#278 | Request for Startups, Infra Roadmap, & more
April 5th | The latest from Primary, Bessemer, DCVC, Maveron, Cowboy, Foundation, 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
2026 Request for Startups (Emily Man, Partner @ Primary)
The Deployed Intelligence Company (TDIC): Request for Builders (Nihar Bobba, Partner @ BTV)
AI Infrastructure Roadmap: Five frontiers for 2026 (Bessemer Team)
Brick-and-Mortar Retail: The Next Bastion for Technology (David Talpalar, GP @ Shirlawn Capital)
It’s time to develop better drugs to treat anxiety (DCVC Team)
Industry Developments & Analyses
Every Building You’ve Ever Been In Was Designed By Software Built in 1997 (A16Z Team)
Longevity for the rest of us (Simran Suri, Principal @ Maveron)
AI and the Labor Shortage Economy (Caroline Duffy, Cowboy VC)
India’s Energy Leapfrog Moment (Picus Team)
How Agents Will Reshape Markets (Annelies Gamble, Partner @ Zetta)
The Industrial Resilience Stack (Honour Masters, Principal @ Crucible)
Capital Markets Maximalism (Meltem Demirrors, GP @ Crucible)
Skip the boat. Sell the catch. (Emergence Team)
The Economics of Generative AI: Two Years Later (Apoorv Agrawal, Partner @ Altimeter)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
Beware of Simple Narratives (Alfred Lin, GP @ Sequoia)
Billy Madison Approach to Fundraising (Scott Hartley, GP @ Everywhere)
The AI-Native Services Playbook (Emergence Team)
How to Build a Marketing Attribution Report with AI (Mandy Cole, Partner @ Stage 2)
The Team Is The Tell (Brian Sugar, GP @ Sugar Capital)
Additional Reads
The compounding asset enterprise software never had (Jaya Gupta & Ashu Garg, Foundation)
The Hidden Cost of Kingmaking (Jack Arenas, Principal @ Founder Collective)
From Hierarchy to Intelligence (Jack Dorsey & Roelof Botha, Sequoia)
SBC Dilution Benchmarks: What the Data Actually Shows (Thomas Reiner, Partner @ Altimeter)
AI Applications and Vertical Integration (Tanay Jaipuria, Partner @ Wing)
There will only be four jobs (Yoni Rechtman, Partner @ Slow)
The Ghost of the Unlived Portfolio (Abhishek Singh, VC @ Riverwalk)
One person’s treasure is another’s trash (Chris Gaertner, Principal @ Telescope)
Trader Mindset (Pratyush Buddiga, Partner @ Susa)
Notes:
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