Matt Howland

Have you ever looked for theory that can answer - how to approach investors - what kind of product to build first - how you’ll defend the company against competitors This new article from CDA partner, Kevin Maney extends Steven Johnson's writing from the book Emergence to #CategoryDesign. All #Startups and #VentureCapital teams should dig in. (link to article in comments)

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Insightful look into bioplatform strategy, and what it takes to raise a Series A from my partner, Omri Amirav-Drory: https://lnkd.in/dFv7GbF6

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【Tech Events in SF Bay Area from 9/28 to 10/12】 I have summarized the 175 Tech Events in SF from 9/28 to 10/12 in a Air Table, and I will share it with you. If you have any other exciting tech events to recommend, please feel free to share them on the comment:) Event list👇️(There are tabs for AI events,VC and Investor events and Hackathon) https://lnkd.in/ePDFAiM7 - 126 Ai Event - 18 VCs & investors Event - 6 Hackathon Event I would greatly appreciate it if you could share or like this with others in the SF community. 【Kyosuke's Newsletter】 https://lnkd.in/e5X896ZG It's a weekly newsletter where I provide updates on tech events happening in the SF Bay Area. Additionally, you can expect to receive complimentary tickets to conferences, recommendations for must-attend events, and exclusive invitations to SF's premier gatherings. 【Upcoming Event】 『MELT』Founders x Investors Dynamic Network Event https://lu.ma/7zypq83u 💎 VIP Sponsored by - Kyle Hudson, Founder of Stacks, Inc ​​Social bookmarking platform to save cross-platform and share with anyone - Akash Saraf , Founder of ScaleGenAI Universal Computing Infrastructure for Generative AI #Sanfrancisco #SF #Bayarea #Techevent #YCombinator #Stanford #founders #VC #Investors #Networking

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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 have been seeing a lot of AI-enabled products with sub $300k in ARR but 75-100x revenue valuation multiples. Obviously there is a lot of promise for many of these tools, but a question I keep wondering about is which line item in a prospective buyer's budget many of these software licenses is going to come from and if revenue growth is going to be a lot slower than valuation because buyers haven't yet adjusted their FP & A process to include allocation for AI tools that don't neatly fit in any historic software category. Tricky question. TIA Ventures

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To scale from $1M to $10M ARR, you need to turn your ad hoc GTM efforts into a well-oiled machine. This means creating repeatable processes across your entire GTM - from lead gen to sales to customer success. The good news for technical founders is that they're experts at solving complex engineering challenges with precision, efficiency, and structure. At this stage of startup growth, they need to apply that same systems-oriented mindset to GTM - which, for B2B startups, can be approached more as a science than an art. More in the May edition of B2BaCEO: https://lnkd.in/emsvFN9q

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One of the most important concepts we introduced in our recent Healthcare AI roadmap is the notion of “Modality—Business Model—Market fit.” This concept describes how the delivery method and business model of AI in healthcare directly shape its potential to create value. There are many possible combinations of modalities and business models in healthcare. AI can be delivered as software, copilots, agents, services, diagnostics, or therapeutics, supported by business models ranging from usage-based and volumetric pricing to performance-based and shared savings arrangements. Nailing selection of modality and business model is essential for AI companies seeking large market opportunities and profitable operations. As we describe in an example with computer vision-based diabetic retinopathy screening, modality and business model selection can drive a difference in TAM by upwards of 25x, and has serious implications for overall margin structures. Read more here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eK7rjpJz

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Early this year, we made tough changes at Brex to increase intensity, quality, and speed. 10 months later, after switching into founder mode, here’s how Brex is doing: 📈 Revenue growth accelerated nearly 3x in 2024, NRR up >15 points; burn rate down 70%. Customer acquisition up 50%; CAC paybacks improved 40%. 🏦 Enterprise business grew 91%, with NRR >130%. Now serving the largest organizations on the planet, with a combined market cap >$2.9T. ⚡️ 3 major product releases, 100+ features in each, and 4 new products in partnership with Stripe and Navan, serving startups through enterprises. NPS improved by 11 points. 🧠 Eliminated two layers of people management, elevating builders that operate at all levels and reconnecting leaders back to their craft. 💵 In 2025, we expect revenue growth to continue accelerating at scale, and to be the last year in which Brex burns money. … but the biggest change of 2024 is expecting nothing to ever come easy again. During our first 6 years of Brex, things just “happened.” We went from 0 to $100MM ARR in 16 months, despite many mistakes. This stopped being true in 2023, and it required a painful reset to bring our culture back into what it once was: a culture of builders, willing to go extra hard to build a generational company. This year taught me that taking the hard path, and running the company in a way that’s truly authentic to you, is worth the risk. The biggest risk of all is not gaining energy from the process itself – the only reliable source of energy to compound for decades to come. I hope this inspires other founders to make the changes they need to realize their company's full potential. ❤️ So grateful for everyone at Brex who made this year’s progress possible. Onwards! 🚀 Link in comments to read more.

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AI Integration vs. Standalone Products | Product vs. Feature As a CTO, I'm constantly evaluating emerging technologies for client projects. The recent hype around dedicated AI hardware has me intrigued, but Marques Brownlee's video on "AI the Product vs AI the Feature" raises a compelling point. Video Link: https://lnkd.in/gbJw5UQN Is AI destined to be the "Clubhouse" of tech – a flash in the pan overshadowed by established players integrating similar features? Here's why I believe Brownlee might be right: • Frictionless User Experience: Consumers have a limited amount of mental space for new devices. Integrating AI into existing products they already use creates a seamless experience. • Power of the Platform: Established platforms have vast user bases and data – fertile ground for training powerful AI models. Dedicated hardware struggles to compete. We're already seeing this with Apple's WWDC announcements. Enhanced Siri, on-device image generation – these are powerful AI features woven into the fabric of the iOS experience. Of course, there will always be exceptions. But for most businesses, focusing on integrating AI to enhance existing products is likely the smarter move. What are your thoughts? Is dedicated AI hardware a fad, or is there room for it in the future? #AI #Technology #DigitalTransformation #ArtificialIntelligence #Apple #ClubHouse #MKBHD

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In the era of tech stack consolidation, getting the most out of your current user base is more important than ever. That’s why I’m excited to share Amplitude’s Mastering Monetization Strategy playbook! From land and expand strategies to pricing and packaging, this resource equips you with everything you need to know on how to monetize the people already closest to your products: your users. #PLG #Monetization #DigitalAnalytics

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The future of tech is here, and it's wearing glasses 🕶️ Here is an intriguing article about how Snap's CEO, Evan Spiegel, believes his company is leading the charge in AR smart glasses, with Meta and Apple set to follow. As someone who’s been following the AR space closely, I find it exciting to see companies like Snap pushing the boundaries of what smart glasses can do. Spiegel’s vision of using hands and voice to interact with augmented reality is a game-changer. Snap’s Spectacles, now in their 5th generation, are already making waves among developers. The goal is clear: to bring computing back into the real world, away from screens and closer to our daily lives. While Meta’s Ray-Ban Stories and Apple’s Vision Pro are also making significant strides, Snap’s approach to natural interaction and developer-friendly pricing could be the key to mainstream adoption. It’s an exciting time for AR, and I’m eager to see how these innovations shape our future. #AR #SmartGlasses #TechInnovation #FutureOfTech

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Many assumed that the industry would be well on its way to AGI or superintelligence before AI model builders’ efforts to take advantage of scaling laws might hit a wall. Recent headlines are chipping away at that assumption. One question I've been getting in my inbox: is this the era of diminishing returns for AI? We don't think so. Even if an avalanche of new clusters and synthetic data fail to deliver significantly better model performance, there are good reasons to believe that AI is still going to become orders of magnitude more powerful in the coming years — powering a new generation of startups and ultimately productivity growth and positive benefits for mankind. In fact, with agents and reasoning just beginning to scale and thousands of industry-specific models coming online, it's about to get really exciting. Read our latest blog post on the topic: https://lnkd.in/gFhniNX8

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Video is a key aspect of an AI-first healthcare ecosystem. There will be a post-AI world soon where the way we interact with technology will fundamentally change. The healthcare ecosystem will evolve to becoming more invisible and assistive, allowing clinicians and patients to interact with each other in a more empathetic way. And technology becomes a true enabler. This will require democratizing access to AI to the healthcare world. And few companies do that as well as Zoom does. We are excited about our strategic partnership with the Zoom team and excited to bring AI features like clinical documentation to the 40% of US healthcare (and global!) that uses Zoom as its Telehealth solution. - Suki Assistant for Epic, Oracle Cerner, Meditech, and Athena systems - Suki Platform for EHRs who want to embed the power of AI inside them - Suki Platform that works with clinical communication companies, medical devices, And now Telehealth Onwards. Let's keep doing this! https://lnkd.in/dWjPwKwJ

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Hot take: The most impactful systems builders rarely come from IT. They come from Sales, Ops, Customer Success—the people who live and breathe the problem they’re solving, who’ve been told “no” more times than they can count, and who can’t help but think about optimizing every process in sight. These are the builders who see the inefficiencies hiding in the day-to-day and chase solutions to make things truly better, faster, and smarter. They’re the ones I want to see at the center of the future we’re building, not sidelined. But here’s the key: both IT and these frontline builders have to buy into working together. And I’m hopeful that AI can finally bridge this gap, helping each side speak the other’s language with minimal effort. When AI accelerates what no-code was always meant to be but hasn’t fully delivered on yet, we unlock the real potential of collaboration—systems that don’t just work, but transform the way we work. Let’s get there.

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If anyone is in North County San Diego, on Thursday May 2nd, we will be hosting a tech entrepreneur and investor meet up at 5:30pm. We’ll have a couple speakers, one of which is a fin-tech start-up raising a round, followed up by a presentation on the state of the stock & crypto market. We host these events quarterly and usually get a lot of founders and investors to attend. If anyone is interested, please message me and I can send you the details. LaunchPad San Diego #startups #startupincubator #entrepreneur #investing #crypto #meetup

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Big news: Tilebox self-service is live 🔥 For software developers and space data analysts, this is your chance to dive in—no friction, zero cost. Our free community tier is here to get you started. Transparent pricing. No surprises. Think you need to wait until you're in orbit or ready to release a data service? Think again. Get up and running today, iterate, and develop at 20x speed. Excited to see how you use Tilebox—let me know your thoughts! #softwareforspace #softwarebestpractices #cloudorprem #yourtool

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✨🚨 Another Make Cents post is live! 🚨✨ In this post, "AI & its Impact on Vertical SaaS: The Gates of Distribution have Flung Open", I explore how AI is impacting vertical SaaS workflows and its implication for distribution and defensibility. We defy.vc are more excited than ever to invest in vertical SaaS because we believe there's tremendous value leveraging AI to enhance human productivity across tasks like 1) structuring data, 2) analysis, 3) recommendations, and 4) taking action. I also walk through why customer acquisition costs are at an all-time low, attributed to more than just AI-driven product functionality. Read more ⬇ and share your thoughts and feedback in the comments! https://lnkd.in/gRVcJASH

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Chubbies was acquired for 9 figures and went through a 10 figure IPO. Upon reflection, the least acknowledged benefit that came out of our journey to effective brand building was *reduced price elasticity* This supported our ability to introduce new products at higher and higher price points, without negatively impacting volumes, which greatly contributed to our ability to generate profits **Important note: Product builds the brand as much, or more, than anything marketing does. The whole company builds the brand** But if you're a marketer looking for ways to support amazing product, here are the 3 things (and a case study at the end) you can implement today to effectively use brand building to decrease price elasticity, as told by the GOAT of brand-building effectiveness, Les Binet 1) Reach. Binet said more than 2,000 case studies have failed to identify companies that have strengthened their pricing power by targeting existing customers “CRM, all that stuff, is absolutely useless when it comes to trying to firm up your pricing,” he said. “It’s more about acquisition, and more importantly reach.” Campaigns that reach wide audiences are more beneficial than tightly targeted messages when tackling this challenge, Binet insisted 2) Emotion. “It’s not about telling people things,” Binet said, asserting that it is not possible to convince customers to pay more for a product by rational argument “Getting people to pay more for the same old shit is not a rational thing. It’s emotional. The key to pricing power is to get people to feel strongly about your brand, to disengage the rational and make people want the thing at any price,” he said 3) Fame. “Campaigns that consciously aim to make the brand and its marketing famous are much, much better at reducing price sensitivity and supporting premium prices than any other kind of marketing” The easiest way to fame is creativity “Highly creative advertising is much better at getting an emotional response and is much more likely to generate fame,” said Binet The “kind of ads that win at Cannes” are more likely to get fame than a more rational, measured approach, he added Case Study: Binet demonstrated his theory with a case study of cat food brand Felix, which in 1989 was on the verge of being delisted from a number of supermarkets. “It hadn’t been advertised for decades, it was dying,” said Binet A campaign that repackaged the product and introduced a cute cat brand mascot – but which featured virtually no product information – ensued. “All we said was ‘Cats like Felix like Felix,” recalled Binet Over several years the brand went from a market share of 5% to leading the category, based on the famous antics of a cartoon cat Alongside the increase in sales volumes, Felix managed to decrease its price elasticity measure, allowing it to increase its prices “Not only were they quintupling the volume, but they went from being one of the cheapest brands to being one of the most expensive” 🤯

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Worth reading: A Set of Benchmarks for Long-Context Code Models It is interesting to see the evolution of long-context code models for repairing build breaks, etc. See the blog post below and the paper

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