Hasan Rizvi

We're launching the inaugural edition of Beyond Benchmarks, a deep dive into the metrics and trends observed across the early-stage enterprise cloud market. This is the first look at some of the business data around GenAI in SaaS. Some initial observations: 1) 60% of SaaS companies have already integrated GenAI into their offerings (60% of these as part of their current product and 40% as a new product), and an additional 20% are planning to do so this year. Almost half aren't monetizing these features. Those that are are primarily experimenting with both usage-based and flat fee pricing models. 2) Most companies are utilizing OpenAI as their primary LLM, but many are experimenting with multiple models - and we are noticing an early trend towards intelligently routing GenAI inference requests to different models based on cost, performance, and security. 3) Though we are in the initial innings of GenAI, we are seeing some positive signals - companies that implemented GenAI had 7% higher NDR than those that did not. Still early days, but we'll be doing this benchmarking report regularly to track and share how things progress in this new era. Link to report in comments.

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AI leaders have a crucial chance to address risks now and strengthen governance practices before playing catch-up to regulations, notes Kjell Carlsson, Ph.D. of Domino Data Lab. In a recent VentureBeat article, he shares his perspective on California's AI bill veto and why proactive governance is key to the future of AI innovation. Learn more about this addressing this opportunity: https://gag.gl/4WCTkP #AI #AIGovernance #AIInnovation #DataScience

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Some freshness in the LLMs arena! LLM can be accurate if you follow SOTA practices!

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It is great to see DARPA engaging broadly with startups and the private sector (as it always has) to discuss what technologies could be most critical to future national security. In such a conversation today ppl mentioned quantum computing, encryption and sensing, semiconductor design and manufacturing, new materials and chemistries, AI Safety and risk of AI aided bioterrorism and biological warfare, zero knowledge proofs, fully homomorphic encryption, US weapons and broader defense manufacturing capacity, hydrogen production technologies, and autonomous swarms.

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🚀 Exciting News from Salesforce Ventures! 🚀 We're thrilled to announce the launch of our new $500M AI Fund, which doubles our commitment to AI innovation to a total of $1 billion! 🤝 Over the past 18 months, we've invested $500M in groundbreaking AI companies like Anthropic, Hugging Face, Cohere and many more! This new fund reinforces our dedication to supporting visionary AI entrepreneurs and accelerating market-shifting innovations while staying true to our core values of trust and responsibility. Paul Drews, Managing Partner, says it best: “Values drive value, and we know trust and responsibility are good for the world—and good for business.” John Somorjai, President, adds: “We’ll continue to incorporate learnings to help build the AI leaders of tomorrow.” Discover more about our new AI Fund and how we're shaping the future of AI in our latest blog post! 🌟 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eiphksTX #SalesforceVentures #AI #Innovation #TechInvestment #FutureOfAI

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During yesterday's LibreQoS APNIC webinar, I posed the question: won't more bandwidth solve these problems? As Herbert Wolverson said, yes, more bandwidth is good, but, still these problems remain if queueing is done incorrectly. Here's my take on why bandwidth alone is not as good as bandwidth + good queueing policies: Generally it was believed that 'data is important, so don't throw it away; hang on to it and send it later'. In practice, this has proven to be suboptimal as two issues may emerge: 1) latency increases for some flows due to heavy demand from other flows using the same bottleneck link, 2) even a single flow can have excessive latency due to aspects of typical TCP behavior (referred to bufferbloat) when the buffers grew large enough that the data being buffered was retransmitted anyway. It turns out that not all data is equally important. Active Queue Management is the art of deciding priorities, both in deciding what data to throw away, but also in allowing some later arriving data to be transmitted ahead of data in another connection that arrived before it. These problems have been studied, and good solutions have been found by using certain queueing policies in routers and switches, referred to as “fq_codel’ and “cake”. These track the different flows not by classifying the data, but by watching the behavior. Flows that send relatively little data (DNS lookups), or at a measured pace (video chat) have priority over flows that send a lot of data as quickly as possible (App and System updates, Video and ISO downloads).

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Open-source models can be a strong lever for increasing gross margins at AI companies, especially those that have hefty cost structures (e.g., enterprise sales orgs that require significant customer success or implementation resources, as well forward-deployed AI services models common in healthcare and life sciences). One of many reasons to maintain a modular and flexible stack with minimal dependencies when building an AI company. More on the importance of flexibility in the AI stack: https://lnkd.in/eA2XATRk h/t Delip Rao #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #healthcare

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I recently joined New North Ventures as a General Partner. There are hundreds of Venture Capital firms investing in software, cloud, AI, etc. What makes New North Ventures different? DUAL USE - New North focuses on Defense/Intelligence technology startups with "dual use" crossover to Commercial customers. The Defense Department has published a list of Critical Technology Areas they are interested in. Examples of "dual use" companies in our Fund I portfolio include Hawkeye 360 and Hubble Network. You can see more examples on our Portfolio page.    VALUATION ARBITRAGE - Defense related startups tend to have low market valuations because their exit opportunities are sometimes limited to Defense Prime Contractors or related companies that don't command high stock market valuations. The arbitrage happens when these startups crossover to commercial markets where potential acquirers have market valuations that could be 10X higher than similarly situated defense companies. This is where the magic happens. EARLY STAGE - The Value creation curve is faster and easier at Seed stage or Series A. It is much easier to grow from $10M to $100M, and from $100M to $1 Billion, than it is later in the curve, to grow from $1B to $10B, and $10B to $100B. Investing at early stage is riskier, but the percentage returns can be higher. I have spent my entire professional career helping startups grow, raise money, and get to an exit. That experience can help improve the odds of success. NON DILUTIVE CAPITAL - The SBA just announced the SBICCT program in partnership with the DoD Office of Strategic Capital to provide 125% matching funds for investments we make in startups that support the Critical Technology Areas. It is a non-dilutive loan to our fund, with a low interest rate, that is paid back at a liquidity event, but the SBA doesn't participate in the capital gains of the transaction. This new program can double Limited Partner returns over other non-leveraged VC funds. PORTFOLIO BALANCE - Capital allocation balance is important to LP investors. Many VC funds have the same general thesis and invest in similar software tech companies. Those funds don't tend to have exposure to Defense/Intelligence startups with crossover dual use potential. DOUBLE BOTTOM LINE - At this stage in my career and life it isn't about the money. It is about the mission. Supporting our national security interests is my highest priority, and most important mission. It isn't often that you can invest your time and money to get a great financial return AND serve your country at the same time. This is a double bottom line I can get excited about. TEAM - The New North team is amazing. Our Partners have experience at Google, Microsoft, CIA, Palantir, Dyn, Minim, and Advisors from NASA, CIA, US Army, and National Security Advisors. Jeremy Hitchcock Stephanie Usry Bellistri Rob May Kevin Higgins Susan Still Kilrain Rick Waddell Marc Wolf Jessica Nelson My new email is [email protected]

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The gap between your company's vision and what's achievable is closing fast, thanks to advances in Generative AI. I sat down with Fawad Bajwa at Russell Reynolds Associates to share my best learnings on how CEOs can capitalize on this new frontier. Read more here:

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Large incumbent tech companies whether MSFT, Oracle, Autodesk, Procore etc etc have always struggled with building ecosystems. During cloud movement, this gave startups the opportunity to build together and build strong ecosystems. Early Salesforce did a good job with AppExchange. AI success for enterprise software companies is going to require building data ecosystems. It will be interesting to see how these ecosystems develop to avoid creating enterprise lock-in.

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Do you want to learn the 'secrets' of AI and ML? [Chuckes facetiously.] Might one recommend stopping and reading a few books? Why? Well, it pays to train one's (own) neural network. Joking aside, it is a fascinating field, and I readily admit I enjoy learning about it. Note: I do not consider myself an expert in anything; these are simply books I like. You may, too. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach https://lnkd.in/d-NM8hWe Deep Learning https://lnkd.in/duHQaUSy Approaching (Almost) Any Machine Learning Problem Alas, it's out of print, but a great read, written by a fine fellow. 🚀 Abhishek Thakur Mathematics for Machine Learning https://lnkd.in/dCvfcqHU beyond the above, I highly recommend reading more broadly: Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski https://lnkd.in/dNafjjiF

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This is quite a piece on accusations of unethical pay-to-play within the #cyber #VC ecosystem. -Guaranteed first-year sales for portfolio companies -Formal loyalty program for CISOs -Points awarded within the program for CISO commitment level to portfolio companies (meetings, PoCs, product purchases) -Share of GP fees for CISOs in the loyalty program https://lnkd.in/gDta7Gp7

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What a week this has been for innovative companies in Seattle (first Smartsheet and now OctoAI). Today NVIDIA made public the news that they have acquired Madrona portfolio company OctoAI. Partnering with the founders since Day 1 (ok Day -1) has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. Luis Ceze, Jared Roesch, Tianqi Chen, Jason Knight, Thierry Moreau and Carlos Guestrin were all involved in the research and insights that helped create the TVM open source technology at the University of Washington computer science school and then the creation of OctoAI back in 2019 to drive commercial impact with this technology. From sorting out the terms of the original "pre-seed" round over a bottle of Caymus Vineyards wine to helping Amazon Web Services (AWS) understand the dynamics around the open source movement in Applied AI to learning our way in to product-market fit with the BEST inference optimization service available (OctoAI can help customers find their optimal fit of performance, customization, and cost), OctoAI has been the best! The company has helped set the table for AI-driven innovation for the years ahead and they will be a perfect compliment to the many capabilities at Nvidia. Luis, his leadership team, the board (including Carlos Guestrin Lip-Bu Tan and Mike Dauber) and so many "friends of OctoAI" know what a motivated, talented and authentic group of people are associated with this company. It is inspiring to see an acquisition at a total deal value of over $250 million in this highly dynamic and fast-moving phase of AI disruption. It is even more exciting to anticipate what will be possible with innovations powered by AI models and related technologies in the years ahead. Madrona has been investing in Applied AI for over a decade and we truly believe that we are just getting started! One of the hardest judgement calls as an investor and board member is to assess the benefits and risks of selling a company at a key inflection point in the journey. Nvidia made a compelling case that the impact for the OctoAI team and technology would be maximized within the market leader for AI infrastructure. I will be rooting every day that they all maximize this impact in the months and years ahead!

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Another important milestone for Evise.ai. We are proud to announce our availability on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace. #consulting and #advisory in the age of Generative AI will never be the same! Our purpose-built, turnkey Generative AI platform is designed to increase margins, headcount utilization and profits, while creating a completely new employee and client experience. #generativeai #futureofwork

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People with high expectations have low resilience. Pain and suffering are the only way to teach you to be resilient. A good take from NVIDIA CEO and AI leader Jensen Huang Very relevant for a lot of startups discovering customers and generating revenue. #justdoit #resilience #success #leadership

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One day, Quantum Compute will just be another modality that everyone will be able to tap into. However, technological revolutions by their very nature require widespread awareness, fundamental training and societal preparedness in the lead up- just as much as they require advanced research and engineering wizardry. I am looking forward to speaking at the Quantum World Congress in DC next week on the topic of Quantum workforce development.

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Sharing a sanitized version of the mu ventures Q2 q'ly LP update. Included musings: 👉 SEOs shrinking impact, and the rise of LLMO (large language model optimization) 👉 examples of the Commerce AI application layer coming to life 👉 a modern fund strategy that accepts companies require less capital, time, and people to trigger the power law 👉 Mu's guide to investing in AI 👉 all 30 companies in the Mu-niverse (and several others we admire) Founders, VCs, LPs - if you like how we think and suspect we can partner, hit us up! https://lnkd.in/dTJ2zjav

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Registration for #APISummit24 by Kong Inc. is about to close! RSVP now so you don’t miss out on lessons from some of the world’s most notable API practitioners and AI innovators. This global event will explore the convergence of AI and API tech and cut through the noise to provide real-world lessons for your organization. ⏰ The clock is ticking! 🦍 #KongPin #AI #API #TechEvent

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