In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Casber Wang, Partner at Sapphire Ventures, who shares the issues with AI startups and cash burn

“Let’s just say we intentionally freeze the progress of technology. There’s no ChatGPT five, there’s no GPT six. It’s only what we have today; GPT four and some of the other, call it 3.5. I believe the next five years we can just build applications on those existing technologies without underlying technological progress. So that’s how much progress we made from the starting point. So to me it’s less so ‘why haven’t we seen much progress yet’, it’s just all the systems take a little bit more time, right? People get used to a new thing and that just takes more time than folks had expected, just given how much attention there is around this topic.”

Casber shares:

  • What he’s looking for in companies that Sapphire invests in
  • Why he favours founders who constantly think about talent valuation; from tracking talent to their talent bench
  • Why building a great software standalone is rarely enough – you need to be backwardly compatible with all the other tools on the stack and nail distribution
  • The watershed moment in AI and why its garnered so much attention from founders and media
  • Why specific fields like engineering are seeing a more accentuated economic impact from AI
  • The five or six prime investment areas where investors spend a lot of time making real bets on

and more!

Watch or listen to the full episode below.

 

Listen to the audio now:

Get more from SaaStock

Whether you’re one of the founders thinking seriously about this now or it’s something you’ll do in the future – one thing SaaStock is passionate about is connecting companies and their founders on the journey. Whether it’s with investors, brokers, or buyers, or with a fellow founder that you can confide in, having a robust network is an invaluable experience that has real impact for our community.

SaaStock facilitates lots of opportunities to build these connections. See our local meetups, founder community , and upcoming SaaStock Europe event where we’ve added a whole new networking programme from for 2024.

Other ways to get involved:

  • We release all of our podcast episodes, plus more sessions and exclusive content from our events on our YouTube channel. Subscribe now to stay up to date.
  • Subscribe to SaaStock Blueprint, a fortnightly newsletter in which Alex shares insights and actionable advice from his conversations with SaaS leaders all over the world.