Enterprise Weekly #442: Barriers to GenAI Adoption, NYC Events, and More
Last week, we discussed the relatively low adoption of generative AI in the enterprise, despite its prominent presence in hype cycles. We’ve heard all sorts of concerns that either slow or entirely halt the generative AI procurement process – including data sensitivities (hallucinations, toxicity, and leaks), cloud requirements, price hikes, lack of regulation and accountability, among other issues.
In Sharon’s “unpopular take” quoted in the tweet above, she talks about how startups need to better communicate: “‘Where is the ‘why’ — as in, why are we going through all the angst of building all of this? What is the current and future value of generative AI to individuals, workers, enterprises, and society at large? How do the benefits outweigh the risks?”
While it's all fun and games building hype-y tech, when it comes down to it, many products fall short of defining that crucial “why now” question or solving tangible customer pain points. That's why, at Work-Bench, we spend our time talking with practitioners to better understand their pain points before diving in.
Check out Jess’ recent post on our approach to "why now?" And follow Danny as he’ll be dropping a blog post on the enterprise applicability of LLMs and how to win in the crowded space next week.
Lastly, we have a few congratulations in order 🎉
Jess was named to Insider’s list of 68 Most Important VCs in New York. Read how we’ve been long on NYC here.
Catalyst, Work-Bench portfolio company and the #1 customer growth platform, received a new round of strategic funding from ServiceNow. Read how the investment backs their mission to generate more revenue through customers here and read about CEO / Co-Founder Edward Chiu’s journey here.
🍻Join more events with Work-Bench IRL:
October 11: Next NYC Sales Night with the Head of Sales at Retool and Head of Enterprise Sales at Persona
October 12: Next NYC Product Night with the SVP of Products at MongoDB
October 17: Next NYC Marketing Night with the Head of Marketing at Mutiny and VP of Marketing at RippleMatch
October 18: NY Enterprise Tech Meetup on “Mastering GTM From Open Source to Enterprise” with the COO of Grafana, VP of Product at Vercel, and Senior Director of Developer Experience at Apollo GraphQL
🎟️ Join more events hosted by our friends:
October 17, Las Vegas: Accounting of the Future hosted by Leapfin
October 24, Virtual: Surv-ai-vor hosted by Mutiny with killer group of marketing leaders and practitioners from OpenAI, Writer, Autodesk, Snowflake, Hubspot, and more, who will share real AI workflows to help you 10x your ability
📚 Read more news:
Crunchbase: Global Venture Funding In Q3 2023 Falls Again Despite Late-Stage Rebound Led By Huge AI Deals
NY Times: New Details About FTX Emerge as Bankman-Fried's Trial Begins and live updates here
📚 Read more (th)reads:
Company: Spring Health
Role: Customer Success Manager
Technology: Mental Healthcare
Funding: $366.5M from Work-Bench, Northzone, Rethink, Kinnevik, Tiger Global, and more
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Humata AI raises $3.5M led by Gradient Ventures, ARK invest and M13
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Austin, TX
Founders: Cyrus Khajvandi (CEO), Dan Rasmuson (CTO)
PandasAI raises $1.1M led by Runa Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed • Berlin, Germany
Vera raises $2.7M led by Differential Venture Partners
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed • New York, NY
Kestra raises $3M led by ISAI and Axeleo Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Paris, France
Creednz raises $7M led by Blumberg Capital
Risk / Security • Seed • Miami, FL
Lemurian raises $9M led by Oval Park Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Menlo Park, CA
Qobra raises $10.5M led by Singular
Sales / Marketing • Series A • Paris, France
Gradient raises $10M led by Wing VC
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Opsera raises $12M led by Taiwania Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • Palo Alto, CA
Saleo raises $12M led by Emergence Capital and Tech Square Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Rabbit raises $20M led by Khosla Ventures, Synergis Capital and Kakao Investment
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • Los Angeles, CA
Framer raises $27M led by Meritech Capital Partners
Collaboration / Productivity • Series C • Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Pulumi raises $41M led by Madrona
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series C • Seattle, WA
Observe raises $50M led by Sutter Hill Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Debt • San Mateo, CA
Stampli raises $61M led by Blackstone
Future of Work • Series D • Mountain View, CA