#263 | The End of Interchange, Verticals Ripe for AI Unicorns, & more
Dec 21st | The latest from USV, Scale, Insight, Sequoia, Compound, 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, & Predictions
The End Of Interchange (Fred Wilson, GP @ USV)
Which AI verticals will have the next unicorn? A framework for generative AI explosion in verticals (Alex Niehenke, Partner @ Scale)
Five major trends reshaping AI, software, and leadership (Insight Team)
2026 Predictions (7wire Ventures)
2026 Predictions from the M13 Constellation (M13 Team)
26 Predictions For 2026 (Equal Team)
Industry Developments & Analyses
State of Consumer AI 2025: Product Hits, Misses, and What’s Next (Olivia Moore & Justine Moore, a16z)
The Retrieval Backbone of Modern AI (Annelies Gamble, Partner @ Zetta)
The Societal Shifts Driving Increased Investment into Longevity (David Talpalar, ex-VC @ Conversion)
NeurIPS 2025: What Actually Matters (Euclid)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
Don’t Confuse Market Share with Winning (Alfred Lin, GP @ Sequoia)
Distribution Is Oxygen. Endurance Is the Moat. (Simon Wu, Partner @ Cathay)
Post-Sales GTM: Following Customers Without Following Them Everywhere (Medha Agarwal, GP @ Defy)
Annual Planning Playbook for Startup CEOs (Patrick Salyer, Partner @ Mayfield)
The best growth tactics of 2025 (Kyle Poyar, Growth Unhinged)
The Real Tasks of Series A/B SaaS CEO (Sammy Abdullah, GP @ Blossom Street)
5 GTM Shifts We Saw Founders Get Right in 2025 (Mandy Cole, Partner @ Stage 2)
Additional Reads
The Privilege of Belief (Michael Dempsey, GP @ Compound)
On People, Partnership, and Separating the Good from the Great (John Felix, GP @ Pattern Ventures)
Is Your AI Funded by Junk Bonds? (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Theory)
Liar’s Valuation (Nikunj Kothari, Partner @ FPV)
Why Nerds Are More Clippable (Alex Danco, A16Z)
Strike Zone Shifts (Morgan Livermore, GP @ Supercruise)
There Is No Such Thing as a Coastal Deal Anymore (Earnest Sweat, GP @ Stresswood)
Plugged into the Matrix (Nikunj Kothari, Partner @ FPV)
What We Can Learn from the Fiddle (Peter G Schmidt, VC @ Refinery)
When the U.S. Government Joins the Cap Table (Glenn Borok, VP @ Jump)
Notes:
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