Varun Parmar

Have you ever heard of a $20 cup of coffee? The Ain't Normal Cafe in Oakland is serving up just that. This reminded me of Madhavan Ramanujam's talk on value-based pricing. He asks the audience if they like coffee, then how about at $20 to reinforce the idea. According to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, there's one lingering question: Can a $20 cup of coffee ever be worth it? Well, that depends on who you ask :) Check out the article and let us know your thoughts! #Pricing #ValueBasedPricing #Coffee #AintNormalCafe

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Thrilled to have completed the Artificial Intelligence: Business Strategies and Applications program with UC Berkeley Executive Education. This program offered invaluable insights into how AI can transform businesses—covering everything from strategic formulation to practical, real-world applications. It was a fantastic blend of technology and business strategy. The tools and knowledge I’ve gained will help me empower organizations to harness AI for smarter decision-making, improved efficiency, and greater innovation. Looking forward to applying this knowledge to drive impactful changes in the world of Wealth Management and Financial Services technology. Grateful for this invaluable learning experience. #AI #BusinessStrategy #Innovation #Leadership #DigitalTransformation #AIForBusiness #LifelongLearning

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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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I always look forward to talking to Ina Fried at Axios who asks incisive questions and notices important trends about the impact of emerging technology. And as we enter the era of #AI #agents it's important that we keep asking these questions. What are the right actions to delegate to agents, and the right safeguards to ensure successful outcomes? More here about guardrails in the era of agentic AI:

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Scale at ease, Lower cost & Future proof

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In the SaaS & Cloud industry we've long viewed Operations as a mere cost center—a backstage drag on margins. It's past time to flip the narrative. Operations are not just keeping the lights on; they're the unsung heroes driving revenue, customer loyalty, and scale. Discover how reimagining SaaS operations can make margins move. Dive into my what I've been thinking on and see why investing in operational excellence is the game-changer you've been waiting for. We define what's possible. 📞 +1-917-539-9423 --Robert 🔗 https://lnkd.in/g-hyUx8J #Operations #SaaS #Finance #CX #Margins #Cloud

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Takeaways from Andreessen Horowitz on how AI will transform sales: 🫱🏻‍🫲🏽 Sales, marketing, and customer success will blend together where customer context is the source of truth. 🌊 Fluid GTM strategies that are customized based on what's best for the customer - be they enterprise, SMB, or developer-first. 💲 Per seat pricing → outcome-based pricing 

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My favorite of these quotes is this one… Data and customer value drive AI partnerships AI is a game-changer, but not a magic bullet. Successful cloud #partnerships will be built on data, customer value, and integrations. "Right now, #data is the best value add you can provide... if you, a legacy company, have a large customer base and can provide certain kinds of data that is not available to any of these companies and you can #monetize that, that is kind of the Holy Grail," Neeti Gupta highlighted. Seems like the key reason #Salesforce and #Workday partnered recently.

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Thank you so much to AllAboutAI.com for interviewing me for their latest article (link in comments). We discussed advancements and challenges in AI-powered interfaces, the integration of emotional intelligence in D-ID's digital humans, ethical AI considerations, and how these technologies can transform marketing by creating more engaging and personalized customer interactions. #AI #NUI #DigitalHumans #TechInnovation #EthicalAI #AIMarketing #CustomerEngagement

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Last year, I had the privilege of hosting a webinar with George Lawrie, VP/Principal Analyst at Forrester, on AI's transformative impact on the product and manufacturing industry. Almost a year later, I'm astounded at how accurately George predicted the industry's current trajectory. This Wednesday, join us for another insightful session with George, hosted by Propel's resident PLM expert Tom Shoemaker. This time, we'll dive deep into the next evolution of #PLM and discuss the immense value and potential it holds for businesses like yours. Expect to: – Explore cutting-edge insights from Forrester on the future of PLM. – Understand how Propel's capabilities align with the next wave of industry innovations. – Discover actionable strategies to harness these trends and secure your business’s future. Don't miss this opportunity to see what George's crystal-ball-like🔮 research could mean for your success—and what moves you can make today to stay ahead. 🔗 Reserve your spot now: https://lnkd.in/g9KHiDAW

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At Intuit, our mission is to power prosperity around the world. As an advocate for policy settings that enable Australian SMEs to start and grow, I've followed with interest the Federal Government's 2024-25 Budget. While the budget contains many welcome measures to address inflation and cost-of-living pressures, I believe it could have provided more support for our vital SME sector. Extending the immediate asset write-off is a positive step, but more strategic measures are needed to encourage digital technology adoption by SMEs. We know that digital transformation drives business growth and reduces costs for consumers. The budget's $7.5 million investment over four years for the Consumer Data Right is a start, but may fall short in fully realising its potential. Robust funding is essential to enhance Australia's competitiveness in the global open banking landscape and empower Australians with control over their data. On a positive note, investments in small business cybersecurity programs, like the Cyber Wardens program, and the Digital Solutions program, show a commitment to Australia's digital future. Likewise, funding for the 'Safe and Responsible AI' program is also welcomed. However, the absence of the Technology Investment Boost and Skills Training Boost is a missed opportunity for SMEs to drive technological investments and workforce upskilling. Let's continue to advocate for robust support for our SMEs—they are the backbone of our economy! What are your thoughts on the 2024-25 Budget? How do you think it'll impact your business? #Budget2024-25 #SMEs #Intuit #QuickBooks #Mailchimp

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Steve Jobs✨ One of the things that hurt apple was thinking thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work. Great Ideas vs. Great Products - Steve Jobs emphasizes that many people have great ideas, but it's the meticulous execution that transforms those ideas into groundbreaking products. #SteveJobs #Innovation #ProductDevelopment #TechInspiration #GreatIdeas #ExecutionMatters

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"Sometimes you have to take a step back, smaller role, company, comp, to amass learnings and growth so that you can move ahead with greater momentum." This advice comes from Amit Fulay, VP of Product at Microsoft. In a Fireside PM interview, he shared how his own step back to join a startup, though it involved a pay cut and losing his team, armed him with invaluable experience that ultimately fast-tracked his career. Amit's insight on "catapult opportunities" is just one of 10 powerful lessons he offered on navigating product management careers. Read the full blog post for more of his counterintuitive yet transformative advice, covering everything from focusing on customer problems to finding sponsors to enjoying the journey. Read the entire post here: https://lnkd.in/gdy2dn6D #ProductManagement #CareerAdvice #Microsoft

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Every organization is looking for ways to incorporate AI into its business. I spoke with Jayesh Govindarajan, SVP AI at Salesforce, about how to do this. Govindarjan takes us behind the scenes of Salesforce's AI journey, revealing the complex innovation of embedding AI features that elevate the user experience. We talk about AI deployment, the pivotal role of contextual data and why developers are turning into prompt engineers to exploit the capabilities of large language models. Listen to the full episode of Techzine Talks on Tour on Techzine.eu:

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How do the latest AI models compare in solving real-world technical problems? At CodeSignal, we are excited to introduce our latest AI Benchmarking Report, showcasing how #AI models compare to each other as well as to real engineering candidates. While AI excels at efficiency and handling straightforward problems, human engineers bring something special to the table—creativity and adaptability. When it comes to complex, unpredictable challenges, people still have the upper hand.  The future of engineering? It’s all about working smarter, together—human intuition meets AI power. ⚡️ Check out our full report to see how AI models like Strawberry, GPT-4o, Sonnet, and more performed in head-to-head coding tests with human engineers. 🔗 https://bit.ly/4guKlEo

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A few weeks ago at Upstream, Tidelift co-founder Luis Villa sat down with HBS professor Frank Nagle to discuss his recent report that estimated the value of the open source ecosystem at 👉 8.8 trillion dollars 👈 . By way of comparison, the U.S. Interstate Highway System is valued at only $742 billion, and the entire U.S. electrical grid is valued at only $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion. Beyond the fact that $8.8 trillion is a very, very large number, in this clip from the talk, Dr. Nagle explains why he thinks the study hit a nerve, as it came out at a time when government and industry are increasingly focused on new policy and technology solutions for improving open source health and security in the wake of recent well-publicized attacks impacting open source. From the talk: "This is coming out of the log4j incident and, very recently, the xz incident. People, even if they know nothing about open source, are starting to understand that it is really important." I highly recommend watching the full talk, which you can find here: https://lnkd.in/gkKhk_n8

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Introducing Clari Forecast for Consumption – helping leaders drive predictability and accountability across complex revenue models. Predict and manage all consumption revenue in one place, uncovering next best steps, new opportunities, and use cases. You’ll also get customizable forecasting fit for the scale and complexity of your revenue cadence. Now, all members of your sales team can lean in and run revenue like a pro. Learn more about how you can recharge your revenue engine with AI here: https://bit.ly/3yb09dT 

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There comes a point when all software companies need to evolve their #authorization strategy. In many cases, a move to a finer-grained authorization model is the answer. I penned some thoughts here: Need to evolve your authorization strategy? Five questions to ask https://lnkd.in/eriQB2Ri via Okta Auth0 by Okta #developers #SaaS #FGA

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Usage based pricing could be the key you need to improve your Net Revenue Retention. Join Saurabh Agrawal from Zenskar and Steven Forth from Ibbaka for an in depth conversation on how to execute on this strategy. https://lnkd.in/gwy7g35x #pricing #SaaS #usagebasedpricing #NRR #NDR #SaaSgrowth #SaaSmarketing

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