Sam Altman, Arthur Mensch and more discuss:Which Startups Are Threatened vs Enabled by OpenAI?|E1156

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

May 24, 2024

Duration

18m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Sam Altman is the CEO @ OpenAI, the company on a mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI is one of the fastest-scaling companies in history with a valuation of $90BN and $2BN+ in revenue. Brad Lightcap is the COO @ OpenAI and the man responsible for the incredible scaling of sales, GTM, partnerships and business to today being over $2BN in revenue. Arthur Mensch is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mistral AI. Since its inception in May 2023, Mistral has raised over $520M in funding from investors like Andreeseen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Microsoft with a current valuation of $2 billion. Des Traynor is a Co-Founder of Intercom, and has built and led many teams within the company, including Product, Marketing, and Customer Support. Today Des leads all of Intercom’s R&D efforts, and parts of Intercom’s marketing. Tom Hulme is a Managing Partner of GV (Google Ventures), and leads the European team. Today, GV has over $10BN in AUM and Tom has led investments in Lemonade.com (IPO), Snyk, Secret Escapes, Blockchain.com, GoCardless, and Currency Cloud (exited to Visa). Tomasz Tunguz is the Founder and General Partner @ Theory Ventures, just announced last week, Theory is a $230M fund that invests $1-25m in early-stage companies that leverage technology discontinuities into go-to-market advantages. Sarah Tavel is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the most successful and renowned venture firms in the world. At Benchmark, Sarah has led rounds in Chainalysis, Hipcamp, Medely, Rekki, Glide, Cambly and more. ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode We Discuss:

1. Will foundation models be commoditised?
2. What is the end state for the foundation model landscape in 10 years?
3. How will large cloud provider incumbents approach M&A with smaller foundation model providers?
4. When will we see marginal revenue exceed marginal cost in the foundation model business model?
5. Where is the value: the application layer or the infrastructure layer?
6. How can startups know whether they will be threatened by OpenAI?
7. What are good tests/questions to know if you are in the path of one of the large foundation models?
8. How does the business model of SaaS fundamentally change in a world of AI?
9. Will we see the end of per-seat pricing in a new world of AI?
10. What is the right way to approach pricing in a world of AI? Consumption? Tokens?

----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Sam Altman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sama Follow Brad Lightcap on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bradlightcap Follow Arthur Mensch on Twitter: https://twitter.com/arthurmensch Follow Tom Hulme on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thulme Follow Des Traynor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/destraynor Follow Tomasz Tunguz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ttunguz Follow Emad Mostaque on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMostaque Follow Sarah Tavel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahtavel Follow Tom Blomfield on Twitter: https://twitter.com/t_blom Follow Miles Grimshaw on Twitter: https://twitter.com/milesgrimshaw Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #samaltman #bradlightcap #arthurmensch #tomhulme #destraynor #tomblomfield #sarahtavel #tomasztunguz #emadmostaque #milesgrimshaw #foundation #models #commodities #venturecapital #startup #ai #openai #chatgpt

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Sam Altman

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

• Arthur Mensch

  guest

• Tom Blomfield

  guest

• Des Traynor

  guest

• Tomasz Tunguz

  guest

• Emad Mostaque

  guest

• Brad Lightcap

  guest

• Sarah Tavel

  guest

• Guest

  guest

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Sam Altman and Harry Stebbings, Sam Altman, Arthur Mensch and more discuss:Which Startups Are Threatened vs Enabled by OpenAI?|E1156 explores aI Models Commoditize While Application Layer Becomes True Value Engine The discussion centers on whether enduring value in generative AI will accrue to foundation model providers or to the application layer built on top. Participants argue that base models are rapidly commoditizing due to intense competition, massive capital requirements, and open-source pressure, pushing model providers toward utility-like economics. Most investors and operators on the panel believe the greatest long-term value will be captured by applications that deeply own user relationships, workflows, and domain-specific integration rather than thin wrappers on models. They highlight strategies for startups to avoid being steamrolled by model providers and incumbents, including thick vertical solutions, differentiated UX, new pricing models, and avoiding generic copilot plays that favor large incumbents.

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