Sunir Shah

I win markets through engineering. CEO of @AppBindHQ, President at @CloudAssoc.

I strive to make the Internet a more glorious place.

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

<3 the AI Guide. Thanks Henry.

[Henry Shi @henrythe9ths]

There's a shocking fact about AI that nobody tells you: You can catch up to the public AI research frontier in just 2 weeks. Yes, really.

I've built a $150M annual revenue startup over the last 8 years and If I were to start a company today, I’d drop everything and go all-in on AI.

But like many busy software builders, I felt lost—overwhelmed by the noisy, crowded and fast-moving modern AI landscape. And I wasn’t alone.

So I spent my entire holiday diving deep into AI research—reading 30+ papers, watching hours of lectures, analyzing trends, and catching up to the research frontier.

✨ Here’s what I learned:
- You don’t need months (or years) to catch up.
- You don’t need a PhD or decades of ML experience.
- You need fewer than 20 papers and 2 weeks to understand the major breakthroughs shaping AI today.

It's because the technology is extremely nascent and most techniques that came before are no longer relevant:
- ChatGPT is barely 2 years old and Transformers are only 7 years old.
- Most game-changing discoveries happened within the last 4 years, driven by a few breakthrough ideas, scaling laws, and efficient matrix multiplication.

The biggest secret?
Many groundbreaking AI papers with thousands of citations are surprisingly simple and applied, like adding "let's think step by step" to the prompt, or simply asking the LLM over and over again to improve its answer (Self-Refine).

I realized there are tons of founders and builders in the same boat—wanting to dive deeper into AI but unsure where to start.

I've created an essential AI Guide that helped me catch up, in just 2 weeks, to the frontier of public AI research to figure out where the next opportunities and gaps were:
- Curated list of only the most important papers
- Simple explanations of key concepts
- Clear pathway to understanding the frontier of modern AI

It’s perfect for:
- Founders expanding into AI
- Builders wanting to innovate at the frontier of AI
- Investors looking to separate the signal from the noise

👇 Want the full guide?
- Like and Share this post
- Comment "AI Guide"
- I'll send you the complete guide

(ps, I’m also teaming up with @VishalVasishth, co-founder of @obviousvc with @ev (focused on large-scale societal impact companies like Twitter, Medium, Beyond Meat), to host a small meetup to discuss what's working and needs to be solved in the AI stack in SF. Message me if you're interested)

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

@eusouomatt We are definitely in the low point of the tech cycle.

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

@eusouomatt What topics were you hoping would be covered at SaaStr this year?

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

@BobKnorpp @saulcolt Thanks @BobKnorpp for inviting me on this week's episode. My flight to Mars just got cancelled. lol

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

@csakon I used @vectara which is awesome; they use a number of AI services underneath which is more awesome.

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

I hopped on the @Neovim train. I looked deep inside myself and I suspect it's because I'm envious of
@ThePrimeagen's moustache.

However, I'm committed. Coding now consists of 20% coding, 50% trying to calculate the optimal vim motion, and 30% reconfiguring Neovim.

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

@bartekci <3 Thank you. I'll try that.

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

I'm finding GitHub co-pilot (vim bindings) is like an over-eager junior pair programmer that is uncoachable. Lots of interruptions, sometimes interesting, but lots of bugs. What am I doing wrong?

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

@tarunsachdeva I've heard the pandemic is over. I'm ready to leave my basement. Where's the yyz tech party happening?

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

Hey #agency #hubspotagency #inboundagency friends at #inbound23, the traditional https://t.co/MwgzA7Ze2Y party is back on Wednesday at happy hour. I'm looking forward to seeing you all again!

RSVP here. https://t.co/4hEmm85Z78

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

@jasonlk Is there really a better place than SF to be for tech? That doesn't mean SF is healthy. But where are you going to go to escape the woeful vibes? Our work problems will just move with us. So just live where your kids and family are happy.

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

This Thursday, 10AM PT: Leveraging Major Ecosystems on Their Own Terms 💥

Xiaofei Zhang, Senior Director of Strategic #Partnerships at @ActiveCampaign will discuss how any company can leverage major #ecosystem players on their own terms.

Register now! https://t.co/6ts0YjFvq0

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

Did you apply to lead roundtable at #SaaSConnect 2023? 🔥

Apply now to lead dynamic #partnerships conversations! 👉 https://t.co/3aYgFQAPzo

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

TODAY, 10AM PT! 🔥 Join Brian from @IOLITESolutions and Mark from @partnernomics as they discuss the guiding principles for software interoperability with your CRM. Learn how to grow partnerships through integrations!

Register now! 👉 https://t.co/SwqZ2PstiN

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

This Thursday, 10AM PT! 💥 Join Brian from @IOLITESolutions and Mark from @partnernomics as they discuss the guiding principles for software interoperability with your CRM. Learn how to grow partnerships through integrations!

Register now! 👉 https://t.co/SwqZ2PstiN

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

Who's coming to #SaaSConnect in April? 👋

Connect with these #partnership teams (and MORE) in person this April 19-20 in San Francisco.

Imagine all the deals you'll make, and the amazing people you'll meet...

Just 27 days to go! Join us 👉 https://t.co/uhoDnNzzjh

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

We've JUST opened the opportunity to lead roundtables at #SaaSConnect 2023! 🔥

Apply to lead dynamic #partnerships conversations! 👉 https://t.co/3aYgFQAPzo

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

Join Cody Sunkel, Co-Founder & VP of Growth from @PartnerFleet, and Katy Spalding, Product Manager, Developer Platform and Ecosystem from @clarihq who will talk about building your #integrations and #partner #marketplaces. 💻

Register here 👉https://t.co/h4oBXw0W8Q

[Sunir Shah @Sunir]

💥 JOIN US TOMORROW, 10AM PT 👉 Moving SMBs through the SaaS Sales Cycle

Join Stu Richards, CEO of SMB research firm Bredin, who will talk about the information sources SMBs use to select solutions for their businesses.

Register here 👉https://t.co/Oyk803wIfc