Welcome to our weekly round-up of insights from world-class investors such as Sequoia, a16z, Insight Partners, and many more, all in one place.  

We are trying something new in addition to our weekly founder interviews! If you are trying to keep up with the Insights pages and blogs of the world’s best VC & growth investors, we’re sure you’re tired of reading dozens of websites and emails every week… 😨

Starting now, SCALE will do that for you! We are sending out weekly summarised insights from leading investors to give you an overview of what might actually be interesting for you across 4 categories:

Key takeaways: Sequoia digs into the segregation between AI optimism and AI capex and how they are intertwined. The more bullish you are on AI, the faster you believe that AI will evolve, and therefore the slower the infra-spend (capex) should be because the physical assets will be increasingly obsolete to the newer AI technologies. However, today’s top players are not acting from the AI optimism lens, but acting from a “game theory” perspective, i.e. the Magnificent 7 are ramping up AI capex not because they believe the tech will catch up in time, but to defend the $250bn cloud market. 

👉 Click here to read the full article: The Game Theory of AI CapEx

Key takeaways: While a16z isn’t directly speaking to building product this week, you can check out their curated group of AI-led artists and technologists in New York to explore the advancing capabilities of AI in their work.

👉 Click here to read the full article: Elevating AI + Art

Key takeaways: General Catalyst defines product-led growth “PLG” (primary growth driver is product features, user experiences) vs sales-led “SLG” (primary growth driver is customer relationships driven by sales people), and which approach to take depending on your target customer and type of product. Deciding between the two (PLG vs SLG) comes down to average customer value (ACV) and decision-makers. Use PLG when ACV is low and your end-user makes the purchase decision (i.e. developer tools), use SLG when ACV is high and a team makes the purchase decision (i.e. enterprise software). 

👉 Click here to read the full article: Sales-Led vs. Product-Led Growth

Key takeaways: Accel sat down with the founders of Remote.com, a workflow tool that helps companies enable remote work. They founded the business in 2019, and took off rapidly during COVID (from 70 to 900 employees). Key lessons here include: i) delegate (almost) everything ii) build a team that is global iii) communicate what is important to your culture in simple language

👉 Click here to read the full article: Secrets to Scaling with Remote’s Job van der Voort

Key takeaways: Insight defines Modern Word of Mouth (mWOM) in stark contrast to traditional word of mouth. While traditional WOM tactics were geographically constrained with long time horizons and slow speed, mWOM (augmented by Gen AI tools) takes word of mouth tools to the next level. For instance, they detail how you can use modern communities (like software review websites, reddit communities) to learn insights from your customers that a Chat-GPT like assistant can analyse. These lessons should then be turned into actionable insights for your business. 

👉 Click here to read the full article: Cut through the generative AI noise with Modern Word of Mouth™

Key takeaways: Surveying hiring managers and tech providers, Softbank finds key insights on hiring in the near future. They find that paradoxically the labour market remains in favour of the employer even though unemployment rates are low, but employee attrition is dropping for a variety of reasons. First, resurgence in hiring seems to be only for roles that are critical for growth and innovation, especially computing, cybersecurity and data analytics. Second, employees are increasingly cognisant of culture, purpose, and most importantly – hybrid working. 

👉 Click here to read the full article: Hiring is back on the front burner — selectively

Key takeaways: With macro conditions significantly worse than they were 2-3 years ago, founders are finding themselves confronting a much more sceptical board. General Catalyst provide their top tips for this, specifically: i) board member input should only be on topics they have experience in ii) explain to your board what drives growth / profitability, and communicate specific KPIs in a predetermined cadence to them, iii) if you need to pivot, lean on your board for analysis but retain decision making to yourself

👉 Click here to read the full article: “How Do I Get My Board on Board?”

Key takeaways: Insight analyses how the 4 parties (underwriters, investors, boards and management) have conflicting objectives in an IPO, and how IPOs get done only when all 4 are aligned. Insight argues that “timing the market” is futile, companies should instead focus on preparing to be a good public target.

👉 Click here to read the full article: IPO windows: Why they exist, and why they will never go away