"Hi I'm an AI startup" - Guaranteed way to get me to doze off in the first 5 seconds.
Two conversations around AI made me want to write this post.
The first happened yesterday with my colleague and head of our Family Office relationships, Jashank Pohani, CFA.
I'm a salesperson at heart. Across companies, I've enjoyed the challenge of building sales for a new product/service (though occasionally banged my head against a wall).
So I've always looked for better ways to improve the process, from messaging automation to CRMs to follow-ups.
Now many folks think running a fund is some sort of pina colada beach life (how I wish). It's actually a LOT of sales!
The money we invest comes from family offices and institutions who entrust their capital to us to invest, this process is STILL basically sales.
Selling why we're the best fund out there to trust their capital to, why we'd be the best long term partners (hint: it's a lot to do with performance)
Chatting with Jashank, I LOVED his approach to new investor conversations. He's managed to use AI to solve one of the MOST irritating parts of the sales process, CRM updation. Connect GPT 4 to Salesforce AND Asana, dictate a voice note, minutes of meeting instantly updated to CRM, follow-up tasks created in Asana, assigned to team members with due dates.
INSANE efficiency booster.
The second conversation was during a chat with another friend today discussing AI and what I thought of all the new 'AI companies' popping up.
My perspective is, EVERYONE should be using AI to help their business.
If you aren't adopting AI in some way or another to improve your business efficiency, you're getting left behind.
So in my view, there are no AI startups, there are companies USING AI to deliver something of value.