Everyday AI Podcast – An AI and ChatGPT Podcast - EP 484: The Next Frontier of Startups: Domain Experts in the Age of AI

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

Startups are changing quickly. That means Venture Capital is changing just as fast. 🏃‍♂️‍➡️And with that breakneck pace has emerged a surprising trend: the skyrocketing value of domain ...expertise.Today, we dive in with a startup and VC leader at NVIDIA. Newsletter: Sign up for our free daily newsletterMore on this Episode: Episode PageJoin the discussion: Thoughts on these stories? Join the conversationUpcoming Episodes: Check out the upcoming Everyday AI Livestream lineupWebsite: YourEverydayAI.comEmail The Show: info@youreverydayai.comConnect with Jordan on LinkedInTopics Covered in This Episode:Changing Landscape of AI and Startup EcosystemNVIDIA's VC Alliance and Startup SupportRole of NVIDIA Beyond GPUsNVIDIA Inception Program and VC AllianceStartup Progression to VC AllianceIncreasing Integration of AI in StartupsRole of Domain Experts in StartupsEvolution from Tech-focused to Problem-focused StartupsChallenges for VCs and Startups in Rapid AI InnovationImportance of Domain Expertise in AI-driven StartupsTrends in Venture Capital and Startup Strategies with AITimestamps:00:00 "Everyday AI: NVIDIA GTC Live Coverage"04:06 VC Alliance: Inception Program Subset08:17 AI Opportunities for Non-Tech Companies10:36 "VCs Value Deep Problem Understanding"13:09 AI Research vs. Human Expertise18:39 Product Market vs. Investment Challenges19:54 VCs Cautious in AI Investments22:33 Entrepreneurial Opportunities for Laid-Off Experts28:11 Leverage AI for Research Insights30:25 Domain Experts’ Unique Value31:47 "Daily AI Tune-In"Keywords:Generative AI, Venture Capital, NVIDIA GTC, Startup Ecosystem, Industry Experts, AI Optimization, AI Implementation, NVIDIA VC Alliance, Inception Program, GPU, Software, Open Source Models, Platform Support, Investment Side, Portfolio Companies, Domain Experts, Large Language Models, Commoditization of Knowledge, AI Integration, AI Landscape, Problem Solving, AI Accessibility, AI-Powered Startups, Rebalancing Ecosystem, Customer Reach, Product Market Fit, Breakneck Pace, Traction, AI Innovations, AI Day for VCs.Send Everyday AI and Jordan a text message. (We can't reply back unless you leave contact info) Start Here ▶️Not sure where to start when it comes to AI? Start with our Start Here Series. You can listen to the first drop -- Episode 691 -- or get free access to our Inner Cricle community and all episodes: StartHereSeries.com Also, here's a link to the entire series on a Spotify playlist. 

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This is the Everyday AI Show, the everyday podcast where we simplify AI and bring its power to your fingertips. Listen daily for practical advice to boost your career, business, and everyday life. Meet Firefly AI Assistant, now live in Adobe Firefly, the all-in-one creative AI studio. Just describe what you want to create and the assistant handles the rest, orchestrating multi-step workflows across Photoshop, Premiere Express, and more in one conversational interface. You direct the outcome. The assistant accelerates execution. Changing so quickly.
Starting point is 00:00:46 I mean, with everything that's happening in generative AI, you know if you listen to this show, things are changing, not even by the week, by the day, almost hourly, right? So not only are the tools and the capabilities changing so quickly that startups have access to, but it also changes things on the venture capital site as well. All of these groups that are investing in these startups that are, so many of us use, right? So even if you're not in the startup ecosystem or in venture capital, I think today's conversation is going to be especially relevant because what's happening in the startup and what's happening here at NVIDIA GTC is going to be changing how we all work in
Starting point is 00:01:26 the near future. All right. I'm excited for today's conversation. I hope you are too. What's going on y'all? My name's Jordan Wilson and welcome to a special edition of Everyday AI. This is your daily live stream podcast and free daily newsletter, helping us all not just keep up with what's happening in the world of generative AI, but how we can all actually leverage it to get ahead to grow our companies and to grow our careers. So if you listen to on the podcast, you might not hear anything different, but if you're on the live stream, you definitely see that we are live here at the Nvidia GTC conference, the eyes of not just the AI world and the tech world, but I think the eyes of the business world are on what's happening here at GTC. And we're very happy and excited to be
Starting point is 00:02:06 partnering with Nvidia to bring you a lot of exclusive insights in interviews from industry experts. So let's just get straight into it. Speaking of industry experts and startups, that's what we're talking about today. So please help me. Welcome to the show, Alia Babou, who is the platform manager for the Nvidia VC Alliance. Thank you so much for joining the show. Yeah, I'm glad to be here. All right.
Starting point is 00:02:29 So tell me a little bit about what you do. What do you do as the Nvidia or sorry, the platform manager for the VC Alliance? Yeah, so NVIDIA's VC Alliance is really our program to support BCs that are investing in the AI ecosystem. So we work with VCs on kind of the two aspects that, you know, VCs work on. So investment and portfolio support. So on the investment side, we are really working with VCs to bring them cool startups that we see, that they're excited about, and potentially want to invest in. And on the platform support side, we're kind of working with VCs.
Starting point is 00:03:06 to support their portfolio companies on AI optimization, AI implementation, really helping them figure out how we can help their startup scale more quickly. So I think when most people hear Invidia, they think GPU. They think of the company that's powering AI, but they don't necessarily, unless you're in the space, I think a lot of people don't know everything that Nvidia does on the VC side, on the startup side. So let's maybe start there. Nvidia has is supporting thousands of startups.
Starting point is 00:03:39 How does this all work, right? Because, yeah, people just think, oh, GPU chips. Infinity is more than that. That is definitely true. And we do have GPUs. That is part of what we do. But other than that, you know, we also have a lot of software that startups can use to, again, you know,
Starting point is 00:03:57 kind of work on their AI. We have access to a lot of models. We, you know, provide access to a lot of. lot of open source models, which can be really useful for startups. So really, there's a lot on the software side that we're doing that, you know, startups get discounts and, you know, competing credit. So a lot of other things, aside from GPUs, that a startup needs to kind of run their AIs. Yeah. And if you've listened to the show before, we featured some of the startups in the inception program at V-NVIDIA. So how does the VC alliance in the inception program, how did those two
Starting point is 00:04:33 entities work together? Yeah, so the VC alliance kind of fits, I would say, sort of like, inside the Inception program in the sense that we specifically work with portfolio companies of VCs. So Inception, you know, as you might know, as really
Starting point is 00:04:49 a program for startups in general, they get a lot of access to support on kind of, you know, software and hardware and things like that. But we are specifically working with the portfolio companies of VCs on, you know, a similar type of thing. again, support and figuring out how they can, you know, better build their AIs.
Starting point is 00:05:08 So it's kind of just like a subsect of inception. And, you know, where does that kind of handoff take place, right? Because, you know, I know there's tens of thousands, right, of startups in the Nvidia Inception program. You know, how do the startups in there, right? Because I know we have a lot of, you know, startup founders listening to the show. Where does it get to the point where they start working? more on your side, right, versus just being in this big umbrella of support that is the
Starting point is 00:05:38 Invigian session program. Yeah, so I would say for a lot of startups, what can happen is their VCs will actually recommend them to us, so through us, and we're able to kind of direct them to the support that they need. So I would say if you're a startup that wants a little bit more support from Inception, what I would recommend is if you have a VC backer to get them to, you know, email us or kind of reach out to us on the VC Alliance team, and we can kind of work with that startup on a more personalized level.
Starting point is 00:06:09 Okay. So it's almost like, you know, like a bring your own VC, right? Like a startup, if they're in the inception program, they can bring their funder, their VC under the VC alliance. Exactly. Yes, they can do that as well. Okay, cool. So before we get into kind of how, you know, venture capital and startups are changing so
Starting point is 00:06:29 much right now in this concept of domain expertise. share a little bit about your background because I think that's going to be especially helpful for our viewers and listeners to know because you have a PhD in AI yeah yeah so I started off doing my PhD actually did it in astrophysics and AI so basically looking at you know astrophysics has a lot of large data how can we use AI to process that more quickly so that was where I started and then I left and I kind of joined to the investment side so I joined Morgan's family first building building AI models to predict the stock market.
Starting point is 00:07:05 And then I left for the kind of private investment side and adjoined the VC space. Okay. Yeah, now I'm here. Yeah, and it's such a great combination of your, of your background and your current role. It's pretty cool. But let's maybe hit rewind first because I think the startup ecosystem has changed so much, right? Especially over the last year or three, but even before that, you know, can you maybe bring us up to date? because, you know, as an example, yeah, five, ten years ago, there were still startups working in AI.
Starting point is 00:07:36 Artificial Intelligence isn't new. But now it seems like, I don't know, maybe every startup is AI power or AI-infused, AI something. You know, where are we at just in terms of kind of the current landscape of the startup ecosystem when it comes to AI integration? Yeah, I think that's definitely true. I remember back when I was doing my PhD, you would see almost no startups kind of advertising that they were using AI. And I think that maybe partly was because less people have heard of AI. So it wasn't as exciting as it is today. But yeah, now I think, you know, AI is a lot more accessible.
Starting point is 00:08:11 You know, even just if you look at like models, like LLMs, they're a lot easier to use. You can kind of plug in your own data and get a lot of outputs that are very customized. So definitely I think a lot more accessible than they were maybe five years ago. So yeah, I think you're seeing a lot more startups starting to use it. And a lot more startups that are starting to, I think, you know, really use it in some really interesting ways. Can startups really thrive if they're not, you know, if AI isn't an integral part of their operations?
Starting point is 00:08:42 Like, are there still like, you know, the equivalent of like offline startups? I mean, I think there definitely are. And I think I sometimes see some of them. And we kind of have these conversations about, like, where they can use AI to, like, optimize what they're doing. So, you know, for example, there was a company that I was talking to that was in the fashion space, and they were like, AI is not really applicable to us. And I was like, well, you can actually use AI to like optimize on the back end of what you're doing to find customers or grow your presence or, you know, even just like optimize your supply chain, for example.
Starting point is 00:09:19 So I think there's a lot of things that, you know, like companies can do on the AI side that even if they're not necessarily in the AI space, they can leverage them. to kind of scale a lot faster than they would have maybe five years ago. Yeah. So I want to get to kind of a little bit how I opened the show in talking about this idea of domain experts and how, you know, AI is really changing the startup landscape. What the heck is a domain expert and what is their, you know, their current and evolving role when it comes to working in startups? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:53 So I like to think of a domain expert as someone who really understands a problem. I don't think there has to be, you know, a specific type of expertise. Like, they don't have to necessarily be a product manager or, you know, an AI expert, but just someone who has really kind of worked in the space and tried to understand the problem that they're trying to solve. So, you know, they could be someone who's worked in sales for, you know, 10 or 15 years and has really seen kind of the space evolve, understands the problems, the pain points, all of those kinds of things. I would say, you know, they're probably a domain expert. really understand, you know, what's going on and kind of what needs to be done to make the
Starting point is 00:10:28 space, you know, sort of run more smoothly. Yeah, I think, you know, I've always had this thought when you talk about startups. It's, you know, some, you know, fresh college grad, you know, in a hoodie, just, you know, coding in their, you know, coding in their norm room, right? Going back to, you know, kind of Facebook, right? Like, I think that's what a lot of people think of. Have you seen this in your role so far? Have you seen this change, right?
Starting point is 00:10:53 this concept of, you know, now domain experts are maybe more important than, you know, the recent, you know, Harvard, CS, like how many, you know, CS students from Harvard and Stanford do you have on your team? Yeah, I mean, I think you probably still need those, but I have seen from a lot of conversations with VCs more recently that, like, they are looking for people who really, truly, deeply understand the problems that they're trying to solve. And I think that is because, as I said, AI is becoming more accessible. And I think that's really great, but that means that in order to differentiate yourself, you need to be doing something.
Starting point is 00:11:29 And that means that if you know a problem better than anyone else on the earth, you're probably going to be able to solve it maybe slightly better. So that's kind of what, you know, I hear from a lot of these things these days. Yeah. Are you seeing or hearing from conversations that you're having like a shift toward an emphasis on, you know, having, you know, maybe, you know, kind of quote on for mid-career professionals like, you know, powering or being a big part of a startup team. Like, are you seeing this shift happen? Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, even like a year ago or eight months ago, everyone was just like, let's invest in AI.
Starting point is 00:12:08 And then you were seeing a lot of those young grads kind of getting a lot of investment. And I think now what I'm seeing is that VCs want to be a little bit more picky about what they're investing in, a little bit more careful. I think we've seen AI change really quickly in the last. the last year. So now I am seeing that they really want to be investing in people, I think, who understand the problems that they're solving. How much of it, and, you know, maybe, maybe I'm wrong here, but I mean, how much of it could be attributed to large language models just becoming more capable, right? Like, I mean, these models now, when we talk about the
Starting point is 00:12:46 commoditization of knowledge, right? Is that like, does that have anything to do with why domain, expertise now is maybe more important than it was a year ago, three years ago, just because knowledge is more and more accessible to anyone that can, you know, sit behind a chat GPT or a clot or something like that. Yeah, I mean, I think that's definitely true. You know, I was actually just recently talking to a VC that's attached to a consulting firm and they were saying that, you know, for example, they are more and more leveraging LLMs instead of analysts.
Starting point is 00:13:19 But that wasn't the case for their senior manager. that they still really, you know, needed those people because they knew the problem. They knew how to solve them. They knew how to work with clients, all those, you know, skills. And so they were able to actually replace, you know, those people who really had a deeper knowledge of kind of the space that they were working in. So I think it's exactly that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:38 And, you know, you bring up a point which I have a lot of hot takes on, but even this concept of, like, you know, deep research, right? You see all the, all the AI labs coming out with these deep research, right? Open AI and XAI with GROC and Google, right, all of these, you know, a lot of, and video partners coming out with these, you know, tools that just research really at the level that, you know, entry level management consultant might be operating. Exactly. Right.
Starting point is 00:14:06 So, you know, when it comes to domain expertise, how those people, right, like if you look at these reports that these, you know, LLMs can generate in, you know, two to 30 minutes and, you know, a domain expert looks and they're like, wow, you know, that would take me many hours or multiple days, and they're wondering, like, okay, I know that I have talents, I have backgrounds, right, in sales or marketing or whatever it is, how can domain experts still find their way in the startup ecosystem when the tools available are becoming exponentially more powerful? Yeah, I mean, I think this kind of starts to go into like the esoteric, you know,
Starting point is 00:14:42 with AI. But what I would say is that, you know, even if, like, you know, a deep research report comes out that AI has generated. I think it still takes someone who understands that domain to kind of go back to what we were talking about to actually be able to say, like, what do I do with this information? How do I put it into action or how do I put it into, you know, to create a startup with it that is actually able to do something useful? So I think there's still a lot of space around how do we use information that still requires,
Starting point is 00:15:12 I think, people who have had a lot of expertise, like turning, you know, what their experiences have been or what they're, you know, what research they've collected into sort of actionable insights. One thing that I love about NVIDIA and, you know, learning from, you know, experts at VINIA, such as yourself, is the collaborative environment at NVIDIA, right? You know, if you're at one of the AI labs, you know, I think it's so super competitive, right? But, in India, you know, your partners were just about everyone because everyone uses your technology to build their AI.
Starting point is 00:15:44 So with that in mind, right, I'm sure that you're working with, venture capitalists and startups, you know, working across many different fields and sectors, what are you seeing like common trends, right? You know, whether it's on the VC side or the startup side, when it comes to AI, where's some common trends that you're starting to see right now? Adobe just introduced an entirely new way to create, bringing the power and precision of its creative suite into one conversational experience. Meet Firefly AI Assistant, now live in the Adobe Fire.
Starting point is 00:16:21 Firefly app, the all-in-one creative AI studio. Powered by Adobe's creative agent, Firefly AI assistant lets you start with your vision, just describe what you want, and shape the outcome as it takes form with the assistant. The assistant orchestrates multi-step workflows, drawing on 60 plus pro-grade tools across Adobe Creative Cloud apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier,
Starting point is 00:16:44 Lightroom Express, and more to help bring your ideas to life. You can also get started with creative skills, a growing library of pre-built workflows for common creative tasks like batch editing photos, creating mood boards, portrait retouching, and creating social variations. Every step the assistant takes is visible so you can refine, redirect, or take over at any time. You stay in the driver's seat as the creative director. Adobe Firefly AI assistant now in public beta. See it today at firefly.adobie.com.
Starting point is 00:17:21 Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, as you said, we kind of are sort of, this node in like the ecosystem of startups and VCs. So I think we work across like a lot of sectors. We work across like a lot of different kinds of companies, whether they're more on the application side or, you know, on the deeper kind of AI side. But I would say like again, you know, I think one of the trends that I've really seen is is sort of this idea that you're starting to see like startups that I think are a lot smaller and a lot more like kind of laser focused on. I would say like more narrow problems and then they're trying to solve them more deeply. What does that mean? Like how can startups find that that narrow application for, you know,
Starting point is 00:18:05 their app or their SaaS? Like how can they find that? Because I think that's so important. Yeah. It moves so fast. It does move really fast. I would say though, I think, again, I think if you've kind of worked in a space and you know what the pain points are, you probably know what pain points can be easily solved by like an AI that might come out tomorrow, you know, or that, you know, chat GPT might build on top of or build something that's easily kind of replaceable versus problems that I think are harder and maybe more complex to solve that require like, you know, your sort of intimate knowledge to actually go about, you know, making change. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:42 And that's a great point that you bring up because, you know, all of the big AI labs are continually, you know, putting out. new and easy to use infrastructure. As an example, OpenAI just released their agents SDK. I believe last week, yeah. It's hard when I do this every day. I'm like, was that last week or was that like three months ago? But I mean, how can startups even begin to deal with the pace of innovation at the big AI
Starting point is 00:19:12 labs, right? Because you could spend, you know, six months a year, 18 months building something. And then all of a sudden, one of the big AI labs comes out and releases. something and you're like, that's what we've been working on. Yeah. I mean, I think like competition is going to exist. I think it's part of the world that we live in now. So
Starting point is 00:19:30 I would say probably for a startup, again, you know, I think this is more on like my personal opinion. I think it's a matter of you know, getting customers and kind of again, making sure that, you know, you're really kind of solving the problems in a unique way because I think
Starting point is 00:19:46 that's really what's going to allow you to thrive in a world where everyone is trying to come up with the same ideas in some sons. Yeah. What, I mean, what advice, you know, because I'm sure that you hear both from on the venture capital side and the startup side,
Starting point is 00:20:00 is it getting increasing, you know, I'm observing from the outside, do you think it's getting increasingly harder for, you know, these companies, not just to, you know, find product market fit, but to actually, you know, get the users, get the paying users,
Starting point is 00:20:16 get the traction because of everything that's happening, right, at the big AI labs. It's just a sheer, great pace of large language models. Yeah, I mean, I would argue, you know, to disagree slowly, I would argue that product market has probably always been difficult. I don't know that I would naturally say it's more difficult today than it was five years ago. And in fact, you know, I might say that it might actually be slightly easier because I think, you know, companies are more open to the idea of using like innovative startups
Starting point is 00:20:46 or, you know, technology to, you know, do what they're doing. and quicker and better and all those kinds of things. But I would say definitely on the investment side, I do think it is becoming more difficult than it was three years ago when every VC wanted to invest in AI. And now you're not seeing that as much. So I think there's something maybe like a rebalancing of the ecosystem that's happening right now.
Starting point is 00:21:09 Yeah. And it won't be on the VC side because I can only imagine, you know, maybe if you were, you know, 2020, 2021, you know, investing in some early AI startups, there's probably a decent level of confidence there. Is it harder to feel confidence in large investments now in 2025 when the pace is so fast? And maybe walk us through what a lot of these VC groups are, maybe not struggling with, but what are the challenges of being able to keep up?
Starting point is 00:21:39 Yeah, I think it's definitely hard now because we've seen, as you said, startups that they've invested in that we're doing really well. and then, you know, a big kind of AI company comes out and says, okay, we've actually, you know, done exactly what you're doing. And, you know, people are going to more likely to use their products over a startup's product. So I think, you know, definitely thesees, I think, are becoming a little bit more cautious from what I've seen, which is not to say that they're less enthusiastic about AI because I think everyone knows that, you know, there's a lot of really, really exciting applications in AI, but just more, you know, cautious around which investments they, make. And so I think, you know, VCs from that, from what I've heard, are sort of, you know, starting to think a little bit more about how do we think about how AI is changing business models, how do we think about, you know, innovation and AI. How do we predict to what the next,
Starting point is 00:22:33 you know, a thing that a big AI company is going to come out with so that we can make sure that our startups are sort of like well positioned for, you know, the next five years. Yeah. And, you know, I'm curious. What are you doing right now to, you know, ensure that outcome as best as possible, right? I think they're going to predict the future, but, you know, what are you all doing to ensure that both the VCs and the startups, right, will be able to have an inception program or ones that you're working more directly with? What are those common steps that you're taking to make sure that they're as set up for success as possible? Yeah, so, you know, tomorrow we have the AI day for VCs, which I think is, you know,
Starting point is 00:23:12 one of the ways that we are trying to equip VCs to sort of have an understanding. of what is happening in the AI landscape and how does it affect their investment decision-making. So I think that's one thing. You know, feces in the Alliance also get access to our industry insights, which, again, is meant to sort of be a more like year-round, you know, information on how should they be thinking about AI, what are the trends, what are the challenges, you know, what are the exciting areas that maybe are open spaces for investment. So that's kind of, I would say, on the D.C. side.
Starting point is 00:23:48 And on the startup side, you know, again, we work with a lot of startups. I would say, you know, even startups that are not necessarily using AI right now, but maybe could be. And that could help them scale, that could have them, you know, get customers, you know, increase their customer reach. So I think those are some of the things that, you know, we're doing to kind of equip startups to succeed. And of course, you know, when those startups succeed and we're working with them, we also succeed. So we're very motivated to make sure that they do well. Yeah. You know, getting back to this, you know, this concept of domain experts, right?
Starting point is 00:24:24 I always, you know, have people that I picture in my mind who are, you know, maybe in their 40s. And, you know, I know now, unfortunately, there's also, you know, huge layoffs going around in the tech industry. And one thing I always point out is, like, what better time, right, for someone with 20 years of experience in sales or, you know, 20 years of experience in telco, right, to be able to come in and, you know, build something from scratch. It seems like there's no better time. You know, what's your kind of advice to those domain experts who are maybe now looking at being an entrepreneur for the first time?
Starting point is 00:25:03 I mean, I would say 100% like if they have a really cool idea, I mean, it's definitely a great time to be kind of acting on it. Again, as I said, you know, I think a lot of VCs are really looking for that. So, you know, it's almost better to be that domain expert building a company now, maybe than it was like two years ago where VCs were definitely more excited about, I would say, like, any of the novel AI applications, and now they're sort of shifting a little bit. So I think you may have even a better chance of kind of getting funded. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:34 Yeah. And speaking about what VCs are. excited about, you know, I feel, you know, maybe five to 10 years ago, uh, startups were, we're very proud of their like headcount, right? They're like, oh, we've raised this much money and, you know, we have, you know, 500 employees or, you know, 80 employees, right? It doesn't, I don't know, from the outside that doesn't seem super impressive to me anymore, uh, you know, especially with, you know, now you can go in and, you know, in the weekend and via code, you know, MVP, right, and get something up and running and working. Uh, you know, you know,
Starting point is 00:26:07 What do you think, you know, or maybe talk a little bit, have you seen a similar shift where people were maybe more concerned about the number of people and now maybe what are they concerned or focus on more with all the recent advancements? Yeah. So I think I mentioned this. I think kind of the VC ecosystem is sort of going through this like rebalancing. And I think as a result of that, VCs are trying to be a little bit more cautious, a little bit more prudent. And so I think you're seeing VCs that, you know, want to see that companies have customers or they have some, you know, traction becoming, I think, a lot more important than it was, again, you know, a few years ago, you could definitely have a company that got funded that had no customers. And I think you're seeing that a lot less often now. So I think it's important to kind of make sure that, you know, you have a product that's working, that you have customers that are using it.
Starting point is 00:26:59 those kinds of things are becoming a lot more important as metrics, which, you know, they were as well, you know, seven, ten years ago. So I think we're kind of, you know, seeing that sort of rebalance. Yeah. What's still, you know, and I'm sure the rebalancing process is evergreen, right? It's continually like rebalancing, but what would you say right now in this kind of, you know, venture capital startup ecosystem? One of the things that kind of need the most, right, rebalancing? Is it people that are still, you know, working, you know, as if it was five years ago and there's no AI, is the people that aren't maybe talking to customers enough? What is the, you know, in this day and age of AI everywhere, what's the biggest part of that relationship
Starting point is 00:27:41 that needs to rebalance? I think it's probably kind of trying to fuse the two things, right? Like, how does AI sort of work with a model where we now want to have customers, we now want to see more traction than, you know, we did maybe like three years ago. So I think it's a question of like that balance between building a product, building something that's like unique and interesting, you know, probably that uses AI in some way, but at the same time still kind of taking that maybe, you know, quote unquote like old school approach and actually going out and finding customers. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:28:15 What's, you know, I'm sure there's very few people, you know, and few companies that can, sit in the position that you're in, right? Because you have relationships with all of these, you know, the big companies, the small startups. But, you know, if you were sitting across the table from someone who's watching an exciting startup today, what's the advice that you're giving them? So I would say that probably two things. I think one, you know, as I sort of said, I think, you know, really understanding the problem
Starting point is 00:28:47 that you're solving. And I think that is, you know, on two sides. So there's the technology side, right? Understanding kind of how you're building technology. And then I think there's the customer side. So understanding the customers that that technology is then serving. And I would say like those probably are the two really important things that I'm seeing. And so I would say, you know, you definitely want to make sure you have both.
Starting point is 00:29:13 You know, no one wants to see as often kind of the, you know, AI applications that are going to be sort of obsolete in six months. but at the same time, you know, a really interesting AI company that doesn't know what whose customer is is also not interesting. So I think definitely having both of those is important. Yeah. Similarly, on the venture capital side, because I know we have a lot of people in the VC industry listening to the show, what would you tell them, right? Because, you know, I can only imagine how much more difficult their jobs are getting because it's like every day there's like a thousand new startup that do, you know, ABC. and five years ago there or none, so what would you say to someone on the VC side?
Starting point is 00:29:56 So I would actually say to leverage AI as much as possible to kind of try to do some of that deeper research so that you can really stay abreast of all of the kind of AI innovations and developments that are happening. And I know there's so much information out there, which is why I say, you know, leverage AI to some extent. But I think it just kind of helps to kind of know sort of where AI is going and sort of what the challenges are,
Starting point is 00:30:21 and what the innovations are to be able to kind of figure out what the white space is and kind of where you want to be investing. So I'm sure there's going to be a lot of news coming out in the next couple of days. We probably can't talk about all of it yet at this moment. But, you know, for, you know, startups, VCs that are looking at what's happening here at GTC, because there's a lot. You mentioned, you know, the AI day tomorrow. But what do you think they should be looking at that's happening here? at GTC. I mean, I think, you know, definitely AI Day for VCs is always, you know, something that I think is going to be super useful for startups and for VCs, but I would say Jensen's keynote is probably,
Starting point is 00:31:03 and I'm sure everyone says this, but I think, you know, it's going to be sort of a good kind of overarching sort of like summary and highlight of, you know, where AI is going and also what are some of the new things that are coming out. And I think everything in that speech will be useful for both startups who are thinking about where they should be building, and BCs who are thinking about where they should be investing. Yeah. It's always good, right? I always re-listen to his keynotes and I'm like, wait, this changes how I think about
Starting point is 00:31:34 business, right? It changes how I think about work. So it should be exciting. So we've covered a lot in today's conversation, right, talking about things on the venture capital side, the startup side, you know, the ever-evolving role of domain experts. But maybe as we wrap up, you know, let's just double down on that. What is your biggest takeaway from those domain experts, right?
Starting point is 00:31:56 When it comes to, you know, maybe companies that should be looking at them to hire them, whether it's looking at, you know, domain experts that are trying to build something on their own, what's your biggest takeaway for domain experts today? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, in the age of AI, you know, everyone is a little bit worried that, you know, the information that they provide is not, as good as what an AI would provide. So I would say to those domain experts that I think they really have something that's kind of unique in the sense that they have a lot more, I would say, practice almost processing
Starting point is 00:32:34 the information from their specific domains and kind of knowing what to do with it. And I think that is a skill that is super useful, whether they're working at a company or building their own and so I would definitely encourage them to leverage that. All right. Great advice all around. So Alian, thank you so much for joining the everyday AI show. We really appreciate it. Yeah, it was great to be here.
Starting point is 00:32:56 Thank you for having me. All right. We're going to have a lot more for you this week and next week. Like I said, the entire business world, tech world, AI world is just looking at what's happening this week at the Nvidia GTC conference. And we're going to be here bringing it to you live. from great experts like we just heard today. So if this was helpful, I hope it was,
Starting point is 00:33:20 make sure you go to your EverydayAI.com. Sign up for that free daily news. We're going to be recapping today's conversation as well as speaking of the keynote, right? As soon as that drops, we're going to have all of the information out there for you. So thank you for tuning in. We hope to see you back tomorrow and every day
Starting point is 00:33:35 for more Everyday AI. Thanks, y'all. Meet Firefly AI Assistant. Now live in Adobe Firefly, the Allman One Creative AI Studio. Just describe what you want to create in your own words and the assistant handles the rest, orchestrating multi-step workflows across Adobe Creative Cloud apps, including Photoshop, Premiere Express, and more in one conversational interface.
Starting point is 00:34:04 You direct the outcome while the assistant accelerates execution. Stand control with the ability to step in and refine at any time. See it today at firefly.adopi.com. And that's a wrap for today's edition of Everyday AI. Thanks for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a race. It helps keep us going. For a little more AI magic, visit your everyday AI.com and sign up to our daily newsletter so you don't get left behind.
Starting point is 00:34:38 Go break some barriers and we'll see you next time.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.