Bessemer Venture Partners

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 serves as both a eulogy for the legacy cloud and a celebration of the current AI Cloud moment. ☁️ In this report, we focus entirely on the 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 deemed most relevant to the AI Cloud by our global team of investors and the implications for the thrilling years we predict are headed our way. 𝐖𝐡𝐲? AI is all we can think about. In 2023, our enthusiasm for AI was underscored by our committed $1 billion in funding. A year later, we have total conviction in the promise of AI — we’ve backed multiple new investments in AI startups and the broad adoption of LLM technology in nearly every portfolio company roadmap. It’s rare to find a cloud company these days that isn’t, at some level, an AI company. Dive into this year's report, where we share our deep dive analysis, top predictions, spicy takes, and behind-the-scenes conversations with our investors. ☁️ 📈 🎥 https://lnkd.in/gTS4-kKX

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Vertical AI’s market capitalization will be at least 10x the size of legacy Vertical SaaS. Vertical SaaS proved to be a sleeping giant that transformed industries during the first cloud revolution. Today, the top 20 US publicly traded vertical SaaS companies represent a combined market capitalization of ~$300B. Now, Vertical AI applications are targeting the high-cost, repetitive, language-based tasks that dominate large sectors of the economy. Here are the three new Vertical AI business models to know: ⚙️ 𝐂𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐬 use large language models (LLMs) to automate tasks. ⚙️ 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 fully automate workflows on behalf of humans. ⚙️ 𝐀𝐈-𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 automate traditionally outsourced services, like accounting, billing, and legal writing. Dive into State of the Cloud 2024 to read more about this trend ⤵️ https://lnkd.in/grhwg8C3

Zero to $1M ARR is among the toughest parts of the startup journey—some founders even argue that the first $1M is a harder milestone to achieve than $10M and beyond. Join us next Monday, July 15th at 10AM PT for a virtual GTM event on this topic: Making your first $1M—Sales strategies and mechanics when driving early-stage SaaS revenue. We're bringing you three SaaS revenue and sales leaders to offer entrepreneurs and early GTM teams strategies and insights on how to get your startup on the right revenue track: Bessemer Operating Partner Tony Rodoni, Anthropic Head of Revenue Kate Jensen, and 4x founder and sales coach Paul Fifield. RSVP today: https://lnkd.in/gEfGpk82

New The Heart of Healthcare Podcast! Steve Kraus and Halle Tecco, MPH, MBA cover digital health headlines for July 2024: —Digital musculoskeletal treatment outcomes —FDA guidance on diversity in clinical trial enrollment —Economic and legal considerations with GLP-1s —Walgreens' pullback from healthcare and the sustainability of the pharmacy model —Social media and youth mental health Listen: https://lnkd.in/gN29eZem

🇮🇳 Prediction: AI-first companies from India will lead the productization of services locally and globally. India is well-positioned for growth in AI-enabled B2B service delivery due to: 1️⃣ Its services-heavy economy 2️⃣ Its AI-enthusiastic developer talent pool Read the Rise of SaaS in India 2023: https://lnkd.in/g468RyHm

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Voice AI applications will unlock $10B of new software TAM over the next five years. The rise of multimodal models and AI Agents is leading the next wave of innovation in AI, and dramatically expanding AI’s potential applications to far broader use cases than early text-based models achieved. What this means: There’s a greenfield opportunity for AI entrepreneurs to innovate across new modalities, such as voice, image and video, as well as agentic workflows. In the next 12 months, we expect voice AI applications in particular to see breakout growth. In the slide, we show three major waves in voice and communications tech, from interactive voice response (IVR) to automatic speech recognition (ASR) and end-to-end agents. 📈 Dive into State of the Cloud 2024 to read more about this trend ⤵️ https://lnkd.in/grhwg8C3

✨ New Atlas Newsletter: ☁️ Foundation models & Big Tech 📈 B2B AI product defensibility tactics 💡 Bessemer news and highlights Read: https://lnkd.in/gETPXiwT Subscribe: https://lnkd.in/g7fUBrm7

Get all five AI trends in State of the Cloud — right in your inbox. Each upcoming Atlas Newsletter issue will unpack a new trend for 2024, plus market research and startup operator advice from Bessemer's investors and network. Subscribe today: https://lnkd.in/giuJ65Sw

When should you hire a chief marketing officer (CMO)? Not until after you've proven product-market fit, experts in our Product Marketing 101 guide told us. 1️⃣ Bring on a product marketing (PMM) leader first to own messaging, positioning, launches, and sales enablement. 2️⃣ When the org is more mature, a CMO can help build a budget and strategic plan, and align PMM with other marketing and communications functions, like demand generation, brand marketing, field marketing, and corporate communications. Dive into Product Marketing 101: https://lnkd.in/gJwjRVzC Sign up for our free GTM Course: https://lnkd.in/gnB6KqGJ

Setting the right sales strategy is make-or-break when gaining early market traction and leadership. So, how should you go about building one? On July 15th at 10AM PT, join us for our next GTM virtual event: Making your first $1M. Speakers include: 📈 Tony Rodoni, Bessemer Operating Partner and former sales executive at Salesforce 📈 Kate Jensen, Head of Revenue at Anthropic 📈 Paul Fifield, Bessemer Operating Advisor, 4x founder, and Co-Founder of early-stage coaching platform In This Together RSVP today: https://lnkd.in/gEfGpk82