#255 | Transition to AGI, State of Crypto, & more
Oct 26th | The latest from Menlo Ventures, A16Z, First Round, Alpaca, 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
Our Transition to AGI + The Aquarius Economy (Aubrie Pagano, GP @ Alpaca)
Agentic Scaffolding, IDEs & Demand Gen (Pat McGovern, Principal @ Bowery)
It’s Still 1995 (Rex Woodbury, MP @ Daybreak)
The Next Cultural Powerhouse: Why Gen Alpha Can’t Be Ignored (Maveron)
Industry Developments & Analyses
State of Crypto 2025: The latest data, trends, and themes (A16Z Crypto)
2025: The State of AI in Healthcare (Menlo Team)
How America Got Caught in the Middle of the Value Chain (Nkechi Iregbulem, Principal @ MVP Ventures)
Stablecoins at Scale (David Talpalar, ex-VC @ Conversion)
There is no God Tier video model. But there is something better (Justine Moore, VC @ A16Z)
Hype Aside, How is AI Actually Impacting the Sports Industry? (Aaron Miller & Yash Gupta, Will Ventures)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
What Early Stage Founders Should Know About Comp (First Round Review)
Hidden AI – How to “eat” your AI to monopolize markets (Rick Zullo, MP @ Equal)
Product-Market Fit is No Longer Static (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Theory)
Momentum != Moat (Kyle Harrison, GP @ Contrary)
How to be Legitimate (Steven Sinofsky, Board Partner @ A16Z)
Your pricing is (probably) broken (Kyle Poyar, Growth Unhinged)
Additional Reads
Momentum is not speed (Yoni Rechtman, Principal @ Slow)
Alpha VC vs. Beta VC (Phin Barnes, Co-Founder @ The GP)
When Power Laws Collide, Incentives Do Too (Jackie DiMonte, GP @ Grid)
Dopamine Machine (Dez Fleming, VC @ FirstMark)
The AI Shift: From Experimentation to Execution (Ben Yoskovitz, Partner @ Highline Beta)
Building Avenue’s Machine — Lessons in Technology, Differentiation, and Alignment (Ryan Russell, GP @ Avenue Growth)
The Vibes Are Off (Saanya Ojha, Partner @ BCV)
The Luckiest Generation (Brian Sugar, GP @ Sugar Capital)
Where’s the creativity in creative AI tools? (Sarah Catanzaro, GP @ Amplify)
Notes:
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