Sramana Mitra: There’s no question there’s value, especially in our world. Non-technical founders were always at a disadvantage. Now they can prototype and get to MVP quickly because of no-code tools, but the products still need to be built. No-code products don’t always scale or sustain.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Now, what about human-in-the-loop? In this use case you’re talking about, what are you learning in terms of AI adoption? Human-in-the-loop is a key concern and a point of resistance from enterprises and businesses.
>>>Sramana Mitra: So, is vertical AI your primary investment thesis?
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Sandeep Sardana, Founder and General Partner at BluePointe Ventures, discusses his firm’s vertical AI investment thesis.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Let me ask you an interesting question. We have companies like this in our portfolio—really interesting, exciting companies. There is a question these companies have to answer: which go-to-market strategy, which business model do they go with? Do they sell software to clients, or do they sell services to end customers? Because in many cases, they could do either.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Let me ask you a broader trend question based on this case study you just took us through, which is really exciting and interesting. There is a lot of talk right now in the industry about full vertical AI solutions in various industry spaces. How do you see that playing out?
>>>Sramana Mitra: Let’s take a few of your investments through Geek Ventures that fit into these three buckets of your investment thesis, and do some case studies. As you talk about them, explain how they found you or how you found them, and what made you decide to write the check.
>>>Sramana Mitra: I want to understand how you find companies. You talked about five unicorns that you invested in as an angel investor, two of which we’ve had here in our Entrepreneur Journey series — People.ai and PandaDoc. I know those companies well. How did they come to you, or how did you find them?
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