#174 | Return of Hardware Investing, Vertical AI, Blackstone 2.0, & more
#174 | Return of Hardware Investing, Vertical AI, Blackstone 2.0, & more
April 1st–7th | Insights from Thrive, Menlo Ventures, Benchmark, FirstMark, 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, & Outlooks
The AI Application Age: Meet functional analysts, the new vertical SaaS (Molly Welch, VC @ Radical)
Tailwinds of Change: Reengineering Hardware Design and Manufacturing (Feyza Haskaraman, Principal @ Menlo)
Make Hardware Great Again (Julien Lepleux, Principal @ Bleu Capital)
Redefining the American Dream: From House Keys to Business Keys (David Roos, Partner @ Core Innovation)
Industry Developments & Analyses
Mapping the impending impact of Vertical AI (Marissa Moore & Taku Murahwi, OMERS)
Full Steam Ahead: The 2024 MAD (Machine Learning, AI & Data) Landscape (Matt Turck, Partner @ FirstMark)
Real Data Won’t Be the Future of Model Development (Brian Zhan & Max Gazor, CRV)
Re-Imagining the Healthcare Delivery Journey with Generative AI (Nick Chedid, Ambar Bhattacharyya, Justin Norden)
Transforming Corporate Travel: An Open Roadmap to Fixing a Broken System (Steve Singh, MD @ Madrona)
SaaS Multiples down in Q1 (Sammy Abdullah, GP @ Blossom Street VC)
Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating
Company-Building during the AI Wave (Travis May, GP @ Shaper Capital)
From Ports to Transformations (Jacob Andreou, GP @ Greylock)
Win/lose vs True/false (Yoni Rechtman, Principal @ Slow)
Growth gets a much higher multiple than profitability (Sammy Abdullah, GP @ Blossom Street VC)
Managing and Presenting to Your Board (David Teten, Partner @ Versatile VC)
The Importance of Financial Projections for Early-Stage Startups (Trace Cohen, Partner @ NYVP)
Your unhinged guide to growth (Kyle Poyar, Partner @ OpenView)
Additional Reads
The Next Blackstone (Philip Clark, VC @ Thrive)
What MidJourney, DeepL, ElevenLabs, and HeyGen have in common (Sarah Tavel, GP @ Benchmark)
Weapons of Mass Production (Rex Woodbury, MP @ Daybreak)
AI is a bad biz model but can be a great GTM for better ones (Yoni Rechtman, Principal @ Slow)
YC's Secret SAFE (Chris Harvey, Venture Lawyer)
The Glass-Half War: Empty or Full? (Kyle Harrison, GP @ Contrary)
What Are VCs Really Looking For Right Now? (Gabby Cazeau, Partner @ Harlem)
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