lemonard

Anyone working at AI startups - how's your dealflow since ChatGPT came out?

Hey guys,

I have an interview this week with an AI SaaS and I'm looking to get any advice/information about the industry. I'm in SaaS for 3 years now and was previously working in Software sales but haven't touched AI yet.

I'm curious to know if anyone from the industry wants to share any insights about how's it trending. It does seem like "hot new shit" but people have been working in this field for ages so I'm curious if ChatGPT inspired some new sales cycles recently.

☁️ Software Tech

18 comments

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Lambda

Tycoon

Sales Consultant

I am hoping the chatgpt hype goes away so that i can sell it as a service to local businesses that are to busy running the business to leverage the potential 0.o

sleepingjaguar

Opinionated

CSM, Emerging Markets

This

punishedlad

Tycoon

Regional Partnership Manager

My main question before I can provide more insight is this:

Is the company you're interviewing with actually utilizing an AI, or are they just using the the term "AI" for marketing? I only ask because I've worked for a company with "AI" in the name that was in the latter camp and it was really annoying talking to prospects who called my bluff.

lemonard

Catalyst

It's an annotation software - so a SaaS for companies looking to build datasets which they can train models with.

So it's not utilising AI necessarily, it's part of AI building workflow.

punishedlad

Tycoon

Regional Partnership Manager

Do you know who you'd be selling into? I was selling into Devops and it was brutal whenever an engineer would quiz me on what parts of our service were utilizing AI. Had to get my technical knowledge way up to have those conversations.

lemonard

Catalyst

Not yet, no - I'll have a chat with their team soon.

Sadboysales

Opinionated

Account Executive

We really need to have more communication on how awful data annotation companies are to work for.

Everyone i know, 15+ people including myself, have bad experiences working with these companies.

No one hits quota, founders are difficult to work with as they're usually very unaware how long sales processes take place and the market is super super saturated. These companies at this point are a dime a dozen, you should run from these.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

I am not very well versed with AI startups or direct competitors of ChatGPT. What I can tell you is - If it's a new hot shit, it will die down pretty easily. I remember a few of these bots had come up during the lockdown too. Of course they weren't as accurate as GPT, but they were close enough.

ASP23

Good Citizen

Founder

Completely agree. The hype will die down

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

I have heard some rumblings that they are partnering with a couple of other AI plays and it is going to be a growth space with the higher tech players looking to acquire/integrate them. Great space to be.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

so AI does seem to be here for the long haul. and so many industries are trying to figure out the best way to use it.

My suggestion would be to do as much research on the company AND the problem they are solving for as possible.

look for how its being handled today with out AI, what competitors does this company have, ect.

hopefully this can shed some light on if the company is just a fad, or if they have a shot at being something legit.

lemonard

Catalyst

The product itself is an annotation software so it's not really based on AI but serves AI researchers/companies looking to build data models so I'm not worried it's a fad.

What I'm curious though is other people's experiences with selling AI tools and etc. because I feel the industry is pretty hyped right now but unsure if there are actual deals going down or just talk.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

ah i see I see! hmm, Im trying to think a solid way to figure this out.

I think i would pick the AI vendors you care about and see if you can see their annual reported revenue from the last few years.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

It's cool but I write my own shit. It'll die down.

ChumpChange

Politicker

Channel Manager

I don't necessarily think ChatGPT should be your focal point but rather companies (preferably competitors) that are in the same space. Alloy Automation and Icertis are some ones that I can name off the top of my head. My recommendation is to tailor the message to your audience.

GingerBarbarian

Opinionated

Lead Sales

I have a couple of thoughts.

1) Not all AI is AI. Some of it is just a very elaborate set of If:Then statements they call AI.

2) I see what I have been calling digital outsourcing on the horizon for a while now. The low cost of AI compared to people will lead to a lot of Salespeople losing their jobs. No, this does not mean AI will be able to take over an entire SDR role, but it can cut 20-30% of the workload and lead to mass layoffs. It will be an amazing tool, but I expect the growing pains to be severe for KPI factory style sales teams that just repeat scripts over and over again.

3) I see ChatGPT being mostly used in marketing/content creation/outreach capacity at first. It is easy to plug in "tell me a story about (ideal customer) with (problem)" prompts being put in for every company.

ventox35

Politicker

Sales Leader

if anything, it's brought awareness and credibility to the skeptics. definitely helps! it's gonna suck though when someone builds ULTRON and we all die

Lambda

Tycoon

Sales Consultant

I have been looking to get into this space! Can't help with your question but how did you find/where did you get the opportunity to sit with an AI company?

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lemonard

Anyone working at AI startups - how's your dealflow since ChatGPT came out?

18 comments

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