20VC: Open Models vs Frontier Models: Who Actually Wins? | The $100,000 Token Budget Every Engineer Will Need | Why Forward-Deployed Engineers Are the Future of Enterprise AI with Clay Bavor, Co-Founder of Sierra
episode
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
1h 8m
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 2 months ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why is there unlimited demand for frontier AI?
We have not yet appreciated the unbounded demand for, call it frontier levels of intelligence. Part of the driver of the difference is probably the willingness of Chinese companies to do scaled distillation of the frontier models. If you can't build frontier models yourself, OK, maybe the next best approach is to distill them and offer them up. Every one of our rounds, we actually guided to and took a lower price than we could have. Some of our most effective employees at the entire company are 22 or 23 years old and have been completely AI-pilled. We completely changed our engineering interview process.
When Pat Grady at Sequoia and Neil Major at Green Oats tell you someone is special, well, it kind of means something. Clay Beauvoir joining me in the hot seat, co-founder of Sierra, one of the fastest growing AI companies in the world.
What are the differences between open models and frontier models?
Sierra has raised more than one and a half billion. They work with some of the biggest companies in the world and they're valued at almost 16 billion dollars and they work with 40 of the fortune 50 but before sierra clay spent an incredible 18 years at google where he worked on some pretty cool projects google labs naming one google workspace gmail google drive google photos jesus is there anything clay didn't work on at google on top of that he's just an Awesome dude. Luckily, we had a chance to do it in person in London. This was so much fun and I can't wait to hear your thoughts and feedback on this episode. But before we dive into the show today, a quick shout out to a company I've been genuinely blown away by and have been tracking closely, Rocks.
been watching this team closely and the speed they're operating at and the level of applied ai talent they've assembled it's honestly remarkable rocks is pioneering revenue agents for the global 2000 plugged into your data warehouse and crm and delivering board level roi in just 90 days these sales and revenue agents handle the end-to-end sales process for large enterprises from research prep to deal risk outreach and opportunity management, so sellers spend more time with customers and less time in tools.
How does China leverage AI for competitive advantage?
This isn't another productivity app. Christ, we've all had enough of those. Rocks gives reps a single interface on top of their GTM stack, powered by a knowledge graph across your internal and external data.
What role do AI agents play at Sierra?
So if you want to boost AE productivity, increase revenue per rep, and consolidate your stack, try Rocks at rocks.com signup. While Rocks runs your sales pipeline, Framer runs your website. A website should help your business grow, not slow it down. If updates to your .com feel harder than they should, Framer is the shortcut you've been looking for.
What is the $100,000 token budget every engineer will need?
Framer is an enterprise-grade, no-code website builder that works like your team's favorite design tool, and it's used by companies like Perplexity, Miro, Mixpanel to move faster, Designers and marketers can fully own the site with real-time collaboration, a robust CMS built for SEO, and advanced analytics that include integrated A-B testing. So you're not just shipping pages, but you're maximizing what works. And when you're ready to ship, changes go live in seconds with one click. publish without relying on engineering.
How does Sierra serve 40% of the Fortune 50?
Plus, Framer is built for scale with premium hosting, enterprise-grade security, and 99.99% uptime SLAs. Whether you want to launch a new site, test a few landing pages, or migrate your full .com, Framer has programs for startups, scale-ups, and large enterprises to make going from idea to live site fast. Learn how you can get more out of your .com from a Framer specialist or get started building for free today at framer.com slash 20VC for 30% off. 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan. That's framer.com slash 20VC for 30% off. framer.com slash 20VC. Rules and restrictions may apply. While Framer helps your website convert, Superhuman Go helps your inbox move faster.
Why are forward-deployed engineers crucial for enterprise AI?
I do this show three times a week. That means three sets of research, three sets of prep, three sets of follow-up, and about 400 other things in between.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is there unlimited demand for frontier AI?
0:00–0:50
2
What are the differences between open models and frontier models?
0:50–2:02
3
How does China leverage AI for competitive advantage?
2:02–2:13
4
What role do AI agents play at Sierra?
2:13–2:35
5
What is the $100,000 token budget every engineer will need?
2:35–3:06
6
How does Sierra serve 40% of the Fortune 50?
3:06–3:54
7
Why are forward-deployed engineers crucial for enterprise AI?
3:54–4:20
8
What unique practices does Sierra implement in board meetings?
4:20–1:08:47
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
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