During SF Tech Week, I participated as a panelist in How AI-Native Companies Are Built. I had the chance to sit down with:
- Benny Liao, VC at Acorn Pacific Venture
- Jason Hu, founder of Nexad
- Wolf Ruzicka, CCO of Unlimit
We had a lively discussion about building and growing AI-native companies: go-to-market strategy, which channels work for B2B sales and which do not, how AI-native companies allocate their marketing budgets differently, and how startups are working hard to grow in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Growth in a changing startup landscape
As AI advances, competition intensifies and new opportunities emerge. The pace of change is reshaping the startup world, challenging familiar product development cycles and pushing founders to rethink how they build, launch, and grow.
The old product development playbook is changing, but the spirit of disruption remains. I am excited to see new models, products, and ideas evolve into AI solutions that are better, safer, and easier to control.
Building trust as AI takes on more responsibility
We also discussed why AI observability and evaluation continue to be among the most important layers as more AI systems begin making, or assisting with, critical decisions.
If your company is implementing AI agents in its operations, quality gates, governance, and runtime controls are must-haves before giving those agents responsibility for critical decisions. Teams need to understand how their systems behave, evaluate the quality of their decisions, and retain the ability to intervene.
Private companies and lawmakers should work together to bring the benefits of AI to the public while minimizing the risks. Progress means building systems people can trust as well as systems that can do more.
Thank you to Benny, Jason, Wolf, and everyone who joined the conversation.