How to buy an AI solution the right way: 7 questions new customers should consider

Welcome to TechCrunch+ Tuesday

The global SaaS market is always expanding, but it’s hard to focus on TAM when you have less than 12 months of runway.

Since a typical B2B sales cycle takes several months, shortening the average time to close is the best strategy for keeping the lights on.

That’s why more startups are using “permissionless” pilot programs, according to Jake Jolis of Matrix Partners.

With permissionless pilots, teams use “public, customer-specific data” to show sales prospects “exactly what the experience would look and feel like when used on their own data.”

These programs draw data from public records, which can include SEC filings, search engine results or even birth and death records. As a result, “the world is your oyster,” says Polis.

His article includes exercises that will help generate ideas for pilot programs, along with a few suggestions for public data sources.

Thanks for reading TC+ this week!

Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+

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How to buy an AI solution the right way: 7 questions new customers should consider

Investors are far more pragmatic than entrepreneurs when it comes to new tools and technology: A founder wants to know what the tech can do, but an investor is much more likely to inquire about which problems it solves.

With that in mind, Yousuf Khan (partner, Ridge Ventures) wrote an “enterprise buyer scorecard” for companies considering AI-based solutions.

If you’re looking for an investor’s perspective on how AI provides tangible value, you’ll want to read this one.

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4 founders give us their take on what’s ahead for construction tech

Karan Bhasin interviewed four construction tech founders to get their takes on where the industry is headed — and the challenges it’s facing along the way:

• Ritwik Pavan, founder and CEO, Krava
• James Swanston, founder and CEO, Voyage Control
• Constantin Kauffmann, co-founder and CEO, Oculai
• Yosh Rozen, founder and CEO, PartRunner

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Watered-down SEC fund disclosure changes still worth paying attention to

The Securities and Exchange Commission posted new disclosure guidelines last month aimed at boosting “transparency, competition, and efficiency in the private funds market,” the agency announced in a press release.

Even though “the rules that the SEC passed were a watered-down version of the initial proposals,” Rebecca Szkutak says, “there are still a few things that VCs should pay attention to — especially emerging managers.”

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All that fintech investment had a real impact on banking penetration in Latin America

Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm covered the latest yearly report by Atlantico, a VC firm that backs early-stage startups in Latin America.

“As the global venture capital market has contracted, Latin American startups have raised significantly less than they used to compared to other markets that TechCrunch tracks,” they wrote.

“This is not a new trend by any means, but the figures are stark now that we’re more than halfway through 2023.”

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