daniel Paredes, Sierra Ventures)
Billions in Play: Healthcare AI's Race for Market Dominance (Parth Desai, VC @ Flare)
The fight to own web agent identity (Clayton Petty, Partner @ Gradient)
AI agents are rewriting biopharma's $140B playbook -- ending manual, outsourced drug development (Sahir Raoof & Sooah Cho, SignalFire)
Why Robotics' Breakthrough Moment Could Already Be Here (Radical VC Team)
The Rise of Computer Use and Agentic Coworkers (A16Z Team)
The AI Innovators Dilemma (Jamin Ball, Partner @ Altimeter Capital)
Startups see continued acceleration into Q2 (Dale Chang & Eduard Danalache, Scale)
Pricing Power in Agentic Software's Sophomoric Years (Olivia Pittard, VC @ Fika)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
Oil Wells vs. Pipelines: Two Strategies for Building AI Companies (Joe Schmidt & Angela Strange, A16Z)
How to Hire A Strong Founding Team (Zabie Elmgren, VC @ A16Z)
The Triple Dipper, a Green Owl, and the New Playbook for Brand Relevance (Saanya Ojha, Partner @ BCV)
The Distribution IS the Brand (Brian Sugar, GP @ Sugar Capital)
The DNA of AI‑Forward Organizations: How Leading Companies are Staying Ahead (Tiffany Chandra, VP @ Sapphire)
Additional Reads
Non-Consensus is Dead. Long Live Non-Consensus. (Jeff Morris Jr, GP @ Chapter One)
Everyone is wrong about being consensus (Yoni Rechtman, Principal @ Slow)
The AI research experimentation problem (Sarah Catanzaro, GP @ Amplify Partners)
How To Beat An AI System - Lessons From The Boston Celtics (Rob May, GP @ Half Court Ventures)
The Top Three AGI-Proof Careers and What They Reveal About Our Humanity and The Future (Matthew Mandel, VC @ USV)
Open Source Business Models: Notes on Profiting from Free Software (Eric Flaningam, VC @ Felicis)
The Stock-Based Compensation Sleight of Hand (Andrew Ziperski, VC @ Craft)
Disposable Software (Anish Acharya, General Partner @ a16z)
R[ai]dio on the Internet (Peter G Schmidt, Sr. Associate @ Refinery)
No One Can Afford a Rivalry in This Economy (Saanya Ojha, Partner @ BCV)
Notes:
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