Hi everyone,

Welcome to the 200th digest of The SandHill Newsletter!

As shared earlier in the week, I’ll be updating the newsletter with some new content and updates. After you go through the latest theses & insights, check out our new section – The Treasure Trove – with one of my all-time favorite venture blog posts.

– Ali

Investment Themes, Theses, & Outlooks

• Interest in GovTech (and gov-adjacent startups), and 6 specific strategies we're excited about (Ryan Morgan, Partner @ Crossbeam)

• Re-Imagining Core Systems in Legacy Industries (Brian Gong, VC @ Cameron VC)

• AI Unlocks Billions of Dollars for this One Group in Construction (Gabriella Monico & Jason Shuman, Primary)

Industry Developments & Analyses

• Anime Is Eating The World (Robin Guo & Jonathan Lai, A16Z)

• Where is the Budget for AI Coming From? (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Theory)

• AI & The Services as Software Era (Patrick McGovern, Sr. Associate @ Bowery)

• The age of AI enterprise applications… and consumer?? (Dan Jaeck, Principal @ Eniac)

• Fintech isn’t dead. AI is driving a new beginning (Angela Strange & James da Costa, A16Z)

• OpenAI and Anthropic Revenue Breakdown (Tanay Jaipuria, Partner @ Wing)

• The Rise of Service Robotics (Amit Kini, VC @ Lotus Capital)

• AI Agents: A New Architecture for Enterprise Automation (Menlo Ventures Team)

Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating

• How to Measure Product-Market Fit (First Round Review)

• A Startup Founder To Scaleup CEO’s Journey from $0 to $25billion (Brian Halligan for Sequoia)

• How we scaled this: Selecting, prioritizing, and engaging target accounts (Sydney Sloan for Scale)

• Selling Is Hard Right Now. Here’s How to Win Business in the Gen AI Era (A16Z Team)

• The Saboteurs That Threaten Innovation — And How to Handle Them (Steve Blank for First Round)

Additional Reads

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (Alfred Lin, GP @ Sequoia)

• The Margin of Trust (Rick Zullo, GP @ Equal Ventures)

• The Seed-Stage Reckoning (Euclid Ventures Team)

• When to do what you love (Paul Graham, Founder @ Y Combinator)

• Seed Valuations Aren’t Valuations (Nnamdi Iregbulem, Partner @ Lightspeed)

• How many ways can you make money? (Yoni Rechtman, Principal @ Slow)

• The Design of Everyday Things (Rex Woodbury, MP @ Daybreak)

• Big funds, small funds, and the changing tide (Jordan Nel, VC @ Hummingbird)

INTRODUCING

📜 The Treasure Trove: “Bye, Bye, Bluetooth” by Bill Gurley

Bill Gurley was one of the first venture investors to share his theses and learnings publicly on his blog Above the Crowd. His posts date back to the mid-90s and there are many timeless classics on market and business analyses.

In between these many great posts, one of my personal favorites by Bill is the 2001 post “Bye, Bye, Bluetooth” that predicted that Bluetooth - the protocol - was destined to fail.

It is time to say goodbye to Bluetooth, the much-marketed technology standard for connecting mobile devices wirelessly. Such a drastic statement is likely to draw criticism, especially from companies still hard at work on Bluetooth-related products. But the sooner those companies end their efforts, the better off they will probably be.

... 

But I come to bury Bluetooth, not to praise it. The odds are stacked heavily against this well-meaning standard. And while many Bluetooth loyalists are likely screaming something similar to the old man’s line in Monty Python’s Holy Grail—“I’m not dead yet!”—it is time to begin penning the eulogy.

... 

– “Bye, Bye, Bluetooth” Bill Gurley, August 13, 2001

Why is this a favorite? Because it shows that even the best in the game don't always get it right. And that you can have a few wrong theses and still end up becoming one of the greatest VCs of all time.

Sharing your predictions and theses publicly is never easy — especially when technology and the markets around us are changing so quickly. That's one of the many reasons why I have a lot of respect for everyone that shares their ideas publicly. And especially for investors like Bill that will leave their theses up even if they don’t pan out.

This is a new section highlighting some of the great posts from venture history. Have one you’d recommend? Just reply to this email or message me at ali [at] equal.vc.

Resources & more

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