#267 | Next Gen Ad Networks, Consumer Trends, & more
Jan 18th | The latest from Scale, Sequoia, Wing, Khosla, Mayfield, 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 AI Ad Network: What a next‑gen DSP looks like when the interface is a conversation (Siddharth Ramakrishnan & Max Abram, Scale)
The AI Personal Trainer Is Coming (Aaron Miller and Ben Gardner, Will Ventures)
What comes next after therapy culture? (David Cahn, GP @ Sequoia)
The Year of Invisible AI (Rex Woodbury, MP @ Daybreak)
Predictions for 2050 | Thinking in Decades, Not Cycles (Abhishek Singh, VC @ Riverwalk)
Industry Developments & Analyses
Consumer 2025 Trends (Adrian Radu, Partner @ Khosla)
The State of AI in the Enterprise (Peter Wagner, Partner @ Wing)
The forces shaping crypto this year (Arianna Simpson, GP @ A16Z Crypto)
Life Sciences AI: Drug Development with a Click (Elijah Yi, VC @ Cathay)
US’ climate retreat leaves a $10bn hole in carbon markets (Climate Tech VC)
The physical AI deployment gap (Oliver Hsu, Partner @ A16Z)
The Inference Land Grab Begins (Rob May, GP @ Half Court Ventures)
A Year of Global Trade in Review (David Talpalar, ex-VC @ Conversion)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
The CEO Job Changes After Product-Market Fit (Patrick Salyer, Partner @ Mayfield)
Founders - stop using AI to write your investor emails (Alex Schwarzkopf, VC @ 1517 Fund)
How to hire a chief of staff (A16Z Team)
Into the Void: How Operators Build Things (Kiera Klinsky, Angel)
Additional Reads
The Problem with Most Problems (Mike Maples Jr., GP @ Floodgate)
2026: This is AGI (Pat Grady & Sonya Huang, Sequoia)
Kingmaking and the limits of external conviction (Yoni Rechtman, Partner @ Slow)
In Defense of Buybacks (Andrew Ziperski, VC @ General Catalyst)
Team or TAM? Wrong question… (Nihar Bobba, Partner @ BTV)
Software’s YouTube Moment is Happening Now (Anish Acharya, GP @ A16Z)
SuperPAC Wars: A New Hope (Teddy Himler, GP @ Optimist)
The thermodynamics of risk (Matt Brown, Partner @ Matrix)
Firm > Fund (David Haber, GP @ A16Z)
Ruthless Capitalism and the Death of the Mercy Rule (Collin Wallace, GP @ Lobby)
Narrative power & narrative instability (Sam Lessin, GP @ Slow)
Notes:
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