Podcast

Jesse Zhang on sales battles, AI wrapper revenge, and making agents work

Upstarts Media (Jesse Zhang) · upstartsmedia.com

The unvarnished go-to-market grind behind a vertical agent startup.

Open on upstartsmedia.com ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. Why can AI now handle most support tickets, and should it?
  2. Is there a real startup opportunity in building vertical AI agents?

Read with it

  1. The episode that defined the category thesis; 300 potential billion-dollar companies. ycombinator.com Video Vertical AI Agents Could Be 10X Bigger Than SaaS Y Combinator Lightcone (Garry Tan, Jared Friedman, Harj Taggar, Diana Hu)
  2. Sierra's founder on agents as the new front door for every brand. sierra.ai Podcast No Priors Ep. 82: Bret Taylor on company-branded agents No Priors (Bret Taylor)
  3. The earlier YC talk with the playbook for picking your vertical. ycombinator.com Video Why Vertical LLM Agents Are The New $1 Billion SaaS Opportunities Y Combinator
  4. A VC's operating manual for going from wedge to platform in a vertical. bvp.com Guide Building Vertical AI: An early stage playbook for founders Bessemer Venture Partners
  5. Market sizing: services are 10x the software market, and agents tap them. bvp.com Article The State of AI 2025 Bessemer Venture Partners
  6. The macro argument for why agents expand rather than shrink the market. a16z.com Article Good news: AI Will Eat Application Software a16z
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →