SandHill.io aggregates and shares the latest investment themes, market insights, and best practices for operating and investing from 700+ VCs, analysts, and operators.

This newsletter curates a selection of posts featured on the website each week.

Investment Themes, Theses, & Outlooks

• The Next Standard Oil Will Be Built in Mining (Nkechi Iregbulem, Principal @ MVP Ventures)

• What to Watch in 2025 (Shravan Narayen, Partner @ IVP)

• Five Predictions for AI in 2025 (Vivek Ramaswami & Sabrina Wu, Madrona)

• 2025 Predictions (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Theory)

• Top 10 AI Trends & Predictions for 2025: A Platform Shift in the Making (Sapphire Ventures Team)

• 2024 → 2025: The Year Ahead in AI (Nikunj Kothari, VC @ Khosla)

Industry Developments & Analyses

• Vertical Integration: Model vs Product Companies (Akash Bajwa, Principal @ Earlybird)

• Agents + Agencies: Building Tomorrow's Moats (Zain Rizavi, Principal @ Ridge)

• The Rise of VPPs: A Grid Solution Whose Time Has Finally Come (Grace Penders & Tyler Lancaster, Equal & Energize)

• Why AI Is Good for Our Health but May Hurt Our Wallets (Morgan Cheatham, VP @ Bessemer)

• Pharmacogenomics: Personalizing Medications for Better Outcomes (Amit Kini, VC @ Lotus Capital)

• Robotics: A Product Selection Problem (Jordan Nel, VC @ Hummingbird)

Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating

• Selling Smarter: AI SDRs and the Future of Prospecting (Sapphire Ventures Team)

• Everything in Business is About Fighting Entropy — Here’s How Rippling Does It (First Round Review)

• Emerging Wedges in Vertical AI Startups (Tanay Jaipuria, Partner @ Wing VC)

• How to differentiate your product (Kyle Poyar, Partner @ Tremont)

• How to Price Your AI-First Product (Medha Agarwal, GP @ Defy)

Additional Reads

• Four Futures (USV Team)

• Full stack startups, revisited (Aashay Sanghvi, Partner @ Haystack)

• Four Blog Posts I Didn't Publish This Year (Charles Hudson, GP @ Precursor)

• ServiceTitan’s Series A Memo (Bessemer Team)

• 2024 Revealed the Cracks in Our Social Contract: It's Time We Invest in Social Infrastructure (Youssef Kalad, VC @ AlleyCorp)

• Repeat Founders and the Risk of a False Positive (Rob Go, GP @ NextView)

Resources & more

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