Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast
00:48:03 · Shawn Wang, Mihail Eric, S2
[00:48:03] S0: The conversation, but the whole point of the ad is what the hell is Monaco? [00:48:07] S1: Yeah. And and, you know, you you could you could argue, like, that's a debate to be had. But but in some sense, like, what is the purpose of marketing if not to, like, get attention? Right? And and, maybe there's a one level beyond this, which is if somebody... So, you know, I'll I'll go to events and people are like, oh, you guys are the ones with the planes. You guys are the ones with, like, the big number on the billboard, blah blah blah, a 193, you know, million, whatever it is. And and that... But they're like, but what do you do? And then... But that's that's... But that's... But maybe that's the whole point. Right? Is that I just needed someone to come and use it as an icebreaker. [00:48:35] S2: I will say it's what I said as you walked in as well. I was like, oh, the planes. [00:48:40] S1: You got it. And now I know, do guys do? Well well, let [00:48:42] S0: me tell [00:48:42] S1: you about what we do. [00:48:43] S0: So and so, you know, as someone who's been in those meetings deciding what we do on the the Devin billboards, we spend so much time on the words, and maybe we should just be like, Devin. [00:48:53] S1: I think we do that. It's just so fucking dumb. [00:48:55] S0: But like, okay. You know? Look, look,
00:48:55 · Shawn Wang, Mihail Eric, S2
[00:48:55] S0: But like, okay. You know? Look, look, [00:48:59] S1: I I think Sam had another post, this past week where he was just talking about, like... I mean, Sam is effectively like our our, you know, marketing sort of mastermind here. And, yeah, I think there's a bit of history behind by the planes as well, but but the TLDR is that his whole shtick is like, I don't have all the answers. You just gotta try things. I think a lot of this we just try things. And and if it sticks, great. If it... Like, did we know this was gonna blow up as much as it did? I mean, not really. But but now that it did, it's... Get an idea. [00:49:24] S0: Yeah. It's And minimalist, start small, go high, instead of start big, go small. Way easier to start small, go big. [00:49:31] S1: Yeah, exactly. [00:49:32] S2: Also, you know, it's 6 ks a day. Like it's very much just try things. Think people [00:49:38] S1: Cheaper than a billboard. Cheaper than a billboard for sure. [00:49:40] S2: Yeah. And it's fun. Not much harm done. [00:49:43] S1: But the kind of simplicity here that's worth mentioning is then when we're trying to like one up the plane, we're like, you know what's better than one plane? Two planes. Two planes? [00:49:53] S0: What? Mine might went to rocket. [00:49:56] S1: Well, okay. I I also have [00:49:57] S2: to say I've seen the I've last [00:49:58] S1: had that idea. I I would like for that for that to happen as well at some point, but, we'll see. [00:50:03] S2: This is the next SpaceX launch. We just see Monaco. You go. Go. There
00:50:03 · S2, Mihail Eric, Shawn Wang
[00:50:03] S2: This is the next SpaceX launch. We just see Monaco. You go. Go. There [00:50:10] S1: Gotta warm up to our SpaceX friends. [00:50:12] S0: Okay. I'm happy. You don't wanna We're on Monaco. Is it worth talking a little bit about Monaco? Do you leave it to [00:50:18] S1: my end? [00:50:20] S0: Because this is like an intermission between the the topics. [00:50:23] S2: You decide. [00:50:24] S0: Okay. We're we're... We mentioned Monaco. Right? Like, let's let's give... I I I think it's I think it's a little bit annoying to, like, mention what the hell is Monaco and then not answer it. Sure. Can you answer [00:50:33] S1: it? Sure. Well, I I hope so. Yeah. So, [00:50:37] S0: this is the country. [00:50:39] S1: So it's a small little, [00:50:40] S2: There I guess, [00:50:42] S1: you go. There we go. There you go. Okay. That... This is Monaco. This is the Monaco that that I know and love. Yeah. So we are... We're we're a series b company here at Basin SF. We are are building effectively like an all in one sales platform, fully AI native, agents doing all the fun stuff, or at least the stuff that humans don't like to do, but but that agents are... Do like to do because they don't really have opinions, but do in a less air prone fashion. So the salespeople and sales teams can focus on doing what humans are good at, which is, you know, closing deals.
00:50:42 · Mihail Eric, Shawn Wang
[00:50:42] S1: you go. There we go. There you go. Okay. That... This is Monaco. This is the Monaco that that I know and love. Yeah. So we are... We're we're a series b company here at Basin SF. We are are building effectively like an all in one sales platform, fully AI native, agents doing all the fun stuff, or at least the stuff that humans don't like to do, but but that agents are... Do like to do because they don't really have opinions, but do in a less air prone fashion. So the salespeople and sales teams can focus on doing what humans are good at, which is, you know, closing deals. [00:51:12] S0: So presumably, Marc Benioff doesn't like you guys. Probably not. But he's, like, also, honestly, very AI native person. Mhmm. Very aggressive, an agent force and everything. Yeah. What are you doing that he doesn't do or he cannot do?
00:51:12 · Shawn Wang, Mihail Eric
[00:51:12] S0: So presumably, Marc Benioff doesn't like you guys. Probably not. But he's, like, also, honestly, very AI native person. Mhmm. Very aggressive, an agent force and everything. Yeah. What are you doing that he doesn't do or he cannot do? [00:51:26] S1: Well, okay. So right now, we are... Started the company in a sort of like... Market that we went after was not enterprise from the get go. Right? We sort of said, like, we're gonna start by... Like, if our goal is to build the all in one, then we need to kind of build this in an iterative fashion with with... As a group of customers, and we need to, like, grow with them into this. It's much harder to pull someone away from from Salesforce than to say, like, hey, if we meet you at the point when you are still just a Google spreadsheet tracking pipeline, and we sort of show you a, you know, more AI pilled sort of answer to the problem, then we can grow with you. And in a way, kind of follows the same the same, model of, like, you know, Brex or all the, like, YC companies, where you kinda sell to your batch mates, you kinda grow with them, and and you... Then you go up up up market. And so we are, I would argue, are the... I claim that among the best, if not the best, sort of like, startup focused sales platform. And so all of our customers are early stage startups. At this point, probably through series A is kind of where we've primarily been focused, kind of seed to series a, and then now we're going more upmarket. And we've kind of learned a lot about the all in one in the last year and a half of doing that.
00:51:26 · Mihail Eric, S2
[00:51:26] S1: Well, okay. So right now, we are... Started the company in a sort of like... Market that we went after was not enterprise from the get go. Right? We sort of said, like, we're gonna start by... Like, if our goal is to build the all in one, then we need to kind of build this in an iterative fashion with with... As a group of customers, and we need to, like, grow with them into this. It's much harder to pull someone away from from Salesforce than to say, like, hey, if we meet you at the point when you are still just a Google spreadsheet tracking pipeline, and we sort of show you a, you know, more AI pilled sort of answer to the problem, then we can grow with you. And in a way, kind of follows the same the same, model of, like, you know, Brex or all the, like, YC companies, where you kinda sell to your batch mates, you kinda grow with them, and and you... Then you go up up up market. And so we are, I would argue, are the... I claim that among the best, if not the best, sort of like, startup focused sales platform. And so all of our customers are early stage startups. At this point, probably through series A is kind of where we've primarily been focused, kind of seed to series a, and then now we're going more upmarket. And we've kind of learned a lot about the all in one in the last year and a half of doing that. [00:52:30] S2: You are the head of AI? [00:52:32] S1: Yeah. That's right. [00:52:33] S2: What's some cool AI stuff you guys have built?