Matthew Speiser

Life update: I've joined the ranks of the Substackers I love creative humor writing, and until someone pays me to do it, I'll be publishing my work via this weekly newsletter. I'd be quite flattered if you subscribed. mspeiser.substack.com

New on the blog today: What the Data Says About AI Pricing 📈 @Spyzguyz dug into our recent AI Pricing Report and shared some of his favorite takeaways. 🔗 Read it here: salesforceventures.com/perspectives/a…

AI is the most transformative technology of our lifetime. But its scale is defined by electrons. We just published our energy investment thesis — 5⃣ technologies we believe will power the AI era. A thread 🧵 salesforceventures.com/perspectives/e…

lil sumthin I cooked up recently with @SalesforceVC

Our 2025 Year in Review is live 🚀 ✅ 44 new investments ✅ 30 follow-on investments ✅ 20+ M&A exits ✅ $1B AI Fund fully deployed ✅ New focus areas in robotics, defense, & energy Explore our full Year in Review: salesforceventures.com/sfv-2025/

X turned into a blogging platform and I caved. In my defense, @AnthropicAI 's Series G and crossing $14B in run-rate revenue felt worth more than 280 characters, so it's for a good cause 😎 A lot of people don’t know this but @SalesforceVC has been an investor in Anthropic since the Series C back in early 2023 and we’ve doubled down every single round including this most recent one. Many may think investing at the Series C was a no-brainer, but this was before neolabs raising at multi-billion valuations was a common occurrence. Anthropic is THE canonical success story that has paved the way for this archetype of startup journey, going from research to successful commercial products that can capture billions of dollars of value. In honor of their fundraise, today we published a deep dive on our journey with Anthropic. My article with @pdrews unpacks the behind-the-scenes around how we made the decision to double down every single round.

In NYC: Dobbins Street Vintage, Dream Fishing Tackle, Lichen, tihngs, Humble House, Shop 86, Sterling Place In HV: Newburgh Vintage Emporium (2 locations), The Antique Warehouse, Magic Hill Mercantile, Hyde Park Antiques Center + lots of small shops in Hudson, Kingston, Saugerties, etc.

@Spyzguyz Any recommendations?

I've been interviewing people who have beautiful homes about how they decorated them, and the biggest surprise is how they almost all insist that good design is more about taste than money. Yes, it costs more to buy a great sofa than a bad one. But there are plenty of millionaires living in homes that feel like an airport lounge. The actual limiting factor is taste and time. The taste to know what looks good and the time it takes to find what you're looking for. What's key is that the second-hand furniture market is quite inefficient. To be sure, there is a spectrum: at one end, you have thrift stores (cheap, chaotic, and unvetted). At the other, you have Sotheby's (curated, clean, and highly vetted). The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. So how do you find pockets of glorious inefficiency? One way is to make friends with people who own antique shops. I have a friend in San Francisco who knows a few collectors in town. They know her taste, and when something comes in that matches her style, they call her. And because of this, she never has to wait 17 weeks for a backordered couch from CB2. Here's the key point: If you have a strong sense of taste and understand the game, you'll consistently spend less to design a house that feels alive and uniquely yours. Good design, it turns out, is a byproduct of taste and attention, not money.

Fun convo at #DF25 last week with @livekit Founder and CEO Russ d'Sa 🎥🍿

Highlights from another great convo I had last week at #DF25 with @Altana_AI CEO and Co-Founder Evan Smith 📽️

Had a chance to interview Alon Arvatz, CEO and Co-Founder of @SalesforceVC portfolio company @PointFive_Inc, at #DF25 last week 🍿🎬

#DF25 sponsor appreciation post 💗 More than a dozen @SalesforceVC portfolio companies participated in this year's Dreamforce as sponsors. I had the chance to visit the Campground and say hello to some of them. Thank you for your steadfast partnership and support in helping make this year's Dreamforce the best one yet: @Box, @CertiniaInc, @CopadoSolutions, @Genesys, @glean, Ironclad, @odaseva, @pendoio, @RightRevInc, @Snowflake, @stripe, @threekit, and @typefaceai 🙏

Our final Salesforce Ventures portfolio session at #DF25 this year featured @Vercel CEO @rauchg and COO @jdewitt29 discussing their company's vision for the agentic web and software's next frontier. Some highlights from the talk: 🌐 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐛 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 — Just as cloud re-made the web once, agents are poised to transform the web again with agents that can act on the users behalf. "You don't just want AI that responds, you want it to go work on a problem for three hours and then come back with an exact insight." 👨‍🏭 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 — "Our very competent devs are now managing 5-6 agents," Guillermo noted. "You're becoming an engineering manager even as an IC." Software engineering is evolving, and with AI democratizing development, Guillermo believes the number of people able to do engineering work will explode. 🤖 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐥 — Guillermo said his company's agents now handle 75% of customer service tickets and are capable of responding to highly complex technical questions. When threats emerge, agents look into them first. 💡𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 — While agents-as-a-service will be powerful, Guillermo's advice is clear: "You're better off in the long run building your own, because you know your business better than anyone else." A compelling vision for where software is headed. Thanks Guillermo and Jeanne for the insights and ending #DF25 on a strong note 💪

Fun lil' chat today at #DF25 with @RichardSocher, founder and CEO of @SalesforceVC portfolio company @youdotcom 📹 🍿

At #DF25's "Openness Fuels AI Democratization" panel, @percyliang, co-founder of @SalesforceVC portfolio company @togethercompute, shared his thoughts on why open source matters for the future of AI. One of my favorite takeaways: Today's open-source AI feels like a similar trajectory as software in the 1990s 🚀 Back then, Microsoft dominated and Linux was just a scrappy grassroots project. Now, Linux powers our entire internet ecosystem. Percy posed the question: "How can we build the Linux of foundation models?" He said that "there's a better way to build AI where everyone isn't a downstream consumer of AI. We can all shape AI for years to come." Another sharp #DF25 conversation with a ton of good teachings. Thanks Percy for sharing 🙏

.@SalesforceVC portfolio CEO Evan Smith (@Altana_AI) sat down this afternoon with Salesforce board member Amy Chang at #D25 for an engaging panel on how enterprises are navigating supply chain volatility 🚢 Some conversation highlights: 🛜 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 — Evan likened Altana to LinkedIn's business relationship graph, but for the physical economy: able to track who owns what, who ships where, who builds what. In the modern world, you can't just manage buyer-supplier relationships anymore — you need visibility into your suppliers' suppliers. Altana is helping enterprises gain this critical oversight. 🚧 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞-𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 — "Supply chain network competition is the new normal, and it's unclear how it's going to play out," Evan said. "A resilient enterprise is one that is managing their business as an extended network and not just a series of buyer and supplier relationships." Enterprises are realizing the supply chains they've relied on aren't necessarily the ones they can rely on going forward — and are now planning multiple contingencies in the face of increasing volatility. 🔃 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐨𝐰 — But most enterprises are still trying to figure out where to start. Amy's advice: "We need to get into a spirit of experimentation. The more you can get your experimentation to tie to a bottom-line impact, the easier you'll find the change management required to make it happen." A great conversation on a nuanced and important topic. Thanks Amy and Evan for your insights 🙏

🌐 At #DF25's "Rethinking Cloud Infrastructure for Engineers" panel, Salesforce Ventures portfolio founders Russ d'Sa (@livekit) and Alon Arvatz (@PointFive_Inc) chatted about what matters when it comes to AI infrastructure. Some of my takeaways: 🧠 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 — AI companies talk about intelligence like it's a utility that you can just plug into, but even electricity needs power plants and charging stations to actually work. AI is the same way — it needs a vast layer of infrastructure to be usable. And because the current internet wasn't designed for AI applications, to get voice and vision tools rolling, we need to rebuild the infrastructure from scratch. As Russ puts it: "Intelligence is also a raw material that requires a harness." 🤝 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐈 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐤 — LLMs are black boxes: Users don't know what's happening behind the scenes. That blocks adoption. The fix comes from better observability and evaluation. Companies need to evaluate AI like they evaluate humans: test, verify, observe, repeat. Without that, enterprises won't roll it out broadly, no matter how good the technology gets. 💰 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐀𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞 — AI agents can blow up costs fast if you're not running efficiently. That's why observability matters — you need to know which model provider works best for your use case, and keep costs under control from Day 1. 🏃‍♀️ 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 — Fortune 500s are afraid of AI disruption, because they know that what they've built over decades could be replaced in just years with AI. That's pushing them to prioritize innovation instead of avoiding risks. They're getting more comfortable shipping AI-native products and competing directly with startups so they don't fall behind. 🚧 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐈 —"My marketing guy can build browser extensions using AI, and he's never written a line of code. He just vibe-coded it. Everyone in the org is a builder now." In startups where 60-70% of the staff are engineers, the ability for everyone to build is a welcome development. For enterprises, it's tough to govern but hard to avoid: It's the future of how work gets done. Another sharp #DF25 conversation with a ton of good teachings. Thanks Alon and Russ for sharing!

🌐 Salesforce Ventures portfolio founder @RichardSocher (@youdotcom) sat down with @OpenAI 's Head of Platform @oliviergodement and Salesforce's Adam Evans at #DF25 to discuss how AI is transforming enterprise work — and what it takes to move from experimentation to implementation Some of my key takeaways: 🧬 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐈 — Fortune 500 companies don't want generic LLMs and experimentation. They want accuracy and ease of adoption. That means industry-specific AI that can easily train on an organization's data and solve for specific use cases that require unique context. 👀 𝐓𝐡𝐞 "𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐞𝐭" 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐠𝐞 — Individual contributors need to learn delegation: giving precise context, verifying outputs, and building reliability with AI agents over time. It's part of fundamentally rethinking how knowledge workers operate. Being able to delegate and trust your AI agents will unlock new leverage for workers. 💻 𝐀𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐢𝐧 2024. 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 — Olivier said his engineering teams would "riot" if he took away their AI tools, because what used to take 6 months to build can now take 6 weeks. In 2025, we're hitting a similar inflection point with operations roles — marketers and salespeople are using AI to build impactful tools because they understand their own workflows better than anyone else could. 📊 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 — Want to know how much AI will transform your industry? Look at how much data your industry collects. Digitized jobs with clear inputs and outputs are the lowest hanging fruit in the AI revolution. Another banger hashtag#DF25 session 💥 TY Richard, Olivier, and Adam for your insights.

Pray for me 🙏