What We Learned This Week | 8-3-25
GPT5 Release, Book Recommendations from a16z, LLM Market Update, How Anthropic uses Claude Code, GTM Playbook, and more...
Hope you are enjoying some sun. Below are some of the articles and podcasts which caught my attention past week. As always, welcome your feedback and ideas.
Articles
Some books we're reading this summer 2025 | a16z | Here are some books the a16z crypto team has been reading and recommending this summer.
CEOs Aren’t Thinking Big Enough with AI | BCG | Many organizations have deployed AI tools. But to build true competitive advantage, CEOs must look beyond efficiency gains and boldly reimagine workflows, products, and services.
2025 Mid-Year LLM Market Update | Menlo Ventures | A new enterprise LLM leader has emerged as usage and spend surge.
How Anthropic teams use Claude Code | Insights on how different departments leverage Claude Code, its impact on their work, and tips for other organizations considering adoption.
AI Is Transforming Productivity, but Sales Remains a New Frontier | Bain | Potential applications of generative and agentic AI could free up more selling time and boost conversion rates.
Podcasts/Videos
Introducing GPT-5 | OpenAI | Sam Altman/Team introduce and demo GPT-5.
Benedict Evans on decades of disruption | The Network State Podcast | Benedict Evans is a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz and runs a newsletter with ~200k subscribers. We discuss smart glasses, amplified intelligence, robot dogs, the decentralization of media, and how AI is disrupting the very concept of user interfaces.
AI Eats the World | SuperAI | Latest on AI Trends from X-a16z Partner.
Databricks CRO’s Playbook to build the fastest GTM | 20VC | Ron Gabrisko is the Chief Revenue Officer at Databricks, where he joined in 2016. Under his leadership, Databricks has scaled from $0 to $3.7BN annualized revenue. He has grown the sales team from 0 to over 1,000 globally, leading expansion into enterprise, government, and international markets.
The Future of Software Development | a16z | How infrastructure is evolving in the age of AI — from models and agents to developer tools and shifting user behavior.
A Book We are Reading in August
Ping: The Secrets of Successful Virtual Communication | Andrew Brodsky | The essential guide for when (and how best) to use virtual communication tools, from video to instant messaging and everything in between.
A Quote We Are Pondering This Week
“The longer you delay that thing you know you should do, the more difficult it gets. The easier thing in the short run is often the harder thing in the long run. Pain today, gain tomorrow.”
Upcoming Interesting Data & AI Conferences
Ai4 2025 | 8-11 to 8/13 | Vegas
Northeast Utilities Credit and Collections | 9/10 - 9/12 | Atlantic City, NJ
Boston AI Week 2025 | 9/29 - 10/3 | Boston
UA Week 2025 | 10/28-10/30 | Austin
AWS re:invent 2025 | 12/1-12/5 | Vegas
#LetsGrowTogether