The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch - 20VC: Why OpenAI and Anthropic Won't Win the App Layer | Why Teams Will Get Bigger Not Smaller in a World of AI | Why AI Removes Incumbents Advantage of Bundling | China vs America: Who Wins the AI War with Arvind Jain, Co-Founder @ Glean
The podcast features an insightful and robust discussion between host Harry Stebbings and Arvind Jain, the founder of Glean and co-founder of Rubrik. Jain offers a seasoned perspective on the evolving AI landscape, particularly from an enterprise standpoint.
**Glean's Vision and Enterprise AI Adoption**
Jain describes Glean as an enterprise AI company that began as a search tool for businesses, analogous to "Google for your work life." It has evolved into an AI platform, acting as a "superset of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini," connecting to a company's internal context to serve as a co-worker for employees.
He addresses the skepticism of large enterprises towards frontier model providers, echoing Alex Karp's (Palantir) sentiments. Jain explains this fear stems from concerns about technological and operational dependence, potential loss of IP and data control, and the perceived risk of transferring core operations to external model providers. He highlights that if agents powered by these models handle the majority of work, enterprises could lose control over their accumulated institutional knowledge and operational processes.
**Frontier Models vs. Open Source: A Shifting Landscape**
Arvind views frontier model companies as a "huge asset" for AI companies like Glean, enabling product delivery that would otherwise be impossible. He rejects the notion that they are direct competition in the application layer.
However, he notes a significant shift towards open-source models in the enterprise. This movement is primarily driven by cost considerations and a desire for greater control. While early concerns about data security with model companies have largely subsided, the escalating costs of proprietary models have propelled open source adoption. Jain claims that 90% or more of enterprise use cases can be handled by various models, including open source, leading to a commoditization of the model layer. He predicts that within three years, the majority of enterprise workloads will run on open-source models. He raises concerns, however, about the geopolitical implications of using Chinese open-source models due to potential "backdoors" or competitive disadvantages.
**The "Absurd" Cost of AI and Bundling Challenges**
Jain believes current frontier model pricing is "absurdly expensive," citing an example of an internal agent costing $1 million per month, which was more expensive than the human team it replaced. He argues that technology should become cheaper over time, and the recent increase in token prices by model providers is an anomaly. He anticipates a significant drop in inferencing costs.
Regarding competition, Microsoft's bundling strategy with Co-pilot poses a formidable challenge. While "best-of-breed" software can still thrive, bundling makes it difficult. However, Jain suggests that the shift to consumption-based AI models could disrupt bundling, as companies will pay for actual usage across various tools, potentially favoring specialized solutions.
**Measuring AI ROI and the Future of Work**
Jain acknowledges that AI's ROI is complex. While clear value is seen in areas like customer support (measurable productivity gains), it's less clear in coding. Despite significantly faster code writing, overall product shipping speed hasn't necessarily increased, as coding is just one part of the development process. He attributes this to the need for "investment around" AI to provide the right context, making it faster and cheaper, rather than "brute-forcing" with raw models.
Jain challenges the notion of "replacing yourself with AI," arguing that AI isn't ready for full job replacement. He strongly disagrees with the trend of shrinking teams, believing that companies that maintain larger, AI-augmented teams will build 10x better products and gain a competitive edge. He envisions the rise of "composite roles" (e.g., engineer/PM/designer hybrids) and the obsolescence of specialized roles like data analysts and sourcers in recruiting.
**Startup Ecosystem and Founder Insights**
Jain finds current recruiting easier than during the SaaS peak, except for top-tier AI/ML talent, whose salaries have dramatically increased. He advises founders to raise as much capital as possible upfront. He also critiques the "overabundance of capital" in the startup ecosystem, suggesting it sometimes leads to unsustainable structures and spending (like inflated salaries), hindering the discipline needed to build great companies.
Finally, he dispels the glamour surrounding founding, describing it as a "stressful" job requiring a mission-oriented drive and a "consistent unhappiness" with the status quo to continuously push for improvement.