The pace of change in AI means the question of how we use these models, and who we get them from, is becoming one of the most consequential decisions of the decade. The open vs closed source model debate has been one of the fiercest we’ve seen this year. People are asking questions like: - do we want economic concentration in a few model providers? - what tradeoffs between capability and cost are we actually comfortable with? - what are the real safety risks? - which path makes the most sense geopolitically? @baseten is a $13b company at the heart of these questions. They do inference and post-training for some of the fastest growing AI companies in the world, built largely on open-source. But they’re not purists about open source, they believe in the many model future. We were lucky to go inside their offices to ask why, and to understand how they've built a company that's scaled to $600m ARR so quickly. Inside the episode: interviews with founder @tuhinone and researchers @mudithj and @oneill_c Enjoy watching!

Pacific Fusion is a company genuinely trying to alter the history of humanity, through how we get our energy They're backed by the scale and expertise that makes these missions actually possible: - Over $1b of capital - A team that includes Eric Lander who helped launch the Human Genome Project Humanity needs these groups of bold visionaries to push us forward Incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to go deep into their factory & speak to their leaders

Every new creative strategist at @kindlingtech gets this giftbox. Inside it: 1. Who is Michael Ovitz - Michael Ovitz 2. A copy of the latest @colossusmag 3. Ogilvy on Advertising - David Ogilvy 4. Goodies like a Macbook & some local cultural inspiration We're opinionated about what we read and digest. We go back to understand the lessons from the marketing world of the 50's and 60's and how Hollywood's mega agents thrived in the 80s and 90s. Equally, every new hire gets a list of 100 top x accounts to follow and a platter of tech podcasts to listen to that will keep them busy for the next 3 years. There's hidden secrets to find from learning about the history of the past 100 years of marketing, media and agenting. But there's signal to be found when you're scouring the x timeline every day and corroborating your analysis with a tight group every day. Shoutout to Matt Calvetti the architect of this lovely box.

goin' nuclear

11 rising tides in the creative + marketing economy 1. AI video / editing / motion software. Exponential curves, already huge. Higgsfield, Runway etc. 2. AI video services. Great CDs + editors using AI to make premium work at high margin. Early, slower growth, big upside. Wonder Studios, Promise AI 3. Agentic marketing (+ GEO). Wildly scalable, lots of players, lots of slop risk, little differentiation 4. Creative talent. Every company will need strategists, ADs, editors, videographers, influencers. There's fractional / recruitment plays, the scaled plays being marketplaces 5. Small, cracked agencies. Companies with cash still want craft. $5-$20m rev teams are easier than ever. Not sure there's incentive to build the next Ogilvy 6. Owned media. YouTube/social-native shows with tiny teams. Outlier scale gets you highly profitable and asymmetric opportunities like combining distribution with venture 7. Platforms. YouTube + social platforms keep winning with creative supply at ~$0. Streamers are in a knife fight on production costs. 8. Creative data. Selling the creative process to the labs. 9. Roll-ups. With dynamics changing so fast there are likely lots of roll-up opps with synergies, across multiple vectors 10. Live / IRL / community. The one thing AI can't touch and one of the most durable assets on the planet. UFC, sports, meetups etc. 11. IP-adjacent opportunities. Owned IP or acquired IP, then using tech to leverage what you can create with it. Even without AI leverage, controlling IP is always valuable What have I missed?

AI video, AI motion design & AI editing tools are getting exponentially better, but the demand for great editors and motion designers just continues to get higher I see a lot of x posts saying editors are cooked with all the new tools coming out… It couldn’t be further from the truth: the demand for high-quality talent is just going up and up I speak with dozens of high-quality agency owners every week across videography, editing and motion and they are all killing it The people heavily using AI editing and AI motion design tools are likely people that wouldn’t have paid for / hired editors in the first place AI editing is just so, so far off from replacing editors. For 2 years I got our internal editing team for Kindling & @Sachin_and_Adam to try every new ai editing tool on the market and there hasn’t been a single one that’s dramatically changed workflows That being said, with the incredible advances in AI video, I do see a much greater proportion of creative work getting done by it. But it’s important to note that high-quality AI video still needs heavy human-in-the-loop Perhaps with the demand for video going up, we just see AI video and real production markets increase in tandem

the big reveal youtu.be/0Rqoe5quCJQ?t=120

excited for more @Sachin_and_Adam Show episodes in the AI x bio world!

Just met a 21 yr old who is building a design agency which he uses for cashflow, to fund a portfolio of 6+ different business bets The different bets are across: - software for agencies - sauna company - cleaning company - and more The thesis for the bets are pretty simple: - use cashflow from the design studio to fund the bets - focus mainly on physical world businesses - use design capability from the agency for the bets - use AI to primarily run each bet - when needed, place a full-time hire into a bet (capped team of 1) - double down if one is working particularly well I was really impressed by this structure and his hustle to build a portfolio like this Went away feeling very optimistic for young AI-native, distribution-pilled, high-hustle founders who want to bootstrap small businesses

Impressive - watch this team