Suggestions
Dave Hersh
Restarting startups
Dave Hersh is a seasoned entrepreneur and business leader currently serving as a General Partner at Metamorph Partners. He specializes in "operator-led buyouts" of companies with strong potential that need transformation.12
Career Highlights
- Founding CEO of Jive Software: Hersh grew the company from an open-source project to its IPO.2
- Board Partner at Andreessen Horowitz: Served in this role from August 2012 to October 2014.1
- Executive Chairman: Currently holds this position at Mobilize.io and Monsoon Inc.1
- General Partner at Metamorph Partners: In this role since April 2021, focusing on transforming slower-growth, venture-backed companies.12
Other Ventures
- Co-founder and CEO of RipFog, Inc. (2014-2015)1
- Board Member at CommerceIQ (2016-2022)1
- Author of "Reignition," a book on startup transformation released in Spring 20242
Education
- BA from DePauw University (1990-1994)1
Hersh is known for his expertise in harnessing the power of transition stages and helping leaders transform their businesses. He also consults, speaks, and coaches on company transformation, emphasizing the importance of the human element in business success.23
Highlights
AI is not a moat.
In the past, big technology shifts (cloud, mobile, data infrastructure) created a reasonable period of competitive advantage in which you build out the infrastructure that would be a barrier to entry for new competitors.
That’s not the case with AI. You may have a small window to create value, but the tech is so easily copied and commoditized that trying to raise a lot of money and run the old venture playbooks is a fool’s errand.
Like we saw with e-commerce, this will just be a race to the bottom for any company trying to do everything through intelligence and automation. I’m already seeing the canary in the coal mine here with larger ventures getting undercut and smaller ventures not being able to hold on to customers.
If you raise venture on “AI for….” and don’t do something wildly innovative or surrounded by deep IP, you’ll likely get stuck in two years and have to sell or shut down as any competitor will have access to the same tech.
If you really want to build a moat, consider the hard things that the venture playbook has neglected for years—the human side.
🤝🏽Form deep relationships with customers 👥Attract the best people by helping them flourish 🫴Build out service offerings that go above and beyond 🏷️Make your pricing and packaging an elastic, flexible, transparent, modern approach that makes customers feel like they’re always getting a good deal
AI is not a moat or a business model. It’s part of an increasingly democratized tech stack that will make it easy for anyone to build products quickly and cheaply. Focus on what matters in a landscape where that’s the case: building relationships.
This is the backdrop for my next book. What interesting new approaches are you seeing?
#AI #TechnologyShifts #VC #CompetitiveAdvantage #Relationships #Playbook
The same could be said for companies, especially after restructuring.
Transitions are complex, requiring a delicate balance of recognizing the difficulties inherent in the change while establishing a new, highly collaborative working style.
Starting from the top, people must put aside their selfish interests and work toward a larger vision.
Whether it’s giving up your department’s budget to support another’s, helping out with bug testing, or writing content, how are you fostering compassion and collaboration in your organization?
#CompanyTransformation #LeadershipLessons #OrganizationalCulture #Reignition
