What's AI Podcast by Louis-François Bouchard

AI Startups: Decoding Market Signals, Pivoting & Assessing Risks with Greg Coquillo (What's AI #24)

Dec 11, 2023

Guest Greg Coquillo, senior product manager and AI startup investor, shares insights on identifying crucial market signals for startups. They discuss common pitfalls AI startups face and the current startup investment landscape. Greg also shares his journey debuting on LinkedIn and gives insights for building your own audience. A must-listen for entrepreneurs, investors, and those interested in the startup and AI innovation world.

01:11:40

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Episode guests

Greg Coquillo

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Understanding the problem space, target customer, market opportunity, competitive landscape, and founding team helps minimize risk and determine if a startup is viable.

Timing and risk-reward tolerance are crucial when investing in AI startups; evaluate the team, problem space, and market opportunity before making investment decisions.

Common pitfalls in startup investing include trying to solve everything at once, mislabeling as an AI startup, and lack of alignment within the founding team.

Deep dives

Key Points on Evaluating Startups

When evaluating startups, it is important to consider several factors: understanding the problem space, knowing the target customer, gauging the market opportunity, assessing the competitive landscape, and evaluating the founding team. These factors help to minimize risk and determine if the team is working on a viable problem at the right time.

Introduction

5min

Investing in Startups: Journey and Challenges

22min

Pivoting in Startups: Finding the Right Time

10min

Common pitfalls and market conditions in the AI startup world

6min

Starting a Journey of Sharing AI Experiences on LinkedIn

4min

Joining a Fan Company and Building Confidence in the Community

11min

The Impact of AI on Information Curation

10min

Challenges and Uncertainties of Content Creation and Encouragement to Stay Curious

3min

In this episode, I received Greg Coquillo, 2-times LinkedIn top voice, senior product manager and AI startup investor. I took this opportunity to into the lifecycle of startups, discussing the critical phases from prototyping to achieving market dominance. Greg shares his expertise on identifying crucial market signals that guide startups on whether to pivot or persevere. We also explore common pitfalls that AI startups face, such as scaling too rapidly and misalignment within teams. Particularly compelling is Greg's perspective on the current startup investment landscape and the exciting potential in AI-enabled solutions. He also shares his story and debuts on LinkedIn, giving great insights to build your own audience. This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone interested in the dynamic world of startups and AI innovation.

►Greg's linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-coquillo/

►Twitter: https://twitter.com/Whats_AI

►My Newsletter (My AI updates and news clearly explained): https://louisbouchard.substack.com/

►Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/whatsai

►Join Our AI Discord: https://discord.gg/learnaitogether Chapters:

0:00 Hey! Tap the Thumbs Up button and Subscribe. You'll learn a lot of cool stuff, I promise.

01:19 Greg Coquillo’s Introduction

05:26 Why Start Investing in Start-Ups?

10:20 Why Choose Start-Ups Over Public Companies for Investments?

13:48 Assessing Risk in Start-Up Investments

21:41 Considering Your Expertise on Subject Matter in Start-Up Investments?

27:12 Invest in someone even if they pivot their problems and solutions.

31:07 Decoding Market Signals for a Pivot

37:39 Key Pitfalls for Advisors, Investors, and Entrepreneurs to Navigate.

39:36 Exploring Potential in Start-Ups and Investing And Current Market Conditions.

43:41 Story behind 190k+ followers on LinkedIn page

50:15 Greg shares why he didn't start on multiple platforms even after a large audience on LinkedIn

54:00 Sharing knowledge was more beneficial for Greg than building a brand, but why?

58:12 Discussion about content creators

01:00:28 Some type of content is hurting actual content

01:09:40 Greg's message to viewers

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