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Rory Driscoll

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
613 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

And I think I remember them doing the Skype deal.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

That's a very shrewd deal.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

And I want to say that the PE firm brought them in because they had kind of venture expertise, which was, again...

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

Don't quote me.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

I think the PE firm was, in fact, Silverlake again, but I'm going from memory now.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

But I remember, as you say, Andreessen came in on the deal.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

It was spun out from eBay.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

There were some issues around licenses and IP, and it was a little bit risky.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

They cleaned it up for 12 to 24 months and then sold it to Microsoft and made three times their money on a ton of money on their first fund.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

So super shrewd that was.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

And if someone does the same thing here, it'll be interesting.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

Yes, but I do think it's important not to lose sight of the fact that for even though, I mean, you asked the question, oh, my God, the anthropic inference costs were higher than expected.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

Is there any leverage with your rhetorical economies of scale, Harry, right?

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

The truth is, remember, last year, they had a negative 94% gross margin.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

And this year, they have a 40% plus or minus gross margin.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

Now, it's not 50%.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

So clearly the gross margins are improving substantially.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

So I think the real kind of in the middle boring comment is there is significant leverage in inference costs and the P&L is getting a lot better, but it may not go all the way to the, you know, it may take longer.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

We thought we'd be at 50, now you're at 40.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance

It may take two years to get to 70.