Itbaan Nafi

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

@spencermateega @AfterQuery Super awesome stuff from an amazing team in Breakthrough. Huge congratulations and a job well done!

[Spencer Mateega @spencermateega]

Today, humanity is shackled by scarcity of expertise. When expertise becomes infinitely scalable, humans will be freed to tackle problems we can't even conceive of today.

Introducing @AfterQuery. We’re building a world where expertise is abundant.

Domain by domain, profession by profession, AfterQuery is crafting datasets that encode excellence into forms that machines can learn.

Data is the final frontier.

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

Product Cycles > Financial Cycles...and one way to build around the AI Product Cycle: going "greenfield"

Below is a chart of the Nasdaq vs the biggest product cycles of the past 45 years: PC, Internet, Cloud, Mobile, and now AI. Each had an infrastructure layer and an application layer. Google started near height of a financial cycle, Uber near the bottom, but both worked because of the PRODUCT cycle (Internet and Mobile, respectively).

But how do you build a company around a product cycle? Particularly when incumbents are not asleep at the wheel?

@jamdac and I write about one angle: greenfield. Assume that incumbent solutions will adopt the new technology/platform (in this case, AI), but just build a better product and manically focus on NEW customers (e.g., brand new businesses) who are not captive to incumbents.

This requires patience and the right industry structure, but the tortoise can beat the hare. More in the linked post.

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

@arampell Super insightful Alex!

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

@jamdac @arampell Wow this is super insightful and helpful!

[James da Costa @jamdac]

🚨How does an AI-native startup unseat an incumbent?🚨
👇Enter the Greenfield Strategy: AI-native startup bingo.

The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation. One of the most powerful, and underrated, ways for startups to win distribution is to serve companies at their formation: greenfield companies.

@stripe @deel @mercury @cartainc @brexHQ @tryramp have all done this at scale.

Why does this work?

Simply put, acquiring customers de novo is easier than getting customers to switch:
- Many of the large software incumbents have hostages, not customers. Their customers would love to switch, but ripping and replacing existing software is risky and expensive. New companies don’t face those switching costs; they simply look for the best solution and evaluate based on merit.
- New companies don’t need as many features to have a complete solution.
- New companies have fewer stakeholders. You only have to convince the founders.

Grow with your customers:

If you attract all of the new companies at formation and grow with them, you will become a big company as your customers become big companies. Consider @stripe: many of Stripe’s customers did not yet exist when Stripe was founded. Some of those early customers later became large businesses in their own right. So when enterprises outside of Silicon Valley also needed to prepare themselves for a shift to ecommerce models, Stripe was an obvious choice, with plenty of relevant reference customers already in place.

Incumbents, on the other hand, would much rather sell to existing businesses vs. companies that don’t exist now but might exist in huge numbers in a few years. They are bound by the rules of P&L (Profit & Loss) – and there’s no “P” for greenfield companies that don’t exist yet, just “L” (in sales, marketing, and product development costs). The startup, however, isn’t bound to a financial model – the startup doesn’t need one; it's still figuring stuff out! That leaves ample room for the startup to define the category.

Graduation moments:

In a similar way, software “graduation moments” (the moments when a startup begins to develop enterprise needs) also create opportunities to execute this greenfield strategy. QuickBooks may be great for single-product, single-entity companies, but once businesses add multiple subsidiaries, currencies, or more complex reporting needs, they outgrow it and require the controls, integrations, and scalability of an ERP like NetSuite. And you can now build a far better ERP with AI - just look at @RilletHQ.

AI-native startup Bingo:

There are many different categories of enterprise software. Enough to fill a 5x5 Bingo board and more!

In each category of the Bingo board, there sits an incumbent that could be dethroned by an AI-native alternative.

So, how does a new company win the game of Bingo?
- Pick a square
- Make a narrow wedge much better
- Find a constant source of new customers
- Rapidly iterate and add features to grow with your customers
- Don’t be constrained by the division of existing categories

If you’re building a category-defining company on the Bingo board - come and talk to us.

cc: @arampell @astrange @a16z

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

Hey @elonmusk I founded Design for Bangladesh to teach students from emerging markets like Bangladesh about design thinking and entrepreneurship. Could really use an expert like you to speak and inspire my students and help them realize that anything is truly possible.

[Eleni Kounalakis @EleniForCA]

Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with one of the 2022 Voyager Scholars, Itbaan Nafi. This is an incredible scholarship program with equally incredible scholars who will be solving the challenges of tomorrow.

Thanks @BarackObama & @MichelleObama for making this possible!

[The Obama Foundation @ObamaFoundation]

Today was an incredible day spent with #ObamaLeaders from our Asia-Pacific and Africa cohort, #ObamaScholars from the @UChicago and @Columbia, our #VoyagerScholarship recipients, and President @BarackObama!

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

@CBSMornings @BarackObama @bchesky So grateful and excited to join the inaugural voyager scholar class.

[CBS Mornings @CBSMornings]

Former President @BarackObama and @bchesky surprised the first class of “Voyager Scholarship” recipients, awarding 100 college students with financial aid and travel stipends to pursue public service.

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

@HHSMSA Hey Hebron MSA, I need your help for a study that I’m conducting. Is there an email address I can use to contact y’all?

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

@MSAatAHS Hey MSA at Allen, I need your help with a study I’m conducting. Is there an email address I can use to contact y’all?

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

#LEDAspiritweek #LEDA4life #FGLI/ LEDA pride #Cohort15

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

#LEDAspiritweek #LEDA4life #Cohort15 #ThrowbackThursday

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

#LEDAspiritweek #LEDA4life #Cohort15

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

#LEDAspiritweek #LEDA4life #Cohort15 #PJDay!!!

[Itbaan Nafi @ItbaanNafi]

#LEDAspiritweek #LEDA4life #Cohort15