Floodgate Insights

AI-pilled is not a vibe. It’s a factory. The most AI-pilled companies aren’t simply adopting AI or making their existing employees more productive. They are building software factories.

I have spent the past nine months studying over 30 companies and 50 individuals, from three-person startups to large public companies, trying to understand what separates individual AI use from a company...

“Seek out the magicians, and find the magic.”

Many of the greats are described by their determination, force of will, or unrelenting competitive nature. Others their depth of knowledge or their command of the details.

But as I reflect on the thousands of hours I’ve spent with Mike Jr, the word that returned to my head again and again is magician.

Over the last few weeks I've expanded our office visits beyond AI-pilled startups to scaled companies — most recently Ramp, a 1,500-person organization. The earlier visits showed me what AI-native looks like at 8 or 50 people. At a tiny startup, it is easy to say the company is AI-native because the founders are. Everyone sits close to the customer. Everyone builds.

‍

In January 2020, at CES in Las Vegas, Jeffrey Katzenberg took center stage. He was there to pitch Quibi, his bold $1.75 billion bet that aimed to revolutionize mobile entertainment with ten-minute video ‘quick bites.’ But, he could feel a palpable sense of skepticism from the audience of tech reporters and twenty-somethings.

“No Software.” “Design is multiplayer.” “Belong anywhere.”

These phrases didn’t just describe products; they installed new worldviews. Salesforce made the cloud feel inevitable. Figma redefined creation as collaboration. Airbnb transformed hospitality into belonging.

Each of these breakthrough startups rewrote its market’s belief system through language.

When SmarterDX was recently acquired for over $1B in under four years, it marked a milestone that made me reflect on Floodgate’s own healthcare journey. Michael Gao, Josh Geleris, and their team built an extraordinary company that embodies many of the themes we believe will drive massive outcomes in healthcare and we had had a chance to witness that growth from seed to exit.