Hi Sarah! I think with respect to Vertical AI, this is where competitive strategy comes in. Companies that build on a foundational model must be multi-model, cost-efficient, develop deep domain expertise, and provide hyper-customization for a particular practice area or use case, such as early-stage founder advisory (Pre-seed to Series A). I also read a piece by Rob May that explains competitive strategy for startups directly competing with frontier labs and why it's difficult for Anthropic or OpenAI to win in every market. I thought that could be of interest to you.
That's a great read, Sarah! In fact, workflow as a moat is what defines as winning company. A strong workflow when encoded in agentic AI, actually compounds with increased usage - once proprietary signals are added by human experts (wrote a piece on Blackrock's moat multiplying with increased AI usage driven by human feedback)
And mid market is actually gold - from my experience as PM building AI flows for boutique and mid level IB/PE firms. The value prop they look for is a functional and cost effective AI - plus they want an end-to-end offerings (due to most of them lacking a full fledged tech team).
Hi Sarah! I think with respect to Vertical AI, this is where competitive strategy comes in. Companies that build on a foundational model must be multi-model, cost-efficient, develop deep domain expertise, and provide hyper-customization for a particular practice area or use case, such as early-stage founder advisory (Pre-seed to Series A). I also read a piece by Rob May that explains competitive strategy for startups directly competing with frontier labs and why it's difficult for Anthropic or OpenAI to win in every market. I thought that could be of interest to you.
https://investinginai.substack.com/p/has-ai-made-vcs-forget-basic-competitive
I write on LegalTech, analyzing startups, trends, and opportunities in the space. Would love to know your thoughts on my blog!
https://harshithviswanath.substack.com/
That's a great read, Sarah! In fact, workflow as a moat is what defines as winning company. A strong workflow when encoded in agentic AI, actually compounds with increased usage - once proprietary signals are added by human experts (wrote a piece on Blackrock's moat multiplying with increased AI usage driven by human feedback)
And mid market is actually gold - from my experience as PM building AI flows for boutique and mid level IB/PE firms. The value prop they look for is a functional and cost effective AI - plus they want an end-to-end offerings (due to most of them lacking a full fledged tech team).
Hey Sarah, I honestly love the take here especially this point.
The best opportunities are the ones the frontier labs won’t prioritize.
Thanks a ton!