I’ve updated my blog “The New Moats: Systems of Intelligence” from six years ago in light of all the changes and advances in AI over the past few years. I took a “red pen” to highlight what has changed.
In 2006 with the launch of AWS began the cloud infra era. This followed the dawn of SaaS led by Salesforce and Workday. For the past 15 years we saw the platform shift to cloud. We are now seeing a new generation of cloud only companies
1/ I've been thinking lately about the different types of risk that VCs underwrite as investors. No framework is perfect but as an investor we need to judge each investment independently. For example, a security company will have less market risk than a crypto company.
My partners and I are excited to continue our mission at
@GreylockVC
to partner with the most ambitious founders creating new categories and redefining how we use and interact with the technology around us. If you are looking to build something amazing in AI, cloud, data, or
1/ With a long history of partnering w/ founders from idea to IPO, we
@GreylockVC
are excited to announce 2 new updates to advance this mission:
1/ Fund 17, our new $1B early-stage fund
2/ Edge, a bespoke program to help founders initiate new companies
1/ I don't blog often but when I do, I try to create interesting content! Today
@GreylockVC
is launching a new project,
#CastlesInTheCloud
, mapping out the services of the Big 3 clouds, AWS, Azure, GCP, and the startups competing against them
We are shocked and deeply saddened by the heinous acts of terror committed against the Israeli people. Our hearts are with the victims and their families. We stand in solidarity with Israel and our friends, founders, and teams in the country.
.
@llama_index
Is building the data framework for large language models. It unleashes the power of LLMs on enterprise data including PDFs, databases, apps, videos, and other docs.
20 years ago I did an internship for VMware and was lucky enough to return and spend almost a decade shipping product with some of the most brilliant people I have ever worked with. Today marks an end to this part of the VMware story but the people and impact of the company
We are excited to announce the completion of Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, marking another important step forward in our efforts to build the world’s leading infrastructure technology company.
Follow
@Broadcom
for further updates and read more here:
1/ We at
@GreylockVC
are excited to announce we’ve raised $500M dedicated to seed investing. This is the industry’s largest pool of venture capital dedicated to backing founders at day one.
8/ Uncertainty is the hardest risk to underwrite but if things break your way then you will be rewarded by it because the rewards for a company unlocking a new market or changing consumer behavior can be huge.
Happy birthday to
@llama_index
! It’s been amazing to watch how the community has made it easier to build AI applications! Thank you
@disiok
&
@jerryjliu0
and the entire community!
“Be generous with success and greedy with failure.” An adage that can’t be repeated enough. Share your wins. Own your losses. Leadership is sharing the good and shielding the bad. I am grateful for all those who shared their wins with me and I hope I can pay it forward.
Over 17 years ago,
@raghuraghuram
took a chance and gave me my first job as a product manager with the logic that “a PM is all about getting shit done.” I was lucky enough to do some great work as part of the early VMW team but I still owe him a few weekly status reports 😜
I am honored and thrilled to lead
@VMware
as the next CEO. We have an enormous opportunity in front of us and are uniquely poised to lead the multi-cloud computing era. http:/www.vmware.com/go/newceo
The next phase of the consumerization of IT is the where customer & employee experiences are transformed by chat, AI & mobile into instant action. Companies like
@askspoke
in help desk,
@gladly
in customer support, &
@blendlabsinc
in consumer lending.
Congrats to
@roskilli
@martin_c_mao
and the
@chronosphereio
team on the company's Chronoversary! Hard to believe it started with two founders and a business plan just 3 years ago to the industry changing company it is today! PS Who writes business plans?! 😜
VMware's corporate story has been anything but ordinary but it has become one of the defining technology companies over the past 20 years.
@Forbes
@AntoineGara
story here
They say I have a face for radio :-) so here’s the latest
@GreylockVC
Greymatter podcast with me and
@chrisyeh
talking about
#blitzscaling
enterprise startups
The team at
@RocksetCloud
is building a severless, schemaless, SQL data engine. It's been a privilege to work with such a talented team from the very beginning! More about
@GreylockVC
's seed and series A investment in Rockset here:
VMware was a big part of my career. I spent almost a decade there learning from some the best engineers and product leaders. I hope it continues to grow within Broadcom.
Broadcom, the semiconductor giant, said it has agreed to buy the software company VMware in a transaction valued at $61 billion.
It would be the world’s second-biggest proposed acquisition this year, according to data from Dealogic.
Two huge milestones for
@blendlabsinc
! First, Ann Mather joins the Blend board. Ann is the former CFO of Pixar and currently on the boards of Alphabet, Netflix, and AirBnB. Second, Blend raises $130M from Temasek and General Atlantic!
Congrats to
@joe_hellerstein
winner of the 2023 Sigmod Innovations award! It’s been a pleasure to know Joe as a
@GreylockVC
backed founder,
@UCBerkeley
professor, and a friend. Congratulations again!
3/ The second risk is Probabilities, or quantifiable risk. e.g. What is the probability you can build the tech, acquire users, hire a team, beat the competition? Different investors can look at the same company and come up with different probabilities and thus will differ.
5/ Uncertainties are often new markets, market expansion, or involve a consumer behavior change. Can you go from replacing taxis to redefining the future of all transportation? Is ephemeral messaging an enduring trend? Many consumer companies have high uncertainty risk.
Announcing Greylock's Fund 16 - a billion dollar fund, focused on consumer and enterprise tech at earliest stages. Grateful to the founders who invite us to share their journey; it’s our privilege to work with them
2/ The first risk is Possibility. Is this idea for a company or product even possible? Do I believe the founder's vision or not? e.g. Self-driving cars? Strangers renting my sofa? Running my apps in someone else's data center? Find an investor that believes in your vision.
we're searching for our next Greylock incubation! we have a deep track record of partnering with builders at their earliest stages with incubations like
@Workday
@PaloAltoNtwks
@Neeva
@inflectionAI
@magicaltome
+ many more. pls reach out if you're exploring something new!
"Everyone knows technology is going to be the future," says
@ReidHoffman
on
@GreylockVC
's new $500M fund for seed investing. "There's so much capital. The real question is not capital. The real question is company building."
Thank you all for standing by me. Hate must stop. No level or magnitude of racism is acceptable, and it will continue to be pervasive, whether overtly or closeted, unless we all speak out against it.
@KPIXtv
@KenBastidaKPIX
@ElizabethKPIX
@AndreaKPIX
What are the up-and-coming castles in the "cloud?" Greylock's Jerry Chen gives
@emilychangtv
the 360 degree view of the startups and giants in cloud technology
7/ Most enterprise investment decisions center on quantifiable risk because most startups are going after known markets and/or known problems, but with new solutions. The investment decision is what amount of risk will you underwrite, and at what price?
Thrilled to announce that
@saammotamedi
is our newest General Partner! We know that he will be a great partner to entrepreneurs building the next generation of foundational tech companies in data, ML, applied AI, application software, & cybersecurity.