252 | Request for Startups, AI Spend Report & more
Oct 4th | The latest from Dynamo, Slow, Emergence, A16Z, Altimeter, First Round, 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
Request for Startups Q3 2025 (Dynamo VC Team)
My (WIP) buy box (Yoni Rechtman, Principal @ Slow)
Two Paths for Enterprise AI: Retrofit or Rebuild? (Gordon Ritter & David Dworsky, Emergence)
Industry Developments & Analyses
The AI Application Spending Report: Where Startup Dollars Go (A16Z Team)
The State of Wealth in 2025 (David Jegen & Sarah Lamont, F Prime)
Redefining Benefits: Innovation in Employer Healthcare (7wire Ventures)
Speculation Nation (Rex Woodbury, MP @ Daybreak)
The New RL Training Grounds (Jamin Ball, Partner @ Altimeter Capital)
Synthetic Social: The Next Chapter of the Internet (Saanya Ojha, Partner @ BCV)
The Public Procurement Paradox (Annelies Gamble, Partner @ Zetta)
The Future of AI Data Architecture (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Theory)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
Go Deep to Build Fast: A Research Thinking Toolkit to Speed Up the Discovery Phase (First Round)
Visibility Is the New Moat (Jamesin Seidel, VC @ Chapter One)
Founders on Hiring in the AI Era (Euclid Ventures)
Introducing the GTM benchmark tool (Mark Gustaferro & Craig Rosenberg, Scale)
Optimize first, automate second: Three AI flaws to avoid (Pablo Dominguez & Matthew May, Insight)
Pricing Your Early‑Stage B2B AI SaaS Product (Natalie Coletta, BCV)
You Gotta Invest in What You Know (Dez Fleming, VC @ FirstMark)
Storytelling in American Dynamism: Lessons from War Stories (Ryan McEntush, A16Z)
Additional Reads
The Barbell Venture Market (Parul Singh, Board Partner @ Initialized)
Anatomy of an enterprise platform company (Sarah Wang & Justin Kahl, A16Z Growth)
Start Your Own Firm Now (David Beisel, GP @ NextView)
Sequencing vs. Equal Odds (Michael Dempsey, GP @ Compound)
The Heresy of Breakthrough Startups (Mike Maples Jr., GP @ Floodgate)
Why Google Will Win The AI Race (Rob May, GP @ Half Court Ventures)
Notes:
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