#286 | Rebuilding Stacks for AI, A New Era for SMB Tech, & more
May 31st | The latest from Cowboy, Euclid, A16Z, BTV, QED, , 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
Where we’re looking to invest: Rebuilding the Dev Stack for the AI Era (Kathy Huang & Rohan Puranik, Cowboy)
A New Era for SMB Tech (David Talpalar, GP @ Shirlawn Capital)
Avoiding Death on the Yellow Brick Road (Joe Schmidt, GP @ A16Z)
Industry Developments & Analyses
The Retreat From Software And Why It’s the Wrong Call (Morgan Livermore, GP @ Supercruise)
SaaSpocalypse Now (Euclid Team)
Making What’s Old New Again (Annelies Gamble, Partner @ Zetta)
EV Charging Infrastructure: Capital Deployment in the Next Phase of Electrification (Marisa Sweeney, Principal @ S2G)
Everything, Everywhere is Compliance (James da Costa & Angela Strange, A16Z)
My Compliance Conundrums (JC Bahr-de Stefano, Principal @ BTV)
The world’s largest fintechs are taking the fight to America (Nigel Morris, MD @ QED)
Autonomy in Regulated Markets (Amir Kabir, MP @ Overlook Ventures)
In B2B customer support, AI is a Copilot, Not a Replacement (A16Z Team)
File systems for agents (Sarah Catanzaro, GP @ Amplify)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
Startup Defensibility Report Card in the Age of Anthropic & OpenAI (Patrick Salyer, Partner @ Mayfield)
What top-performing CMOs say about success in 2026 (Insight Team)
The Verification Tax (Melody Koh, Partner @ NextView)
Defensive Fundraising Is Anxiety Dressed as Strategy (Micah Rosenbloom, GP @ Founder Collective)
I’m a Sales Manager - How Should I Start Using AI Today? (Liz Christo, Partner @ Stage 2)
The Three Reasons to Raise Venture Capital (Abhishek Singh, VC @ Riverwalk)
Share your obsession (Nikunj Kothari, Partner @ FPV)
Additional Reads
Relationships Over Research (Rick Zullo, GP @ Equal Ventures)
Tokenmaxxing and the Art of Expensive Enthusiasm (Saanya Ojha, Partner @ BCV)
The Premise: The Lead User and the Machines That Build Machines (Brad Felt, GP @ Foundry Group)
Reverse Boomerang Theory (Peter G Schmidt, Principal @ Refinery)
Agent Gravity: Who’s Running Your Agents (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Theory)
Consumer Founders: Building the Impossible (Jean de La Rochebrochard, MP @ Kima Ventures)
Thank God For Data Centers (Packy McCormick, GP @ Not Boring)
The SpaceX S-1: Building the Infrastructure Layer for Space and AI (Tanay Jaipuria, Partner @ Wing VC)
SpaceX IPO | S-1 Breakdown (Alex Clayton & Austin Wang, Meritech)
The SpaceX IPO and Data Centers in Space (Stratechery)
Notes:
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