In the past, many vertical software companies were started by domain experts who added technical capacity later. Now it’s the inverse. AI-native startups are led by technical founders who hire for context early. AI delivers differentiation. Context drives defensibility.

One of the oldest business models: Construct walled garden. Charge for entrance. In the knowledge economy, what’s inside the walls = data. Think Bloomberg, Lexis-Nexis, Thomson-Reuters, etc. Even things like FlightAware for ADS-B data. PitchBook for Form D etc data. This is an even better model in the AI era. Find data. Build walled garden around it. Now instead of just charging for access to the garden, charge for the “output” of whatever the human paying that subscription fee was going to create. If you’re an entrepreneur: find an obscure data source, digitize / normalize / perfect it, and wrap it with an LLM.

Should banks be able to charge for access to your data? Photos you took on your iPhone are yours. Should Apple be able to charge you (or Instagram) to let Instagram access them, with your permission? This isn’t banks’ data. It’s YOUR data. H/t: @dhaber

🚨 New @a16z thesis: AI x commerce AI will change the way we shop - from where we find products to how we evaluate them, when we buy, and much more. What types of purchases will be disrupted, and where does opportunity exist in the age of AI? More from me + @arampell 👇

If we want freedom to remain the world’s dominant operating system, we should fund it like our lives depend on it. Government programs and frameworks (like ESG) can’t solve problems that are really about our ability to build and compete. Capitalism can. Investors have the long-term orientation and risk appetite needed to rebuild our industrial base, strengthen our supply chains, and scale the technologies that matter. Here’s why we need a new lens: - We once led in 60 of 64 critical technologies. Now China leads in 57. - We rely on fragile or adversarial regions for critical materials and manufacturing. - ESG isn’t enough. We need GCI. We need capital that plays offense. - Venture can lead but pension funds, endowments and other large capital pools must follow.

Jeff Bezos literally dropped the most underrated winning principle

Permissioned data access appears to be under siege. If data access becomes a closed-loop system, what breaks — and what is lost? I’ve met hundreds of B2B AI startups. Here's how I think this reshapes the landscape and how founders can respond 👇

I’m excited to share that we’ve raised a $70M Series B, led by @a16z and @ICONIQCapital - bringing our total funding to over $100M in under a year. Accounting is a $500B category, and yet most finance teams are still running on systems built in the 90s. @RilletHQ is rebuilding the financial core of modern companies. We’ve rebuilt the general ledger from the ground up to assemble the first AI-native ERP, built for speed, flexibility, and automation. Since coming out of stealth ~12 months ago, we’ve grown lightning fast. We now power the finance stack behind companies like @PostscriptIO, @windsurf, @DecagonAI, @bitwarden and many more across many industries. Windsurf scaled revenue 10x while running global finance with just two people and Rillet. Postscript, with over $100M in ARR and four entities, now closes their books in three days. These are the kinds of results we hold ourselves to. We’ve also partnered with some of the largest and best accounting firms in the country, including @Armanino_HQ, @wissllp and Attivo. The whole industry has been begging for change for decades. With Rillet, it’s here. This round came together very quickly. The first call happened while I was eating a tuna sandwich in SF (I did not finish it). Three days later, we had a signed term sheet. It was a reflection of the momentum we’re seeing both in the product and in the market. Since announcing our Series A just weeks ago, we’ve already doubled our ARR. None of this would be possible without our team of accountants and engineers. A few months ago, I was still jumping on support calls to help customers. Today, our implementation, success, and product teams are delivering outcomes with the same speed and care that got us here. We originally booked an offsite to celebrate the Series A. In classic Rillet speed fashion, it’s now an A + B celebration. It’s proof of how fast things can move when customers love the product and a reminder of how much this team has earned the chance to celebrate together. We’re fortunate to welcome @a16z and @ICONIQCapital to the table. @arampell, @seema_amble, @mandrusko1 and @slpierre, @skstebbins bring clarity, urgency and deep conviction about the future of AI and finance. We’re also grateful to have continued support from our early partners @sequoia, @firstround, @creandum who believed in us from the start, and excited about working with @oakhcft and @FogVentures. To the Rillet team, again - thank you for building with care, focus, and speed. To our customers - thank you for pushing us, trusting us, and helping shape the product. We are honored to serve you. Let’s go!

Timely reminder re: IPOs: “A price without a quantity is not a price” Read @skupor and my piece from 2020 (next post)

🚨 New investment announcement! We @a16z are leading Salient AI's $60M Series A. Salient builds AI for loan servicers. In the last 18 months, they've processed more than $1B in transactions and helped lenders cut handle times by 60%. (cc @arampell, @seema_amble)