Lonne Jaffe’s Post

"In the past two years, AI has gone from a nice-to-have to a must-have for most SaaS companies. As Managing Director Lonne Jaffe puts it: 'The discussion will likely shift from the novelty of AI to the nuances of its integration into existing products and services. The emphasis will be on how seamlessly AI can be woven into the fabric of daily business operations to enhance productivity and decision-making. Attention will turn to the refinement of AI outputs, reducing errors, managing legal and regulatory issues, and improving the user experience.' Writer, Weights & Biases, and 6sense have all embraced AI, but each offers a different lesson for #startups and #ScaleUps, including: 1️⃣ Scaling an AI-forward company and building a board that believes in your vision 2️⃣ Uniquely understanding the pain points of your customers when building out AI capabilities 3️⃣ Transforming your current product offering with AI..." Insight Partners

thanks to the Oceans team for organizing a great NYC Tech Week dinner and event last night. Steven Rosenblatt did a fantastic job leading the panel with Kevin Ryan, Ian Sigalow, Rick Heitzmann and me where we discussed the unique strengths of New York's rapidly growing venture capital and tech startup scene, from its history a century ago with IBM to modern giants such as MongoDB and Datadog to the newest AI startups. We talked about NYC’s unmatched scale, diversity of industries, customer base, and abundant financial resources; how NYC offers easier access to European and Israeli ScaleUps for their US headquarters due to convenient time zones and frequent flights; how major tech companies (e.g. Google DeepMind and AI at Meta) have established significant R&D operations in NYC; how the city’s cultural diversity and vibrant lifestyle make it an attractive destination for talent; and how NYC’s special ability to adapt and innovate during challenging times have helped propel it to its current leadership position in global tech. The founders panel with Dennis Crowley, Brian Distelburger, Jonah Goodhart, and Kevin Ryan, and the discussion with Michael Lazerow, Kass Lazerow, and Joshua Rahn were also very well done, and covered a lot of topics including why and how to build great tech companies in NYC. And thanks Andrew Yeung for hosting! cc Insight Partners FirstMark Greycroft

Emily Chang interviews Reid Hoffman‘s AI digital twin at the Bloomberg Tech event using Hour One (the video avatar), ElevenLabs (the voice generation) and OpenAI (for the content, with access to Reid's writings) https://lnkd.in/esWNPgiq Insight Partners

https://lnkd.in/eJJZ78eT Part 2 with Reid Hoffman taking questions along with his generative AI twin created with Hour One, ElevenLabs, and ChatGPT Insight Partners

congrats to Prukalpa ⚡ and the team at Atlan on their $105 million Series C. they are crushing it with commercial traction: -- 7x revenue growth over the past 2 years -- rapidly growing customer base including industry leaders like Cisco, Autodesk, Fox Corporation, Nasdaq, HubSpot and hundreds more investors are: GIC, Meritech, Salesforce Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Insight Partners, and WaterBridge Ventures. Their generative AI product, Atlan AI, is worth checking out too, will post a link in the first comment below Grace Kotick Amelia Miller Teddie Wardi

part 2! using Hour One

congrats to Thomas Krane, Oz Golan and the entire Insight Partners deal team and Noname Security and Akamai Technologies teams! “Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and protects life online, announces that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire application programming interface (API) security company, Noname Security. Noname, one of the top API security vendors in the market, will enhance Akamai’s existing API Security solution and accelerate its ability to meet growing customer demand and market requirements as the use of APIs continues to expand. Akamai also expects to gain greater scale with Noname’s additional sales and marketing resources, and established channel and alliance relationships. “Applications run our world, but as applications and users proliferate, so do security risks,” said Mani Sundaram, executive vice president and general manager, Security Technology Group, Akamai Technologies. “Akamai has seen a growing need for API protection with our own data showing 109% year over year growth in API attacks. With the addition of Noname, Akamai believes it will have the breadth of integrations and deployment choices needed to deliver comprehensive API protection for customers across all environments.” As a result of the acquisition, Akamai expects to offer a complete API security suite enabling customers to better discover “shadow” APIs and detect vulnerabilities and attacks. Akamai’s enhanced offering expects to have greater deployment choices for customers and access to a portfolio of technology integrations that is unrivaled in the market. Akamai also plans to integrate Noname for use by customers of Akamai’s Application and API platform shortly after the acquisition is closed. “API development continues to proliferate as customers prioritize their investments in application modernization and digital transformation initiatives,” said Oz Golan, chief executive officer and co-founder, Noname. “Combining Noname with Akamai’s API Security offering will provide a solution for any type of customer. No matter where the customer’s applications reside – be it in the cloud, natively on the edge, on-premise, or on other vendor platforms – they will be protected.”Under terms of the agreement, Akamai has agreed to acquire all of the outstanding equity of Noname for approximately $450 million, after customary purchase price adjustments. The closing of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2024...”