If agents are eating the systems of engagement, what is actually left to defend — and who gets to defend it?The conversation covers:<ul><li>The SaaSpocalypse thesis in Patrick&apos;s own words — multiples from 7–8x to 40x to 2–3x in under a decade, the shift from systems of record to systems of work, and why he thinks fewer than a quarter of incumbent SaaS companies have the appetite to genuinely burn the boats</li><li>Defensibility after the foundation models — why single-player workflows are fragile against OpenAI and Anthropic&apos;s distribution, why multiplayer workflows (governance, RBAC, iteration, judgment across stakeholders) may hold, and why two of the three classic data-moat pitches no longer survive first-principles scrutiny</li><li>The pivot problem — Gigya hit ten million ARR and had to pivot, hit thirty million ARR and had to pivot again, and Patrick&apos;s retrospective conviction that both should have happened earlier; a useful frame for a market where capital is letting teams defer the question</li><li>Professional services as differentiation rather than embarrassment — how Gigya ran services at ~30% of revenue, recurring and profitable, and why Patrick thinks the FDE renaming is obscuring a durable truth about trust</li><li>Mayfield&apos;s own shape — seventeenth early-stage fund, ~$1.2B across the two vehicles, roughly 70% first-institutional-check, two or three investments per partner per year, and the deliberate refusal to index a category</li><li>The battlefield promotion to CEO on Patrick&apos;s thirtieth birthday, five months of runway, a million-dollar monthly burn, and what he actually learned from Naveen Chawda about the difference between being founder-friendly and being useful</li></ul>Patrick is a GP at Mayfield. Before investing he spent eleven years at Gigya, joining as the first business hire in 2007, becoming CEO at thirty, leading the company through multiple pivots and past a hundred million in ARR, and selling to SAP in 2017 for three hundred and fifty million. He now invests at seed and Series A in enterprise and AI, with board seats at Docket AI, Duplo Cloud, BigPanda, and Scrunch AI, and writes The CEO Field Guide on Substack.Worth the hour if you think about where the defensibility actually lives.

<description>&lt;p&gt;If agents are eating the systems of engagement, what is actually left to defend — and who gets to defend it?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The conversation covers:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;The SaaSpocalypse thesis in Patrick&amp;apos;s own words — multiples from 7–8x to 40x to 2–3x in under a decade, the shift from systems of record to systems of work, and why he thinks fewer than a quarter of incumbent SaaS companies have the appetite to genuinely burn the boats&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Defensibility after the foundation models — why single-player workflows are fragile against OpenAI and Anthropic&amp;apos;s distribution, why multiplayer workflows (governance, RBAC, iteration, judgment across stakeholders) may hold, and why two of the three classic data-moat pitches no longer survive first-principles scrutiny&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The pivot problem — Gigya hit ten million ARR and had to pivot, hit thirty million ARR and had to pivot again, and Patrick&amp;apos;s retrospective conviction that both should have happened earlier; a useful frame for a market where capital is letting teams defer the question&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Professional services as differentiation rather than embarrassment — how Gigya ran services at ~30% of revenue, recurring and profitable, and why Patrick thinks the FDE renaming is obscuring a durable truth about trust&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Mayfield&amp;apos;s own shape — seventeenth early-stage fund, ~$1.2B across the two vehicles, roughly 70% first-institutional-check, two or three investments per partner per year, and the deliberate refusal to index a category&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The battlefield promotion to CEO on Patrick&amp;apos;s thirtieth birthday, five months of runway, a million-dollar monthly burn, and what he actually learned from Naveen Chawda about the difference between being founder-friendly and being useful&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Patrick is a GP at Mayfield. Before investing he spent eleven years at Gigya, joining as the first business hire in 2007, becoming CEO at thirty, leading the company through multiple pivots and past a hundred million in ARR, and selling to SAP in 2017 for three hundred and fifty million. He now invests at seed and Series A in enterprise and AI, with board seats at Docket AI, Duplo Cloud, BigPanda, and Scrunch AI, and writes &lt;em&gt;The CEO Field Guide&lt;/em&gt; on Substack.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Worth the hour if you think about where the defensibility actually lives.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

If agents are eating the systems of engagement, what is actually left to defend — and who gets to defend it? The conversation covers: The SaaSpocalypse thesis in Patrick's own words — multiples from 7–8x to 40x to 2–3x in under a decade, the shift from systems of record to systems of work, and why he thinks fewer than a quarter of incumbent SaaS companies have the appetite to genuinely burn the boatsDefensibility after the foundation models — why single-player workflows are fragile against Op...

#32 | Concentration, pivots, SaaSpocalypse with Patrick Salyer — Mayfield (68)

Can AI really reorder how business works - not just automate tasks, but redefine entire markets? In this episode, Frazer Anderson sits down with two leading thinkers - Conor Twomey and Ray Wang. They discuss: <ul> <li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'> How AI exponentials fundamentally rewrite productivity and what that means for founders, enterprises, and investors competing with legacy incumbents. </li> <li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'> The evolving state of enterprise AI adoption - from prototypes to production‑scale agent workflows that transform business outcomes and unit economics. </li> <li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'> Why scaling enterprise AI depends less on model quality and more on your data foundation, internal coordination, and ability to operationalize agents across real workflows. </li> </ul> — Conor Twomey is an accomplished executive with over 15 years of experience in addressing complex data challenges for leading global corporations. He is currently an AI Co-Founder at Stealth Startup. Conor is the former Head of AI Strategy at KX, a pioneer in real-time data analytics and decision intelligence. Under his leadership, KX successfully transitioned from a time-series database company to the Enterprise AI platform of choice for large-scale AI implementations. Before this role, Conor managed a 400-person organization encompassing Presales, Professional Services, Support, Managed Services, and Customer Success Management. Renowned for his insights on data and AI, Conor is a sought-after speaker and contributor on frontier technology topics, including Data, Analytics, Machine Learning, AI, and Generative AI. — Ray Wang, a tech luminary, is the Co-Founder &amp; Chairman of Constellation Research, a Bestselling Author, and a Keynote speaker. Renowned for his insights into digital transformation and enterprise technology, Ray&apos;s expertise stems from influential roles at Altimeter Research and Forrester Research. His bestselling books, including &quot;Disrupting Digital Business&quot; and &quot;Everybody Wants to Rule the World,&quot; delve deep into the impact of digital technologies on business models.

<description>&lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;Can AI really reorder how business works - not just automate tasks, but redefine entire markets?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;In this episode, Frazer Anderson sits down with two leading thinkers - Conor Twomey and Ray Wang. They discuss:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr' role='presentation'&gt;How AI exponentials fundamentally rewrite productivity and what that means for founders, enterprises, and investors competing with legacy incumbents.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr' role='presentation'&gt;The evolving state of enterprise AI adoption - from prototypes to production‑scale agent workflows that transform business outcomes and unit economics.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr' role='presentation'&gt;Why scaling enterprise AI depends less on model quality and more on your data foundation, internal coordination, and ability to operationalize agents across real workflows.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;—&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;Conor Twomey is an accomplished executive with over 15 years of experience in addressing complex data challenges for leading global corporations. He is currently an AI Co-Founder at Stealth Startup. Conor is the former Head of AI Strategy at KX, a pioneer in real-time data analytics and decision intelligence. Under his leadership, KX successfully transitioned from a time-series database company to the Enterprise AI platform of choice for large-scale AI implementations. Before this role, Conor managed a 400-person organization encompassing Presales, Professional Services, Support, Managed Services, and Customer Success Management. Renowned for his insights on data and AI, Conor is a sought-after speaker and contributor on frontier technology topics, including Data, Analytics, Machine Learning, AI, and Generative AI.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;—&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;Ray Wang, a tech luminary, is the Co-Founder &amp;amp; Chairman of Constellation Research, a Bestselling Author, and a Keynote speaker. Renowned for his insights into digital transformation and enterprise technology, Ray&amp;apos;s expertise stems from influential roles at Altimeter Research and Forrester Research. His bestselling books, including &amp;quot;Disrupting Digital Business&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Everybody Wants to Rule the World,&amp;quot; delve deep into the impact of digital technologies on business models.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Can AI really reorder how business works - not just automate tasks, but redefine entire markets?  In this episode, Frazer Anderson sits down with two leading thinkers - Conor Twomey and Ray Wang. They discuss:    How AI exponentials fundamentally rewrite productivity and what that means for founders, enterprises, and investors competing with legacy incumbents.    The evolving state of enterprise AI adoption - from prototypes to production‑scale agent workflows that transform business outcomes...

#31 | AI Exponentials, Enterprise Adoption, and the Next Cycle of Productivity with Conor Twomey (Co-Founder & CEO, AI One) and Ray Wang (Co-Founder, Constellation Research)

As AI shifts from training to inference, founders, investors and VCs face a new frontier: the physical infrastructure that enables massive compute.  In this episode, Frazer and Éanna discuss:  <ul> <li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'> The hidden development lifecycle of a hyperscale build - from dirt to green lights - and what that means for build‑to‑suit strategies. </li> <li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'> Why power, latency and land have become the new scalers of value, and how to spot when infrastructure constraints turn into opportunity. </li> <li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'> How investors and founders can position themselves early in this &quot;third wave&quot; of data‑centre build‑out to win sub‑1% of the market before it becomes crowded. </li> </ul> — Éanna Murphy is CEO and Founder of Montera Infrastructure, a Stonepeak-backed datacenter developer focused on single tenant hyperscale campuses in North America. With over 17 years in the digital infrastructure industry, Éanna has held senior roles at Google and Yondr, scaling global delivery and operations across five continents. He serves on the boards of Digital Edge and H&amp;MV Engineering, as an advisor to XYZ Reality and Beacon AI Centers and an Operating Partner at Stonepeak.  Éanna brings a global perspective shaped by deep experience across Digital Infrastructure, tech and capital markets. Originally from Ireland, he now lives in California with his family and is a passionate sports fan, girls soccer coach and golfer.

<description>&lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;As AI shifts from training to inference, founders, investors and VCs face a new frontier: the physical infrastructure that enables massive compute. &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;&lt;br/&gt; In this episode, Frazer and Éanna discuss: &lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr' role='presentation'&gt;The hidden development lifecycle of a hyperscale build - from dirt to green lights - and what that means for build‑to‑suit strategies.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr' role='presentation'&gt;Why power, latency and land have become the new scalers of value, and how to spot when infrastructure constraints turn into opportunity.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr' role='presentation'&gt;How investors and founders can position themselves early in this &amp;quot;third wave&amp;quot; of data‑centre build‑out to win sub‑1% of the market before it becomes crowded.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;—&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;Éanna Murphy is CEO and Founder of Montera Infrastructure, a Stonepeak-backed datacenter developer focused on single tenant hyperscale campuses in North America. With over 17 years in the digital infrastructure industry, Éanna has held senior roles at Google and Yondr, scaling global delivery and operations across five continents. He serves on the boards of Digital Edge and H&amp;amp;MV Engineering, as an advisor to XYZ Reality and Beacon AI Centers and an Operating Partner at Stonepeak. &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;Éanna brings a global perspective shaped by deep experience across Digital Infrastructure, tech and capital markets. Originally from Ireland, he now lives in California with his family and is a passionate sports fan, girls soccer coach and golfer.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

As AI shifts from training to inference, founders, investors and VCs face a new frontier: the physical infrastructure that enables massive compute.     In this episode, Frazer and Éanna discuss:     The hidden development lifecycle of a hyperscale build - from dirt to green lights - and what that means for build‑to‑suit strategies.    Why power, latency and land have become the new scalers of value, and how to spot when infrastructure constraints turn into opportunity.    How invest...

#30 | Building the Backbone of the AI Economy - What It Takes to Deliver Hyperscale Compute with Éanna Murphy - CEO & Founder of Montera Infrastructure

As the wave of AI-enabled vertical SaaS startups rises, founders face critical questions: How do you attract the right investor who deeply understands your market? What makes a true vertical AI company stand out in a saturated landscape?  In this episode, Frazer and Annelies discuss: <ul> <li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'> How vertical AI startups can find their strategic wedge - and why brute force and feedback loops matter more than a flashy pitch. </li> <li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'> What today&apos;s top-tier investors are really looking for when backing AI-driven SaaS companies in legacy industries like insurance, logistics, and supply chain. </li> <li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'> The mindset shift from founder to investor and how operator intuition can sharpen your go-to-market and long-term defensibility. </li> </ul> — Annelies Gamble is a Partner at Zetta Ventures, an early-stage venture firm backing AI native B2B startups. Prior to Zetta, Annelies founded Prima, a vertical AI company in the supply chain and manufacturing space. While based in Mexico, she scaled Prima to over 80 employees, led engineering and supply operations, launched the U.S. business, and raised more than $45M in venture funding. Before founding Prima, Annelies was a Co-Founder and Partner at Scribble Ventures, where she invested in over 30 early-stage AI startups. Annelies started her career at Dropbox, helping launch the company&apos;s Product Analytics team. She holds a degree from Yale, where she was a three-season Division I varsity athlete and President of the Yale Entrepreneurial Society.

<description>&lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;As the wave of AI-enabled vertical SaaS startups rises, founders face critical questions: How do you attract the right investor who deeply understands your market? What makes a true vertical AI company stand out in a saturated landscape? &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;&lt;br/&gt; In this episode, Frazer and Annelies discuss:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr' role='presentation'&gt;How vertical AI startups can find their strategic wedge - and why brute force and feedback loops matter more than a flashy pitch.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr' role='presentation'&gt;What today&amp;apos;s top-tier investors are really looking for when backing AI-driven SaaS companies in legacy industries like insurance, logistics, and supply chain.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li dir='ltr' aria-level='1'&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr' role='presentation'&gt;The mindset shift from founder to investor and how operator intuition can sharpen your go-to-market and long-term defensibility.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;—&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;Annelies Gamble is a Partner at Zetta Ventures, an early-stage venture firm backing AI native B2B startups. Prior to Zetta, Annelies founded Prima, a vertical AI company in the supply chain and manufacturing space. While based in Mexico, she scaled Prima to over 80 employees, led engineering and supply operations, launched the U.S. business, and raised more than $45M in venture funding. Before founding Prima, Annelies was a Co-Founder and Partner at Scribble Ventures, where she invested in over 30 early-stage AI startups.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir='ltr'&gt;Annelies started her career at Dropbox, helping launch the company&amp;apos;s Product Analytics team. She holds a degree from Yale, where she was a three-season Division I varsity athlete and President of the Yale Entrepreneurial Society.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;</description>

As the wave of AI-enabled vertical SaaS startups rises, founders face critical questions: How do you attract the right investor who deeply understands your market? What makes a true vertical AI company stand out in a saturated landscape?     In this episode, Frazer and Annelies discuss:    How vertical AI startups can find their strategic wedge - and why brute force and feedback loops matter more than a flashy pitch.    What today's top-tier investors are really looking for when backing ...

#29 | Redefining The Competitive Edge, Venture Discipline, and the Future of Vertical AI with Annelies Gamble - Partner at Zetta Ventures

AI is reshaping the financial services industry faster than ever—but what does that mean for subsectors like WealthTech, investing, and the future of exits? In this recording of the Vestigo Ventures&apos; Future of FinTech Webinar, Frazer is joined by Vestigo Ventures&apos; Mark Casady, Ian Sheridan, Nick Kim, and Dave Blundin to break down: <ul> <li>How AI is driving a massive transformation in WealthTech, from compliance automation to AI-augmented decision-making</li> <li>The key factors that separate winning AI startups from weaker ones—and why go-to-market strategy is now the biggest differentiator</li> <li>The latest advancements in AI infrastructure, chip development, and hyperscalers—and how they&apos;re shaping the future of financial services</li> <li>Why 2025 could mark the long-awaited reopening of the IPO window and what it means for founders, investors, and liquidity in the venture ecosystem</li> </ul> From generative AI in wealth management to the next wave of exits, this conversation unpacks the biggest opportunities and risks shaping the year ahead.

<description>&lt;p&gt;AI is reshaping the financial services industry faster than ever—but what does that mean for subsectors like WealthTech, investing, and the future of exits?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In this recording of the Vestigo Ventures&amp;apos; Future of FinTech Webinar, Frazer is joined by Vestigo Ventures&amp;apos; Mark Casady, Ian Sheridan, Nick Kim, and Dave Blundin to break down:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;How AI is driving a massive transformation in WealthTech, from compliance automation to AI-augmented decision-making&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;The key factors that separate winning AI startups from weaker ones—and why go-to-market strategy is now the biggest differentiator&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;The latest advancements in AI infrastructure, chip development, and hyperscalers—and how they&amp;apos;re shaping the future of financial services&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Why 2025 could mark the long-awaited reopening of the IPO window and what it means for founders, investors, and liquidity in the venture ecosystem&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;From generative AI in wealth management to the next wave of exits, this conversation unpacks the biggest opportunities and risks shaping the year ahead.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;</description>

AI is reshaping the financial services industry faster than ever—but what does that mean for subsectors like WealthTech, investing, and the future of exits?  In this recording of the Vestigo Ventures' Future of FinTech Webinar, Frazer is joined by Vestigo Ventures' Mark Casady, Ian Sheridan, Nick Kim, and Dave Blundin to break down:   How AI is driving a massive transformation in WealthTech, from compliance automation to AI-augmented decision-making The key factors that separate winning AI st...

#28 | Vestigo Ventures' 2025 Predictions: The AI Tsunami, Investing, and Exits

Edge Cases are observations that aren't well represented in training data - the moments where AI systems fall short and human intelligence takes over. Hosted by Frazer Anderson, Managing Director at Link Ventures, this podcast explores the stories that lie on the frontier of what AI can do - and where its capabilities are rapidly expanding. Our guests are exceptional practitioners, technologists, investors, and entrepreneurs shaping the future of artificial intelligence. Like the technical challenges they tackle every day, they too are Edge Cases.

Edge Cases: The Human Side of AI

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