#237 | AI x Physical World, East Meets West, State of SaaS, & more
June 22nd | The latest from Chemistry, Daybreak, Felicis, Madrona, Sequoia, Emergence, 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 Next $10 Trillion Opportunity: Why ‘AI x Physical World’ Is Where It’s All Headed (Bilal Zuberi, MP @ Red Glass)
The Opportunities in Consumer AI (Rex Woodbury, MP @ Daybreak)
The 4 Waves of Voice AI (Kristina Shen & Ivory Tang, Chemistry)
Voice Is Going Vertical: How verticalized voice AI is becoming the next killer app (Anna Chen & Vivek Ramaswami, Madrona)
Industry Developments & Analyses
2025 East Meets West Report (Coatue)
The State of SaaS: Revenue, Growth, and Efficiency in Q1 2025 (Sammy Abdullah, GP @ Blossom Street VC)
How is GenAI Reshaping Software Engineering? (Ted Kummert & Mark Nelson, Madrona)
The Nuclear Waste Problem No One Is Fixing – And How to Fix It (Angèle Sahraoui, VC @ Slow)
The next interface is a face (James Detweiler & Mischa Vaughn, Felicis)
A Look Back at Q1 '25 Public Cloud Software Earnings (Jamin Ball, Partner @ Altimeter Capital)
Distribution and data flywheels in AI (Akash Bajwa, Principal @ Earlybird)
LLMs, Mainframes, and the Iron Man Suit: The Decade of Augmented AI (Saanya Ojha, Partner @ BCV)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
Enterprise buyers want results — here’s how to sell them your AI solution (Rachel Weston Rowell & Ash Tutika, Insight Partners)
Designing an AI-Native Marketing Team: A Guide for Founders (Joe Chernov, EIR @ Battery)
Your VP Sales Can’t Save You: AI GTM in the Post-Playbook Era (Saanya Ojha, Partner @ Bain Capital Ventures)
The Playbook for Selling IP After a Startup Fails (Sammy Abdullah, GP @ Blossom Street VC)
The Four Chief of Staff Archetypes—and Which One Your Startup Actually Needs (Natalie Coletta, GTM @ BCV)
Operational Efficiency Isn't Enough: AI Products Should Help You Close Deals (BCV Team)
Why You Should Engage With Analysts—and How to Do It Right (Michael King & Stacy D'Amico, A16Z)
Additional Reads
Introducing Beyond Benchmarks (Emergence Team)
The Realities of AI Investing (Ishan Sachdev, GP @ Deciens)
How to fight back against AI tourists (Kyle Poyar, Partner @ Tremont)
What the top AI startups are doing differently (Parul Singh, Board Partner @ Initialized)
There are no new ideas (Gaby Lorenzi, VC @ Primary)
Why AI Labs Are Starting to Look Like Sports Teams (David Cahn, GP @ Sequoia)
Founders First: Our Playbook for Pre-Seed Trust (Massimo Sgrelli, GP @ Lombardstreet Ventures)
Toast: A Recipe for Building a System of Record (Eric Flaningam, VC @ Felicis)
The Data Decacorn Derby (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Theory)
Notes:
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