Generative Now | AI Builders on Creating the Future
00:30:28 · Gabe Stengel
[00:30:28] S1: There definitely will be attention. I mean, I think that folks in finance have not kind of woken up to the reality that like more and more of their day jobs are going to be automated in the way that folks in legal have. Yeah. And so I think it's partly just going to be a mindset shift over the next, you know, coming years, five years. And then I think the other reality is like people, you know, firms have not really seen job replacement yet, right? Like, you know, there haven't been big banks or big professional services organizations or big companies of any size like, you know, Apple or Disney or Microsoft who have really replaced jobs with AI yet. Right. And so I think until we start seeing that, you know, these firms are gonna start continue functioning as business as usual, but maybe with slightly healthier margins or a slightly better product. And when you start seeing the ability for AI to really automate human work, well, then these professional services organizations are gonna have to take a step back and say, well, how does this change my business model? And that's when I think we'll start to see the tension you're talking about.
00:31:27 · Mike Mignano, Gabe Stengel
[00:31:27] S0: Yeah. I totally agree. And I think there's probably, I mean, look, I don't know anything about running a law firm or an investment bank, but there's probably an opportunity right now where if you run ahead, you can totally just like you can arm your staff with these superpowers. Like you said, get massive increases on your margins. It almost makes, I don't know, if I was running a law firm, I'd probably do that right now. [00:31:49] S1: No, I know it's not that simple. But there's also people who are starting to build law firms or banks, but you know, from the bottoms up with technology. There's a great company called Offdeal started by a friend, Ori, who was an investment banker. And his idea is, hey, how do I start a, you know, the next Goldman Sachs just with technology and and have fewer bankers? So I think people are gonna attack it from both ends, from, you know, large incumbents who figure out how to digitize their workforce versus, you know, upstarts that figure out how to just build AI natively from day one, but not as tech companies, but as professional services organizations. Yeah. And I mean, this is part of the trend you're seeing where, you know, VCs are levering up and buying, you know, typical sort of cash flow private equity businesses and then tech Yeah, enabling
00:31:49 · Gabe Stengel, Mike Mignano
[00:31:49] S1: No, I know it's not that simple. But there's also people who are starting to build law firms or banks, but you know, from the bottoms up with technology. There's a great company called Offdeal started by a friend, Ori, who was an investment banker. And his idea is, hey, how do I start a, you know, the next Goldman Sachs just with technology and and have fewer bankers? So I think people are gonna attack it from both ends, from, you know, large incumbents who figure out how to digitize their workforce versus, you know, upstarts that figure out how to just build AI natively from day one, but not as tech companies, but as professional services organizations. Yeah. And I mean, this is part of the trend you're seeing where, you know, VCs are levering up and buying, you know, typical sort of cash flow private equity businesses and then tech Yeah, enabling [00:32:31] S0: these roll ups. Yeah, totally. What do you think about, you know, looking ahead, what do you think about the future of Vrogo? How do the types and flavors of your customers start to change and evolve? How did the use cases start to change and evolve? Right now it's like investment bankers, PE, etcetera. Do you imagine a world which in the future it's anyone who's doing financial analysis, you know, finance departments of every flavor of company? Know, help us think through that.
00:32:31 · Mike Mignano, Gabe Stengel
[00:32:31] S0: these roll ups. Yeah, totally. What do you think about, you know, looking ahead, what do you think about the future of Vrogo? How do the types and flavors of your customers start to change and evolve? How did the use cases start to change and evolve? Right now it's like investment bankers, PE, etcetera. Do you imagine a world which in the future it's anyone who's doing financial analysis, you know, finance departments of every flavor of company? Know, help us think through that. [00:32:56] S1: Yeah. I I get asked about this sort of internal corporate FP and A stuff a lot. I really... Maybe I will regret this when someday we're, you know, a huge company and we're we're eking out more TAM in an Investor Day presentation. But like, I'm not that interested in like FP and A departments at corporates. Okay. Right? Like that's that's less exciting to me than It's like more like accounting workflows than it is, you know, thinking like an investor exciting. What are the great business models you wanna invest in? Who are the founders you wanna back? Or as a banker, what's the most strategic way for someone like Bob Iger at Disney to think about capital allocation or acquisitions or the land... Or the, you know, sort of the market. [00:33:34] S0: So it's more like his corp dev team than his FP
00:33:34 · Mike Mignano, Gabe Stengel
[00:33:34] S0: So it's more like his corp dev team than his FP [00:33:36] S1: Yeah. And Exactly. Yeah. But that said, I mean, look, if... When I look at the companies I'm... Some... The companies I model us off of and most admire, companies like Bloomberg, Bloomberg never said, okay, great. You know, we've had... We have a good enough hold of the finance market. Let's start selling to everyone. They said, no, let's continue to innovate for this one buyer type in this one market that has almost a limitless ability to pay for tools that make them smarter and more effective. Right? Like, I would always continue to invest in creating better and better tools for investors and bankers, then try and veer off off course. Just because I think, I mean, it's the one market on earth where there's an unconstrained ability to pay for something that makes you smarter. Right. You can go to a great hedge fund investors and say, hey, I'll make you a 20% better investor. They will pay you whatever you want. Whereas if I go to a corp dev or an FP and A team and say, hey, I'll make your life a lot easier, there's a ceiling on what they're willing to pay. Right? Like, they're not... They don't have unconstrained upside in their decision making. Investors do. [00:34:31] S0: Right. Right. Yeah. That's totally true. [00:34:34] S1: Like, imagine if I went to Lightspeed and I said, hey, I'll make you guys a 20%, you know, better investment firm. How much would you guys pay for that? Probably Yeah. We buy conversation.
00:34:34 · Gabe Stengel, Mike Mignano
[00:34:34] S1: Like, imagine if I went to Lightspeed and I said, hey, I'll make you guys a 20%, you know, better investment firm. How much would you guys pay for that? Probably Yeah. We buy conversation. [00:34:45] S0: I imagine where you could probably see a ton of market expansion, and maybe you're already doing this then, is in consulting. The McKinsey's of the world, it's Accenture. Like are you thinking about that? Is that already part of what you do? [00:34:57] S1: Yeah. No, we already have a few consulting firms on the platform. We actually have one of the big three who is rolling out the product, not just for their front office consultants, but for the, know, sort of the research teams they have internally, which is kind of a funny thing to me because you would think that Rogo would replace research teams that service consultants rather than be used by research teams to further help consultants. But yeah, I think that sort of professional services work is right, sort of in the bullseye of what we can do. [00:35:25] S0: Totally. So when you go to sell this product into any of these organizations, professional services, investment banks, etcetera, do think about it from sort of from a pure kind of sales top down motion? Or is there something here where you can actually have a bit of a kind of a PLG flywheel where, you know, one banker uses it and then shares the data with somebody else and that unlocks a new seat? Like, help us think