This Week in Startups

Benchmark's Sarah Tavel on the state of VC, AI's impact on startups & more! | E1813

Sep 20, 2023

01:24:53

Snipd AI

Benchmark's Sarah Tavel joins Jason to discuss the state of VC, AI's impact on startups, the challenges faced by founders, the importance of co-located teams, multi-disciplinary investments, and mission-driven founders. They also touch on the importance of curiosity, competition, and drive for founders, the significance of competition and innovation, automating demand letters with Even Up, and staying competitive in a changing landscape.

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Quick takeaways

The emergence of large language models has transformed the startup landscape by automating work products and challenging incumbents.

Competition is crucial for the success of startups as it drives innovation and pushes founders to strive for excellence.

Artificial intelligence, particularly large language models, is reshaping existing mental models and offering new solutions to disrupt traditional incumbents.

Deep dives

The Paradigm Shift of Large Language Models

The emergence of large language models, such as GPT-3, has brought about a paradigm shift in the way companies leverage AI. Initially, the focus was on increasing productivity and collaboration within teams, with per-seat pricing models based on the cost of employees. However, this approach limits the verticals and applications that can be targeted. The first wave of companies leveraging large language models followed this mental model, but the opportunity lies in finding transactional and repeatable work products that can be automated with AI. By identifying these work products and translating them into sellable products, a new approach can be taken that challenges incumbents and delivers value in a transformative way.

The Challenges of Extending the Mental Model of Productivity in Startups

01:06

The Value of Selling Work Instead of Software

00:47

Advantage of Being Co-Located

00:41

Expressing Intellectual Curiosity Through Long-form Content

00:33

Introduction

3min

The Challenges and Impact on Founders

7min

The Importance of Co-Located Teams and Hiring Talent

5min

The Importance of Multi-Disciplinary Investments and Mission-Driven Founders

8min

Investing Your Career and an Introduction to Vanta

2min

Venture Capital Investment Strategy

9min

The Importance of Curiosity, Competition, and Drive for Founders

5min

The Importance of Competition and Innovation

16min

Automating Demand Letters with Even Up

8min

10.

Staying Competitive in a Changing Landscape

20min

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Today's show:

Benchmark's Sarah Tavel joins Jason to discuss the state of VC (1:57), her time at Benchmark (13:33), her recent Substack blogs (31:51), AI's impact on startups (44:31), and much more!

Time stamps:

(0:00) Benchmark's Sarah Tavel joins Jason

(1:57) The state of VC and the biggest things founders have had to contend with

(12:08) Miro - Sign up for a free account at https://miro.com/startups

(13:33) Benchmark's culture

(21:35) Evolving trends in VC

(24:37) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://vanta.com/twist

(25:45) Tradeoffs and common VC mistakes

(31:51) Sarah's Substack blogs and the inspiration behind her writing

(35:42) Mercury - Join 100K+ startups banking with Mercury at http://mercury.com

(36:54) Entrepreneurship in 2023 and the importance of a founder's long-term vision

(44:31) Technology catalysts and how AI is impacting startups