<story><title>AI Playbook</title><url>http://aiplaybook.a16z.com</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>stanfordkid</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s really quite interesting how A16z is playing this. I&amp;#x27;ve been following the types of content that they release -- and I  think their vision is that the a16z brand can almost function as a consultancy with (not only) direct channels to the enterprise, but also deep technical knowledge of their problems. In the old world consultancies most of the money went to the partners -- but top engineers didn&amp;#x27;t get to rake in the profits.&lt;p&gt;In the modern world, top engineers can band together, raise VC funding, build some stupid app and get acqui-hired for 5-10x the salary. Huge discrepancies in comp.&lt;p&gt;The natural progression is that VC funds build channels and in-house expertise on technical problems in enterprise. Top engineers raise funding and are guided by partners towards solving these problems.&lt;p&gt;The new model is not that enterprises pay consultancies to solve problems, but instead, they form long standing trust based relationships with VC&amp;#x27;s who then fund companies that solve their problems (and profit when the companies  profit). A big part of making this differentiation happen is releasing content that educates leaders and implementers within such enterprises.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>roymurdock</author><text>A16z also needs to compete with the increasing growth of in-house VC firms such as GE Ventures, Verizon Ventures, Microsoft M12, The Alexa Fund (Amazon) etc. that are trying to incubate startups these companies have already identified as adjacent to their business&amp;#x2F;needed. Apparently today 75 of the fortune 100 have a dedicated corporate VC team [1].&lt;p&gt;The Alexa Fund is a good example - Amazon wants to create an ecosystem of innovation and development around Alexa voice technology, perhaps one of the clearer examples of AI today, and is shoveling cash into the space.&lt;p&gt;Big enterprises have brought the VC model in-house, closer to R&amp;amp;D and the problems they need to solve because most of these companies are flush with cash and facing a declining number of good ROI bets coming out of their actual R&amp;amp;D departments.&lt;p&gt;To stay relevant A16z needs to pick the SMB fruit that doesn&amp;#x27;t have access to its own in-house VC biz.&lt;p&gt;Notice how the document is aimed at people who own their own biz - &amp;quot;What can you do with AI?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Applying AI to your business&amp;quot; etc.&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;re hoping to stumble on SMB teams&amp;#x2F;problems that can solve a SMB problem quicker than a solution a huge enterprise can incubate in-house, then either scale it up to a late-round&amp;#x2F;pre IPO private company or sell it off to a large enterprise for the exit.&lt;p&gt;Agreed that part of that is just asking the question - have you thought about what this new technology could do for your SMB? As well as being a thought-leader in the space and putting out some educational docs so that people know A16z has a good handle on the latest AI craze and a framework for monetizing it.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;valleyvoices&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;14&amp;#x2F;corporate-vc-on-the-rise&amp;#x2F;#6fec09fdbbf2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;valleyvoices&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;14&amp;#x2F;corpora...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>AI Playbook</title><url>http://aiplaybook.a16z.com</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>stanfordkid</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s really quite interesting how A16z is playing this. I&amp;#x27;ve been following the types of content that they release -- and I  think their vision is that the a16z brand can almost function as a consultancy with (not only) direct channels to the enterprise, but also deep technical knowledge of their problems. In the old world consultancies most of the money went to the partners -- but top engineers didn&amp;#x27;t get to rake in the profits.&lt;p&gt;In the modern world, top engineers can band together, raise VC funding, build some stupid app and get acqui-hired for 5-10x the salary. Huge discrepancies in comp.&lt;p&gt;The natural progression is that VC funds build channels and in-house expertise on technical problems in enterprise. Top engineers raise funding and are guided by partners towards solving these problems.&lt;p&gt;The new model is not that enterprises pay consultancies to solve problems, but instead, they form long standing trust based relationships with VC&amp;#x27;s who then fund companies that solve their problems (and profit when the companies  profit). A big part of making this differentiation happen is releasing content that educates leaders and implementers within such enterprises.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jaoued</author><text>Another proof that strategy consultancies producing recommendation reports and advices and not getting involved in the implementation add no value versus the new model as you described above.</text></comment>