Jake Saper, GP at Emergence Capital
It was a privilege to have Jake Saper, a General Partner at Emergence Capital and one of the thought leaders in the venture capital space, join us at Icons.
Chyngyz Dzhumanazarov and I summarized some key insights from our enlightening discussion with him below - enjoy!
- Assessing true product-market fit is critical for success. "Fake" fit with different customer segments using a product in very different ways can lead to failure.
- In the early days, usage data can be a leading indicator of future success, more so than lagging indicators like past bookings. In general, depth of product love is more important than breadth early on.
- Consumer GenAI-enabled applications currently outpace enterprise/B2B applications, with companionship through chatbots being a major use case. However, consumer applications face challenges with monetization and retaining users once the novelty wears off. We’re starting to see compelling enterprise GenAI applications emerge. User retention will be critical here as well.
- Jake is testing multiple hypotheses in the space, such as: whether services businesses can successfully be productized using generative AI capabilities, how pricing/business models around generative AI applications will see significant innovation (e.g., outcome-based pricing like charging per issue resolved vs. seat/usage based models), and how counter-positioning against incumbents, such as through alternative UX paradigms, may create opportunities for startups.
- Over time, defensibility for GenAI-enabled applications could come from proprietary outcomes data; knowing what interventions lead to the best business outcomes in a given domain could allow startups to drive compounding value (e.g., Ironclad knowing what clauses lead to faster contract close times).
- Bonus: Jake shared a framework he used when thinking of his career at a business school. It’s a 2x2 matrix to analyze different paths based on the breadth of content focus vs. level of agency/upside (illustration below). He plotted different roles on this grid and decided for himself which career path would work best for him:
Consulting - very broad content focus with little agency over outcomes (bottom left)
Starting a company - highly focused with high upside/downside (was top right)
Joining a startup - varies depending on role/stage (but generally bottom right)
Venture capital - more agency/upside than an employee, but still less than a founder
Thank you Jake Saper for your amazing insights and original thoughts! Our community learned so much from you!
