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AI After Dark is a podcast hosted by Alex Gras, venture capitalist at Mercury, focused on how real companies are built once the hype fades and the hard decisions begin. Through candid conversations with founders, CTOs, and operators, the show cuts through buzzwords to talk about people, systems, risk, and the trade-offs that actually matter. Alex brings a background as an operator, founder, and revenue leader, with a belief that technology matters, but people come first. This podcast is for builders who care less about trends and more about what lasts.
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;20;08
Unknown
Knew this ahead of time. They're like, now look, this is this is great. And we're going to build with this. And but it's it's not it's not going to change. It's not going to like kill everything. It's not just a tool that we'll use in leverage. It's actually just it's it's a it's a way of approaching solving the problem.
00;00;20;11 - 00;00;43;13
Unknown
If that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think that's that's very much true. I think it it's, it changes and I think there's pathways where you'll start to see, like, leaner and leaner teams. Right. And kind of companies. But but yeah, I think there is a little bit and you see this kind of in media where like some companies that were like took a really kind of bold stance, you know, have maybe walked it back now or like, yeah, laid off customer service teams and almost entirely right.
00;00;43;13 - 00;01;00;02
Unknown
And things like that where it's like, okay, maybe we weren't quite there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well and yeah, of course like this was a unit versatile ubiquitous thing. Right. Like it was I don't remember it anymore. Like there were so many companies that did this. But I think what were the most, significant that were like, were hiring freezing.
00;01;00;04 - 00;01;19;02
Unknown
And you have to tell us why I can't solve this before you can hire someone else. I don't remember what that. Yeah. But that was, like, pervasive and and I guess it made sense at the time, but it was like, again, the best companies that I saw, whether it's in our portfolio or companies that pitched us or that we just got the, you know, the opportunity to engage with.
00;01;19;04 - 00;01;43;12
Unknown
It was like, now we're not we're not stopping. We're just changing how we approach it both, both in terms of the design for the business organizationally. But also the profile of individual. Right. And how we hire for this, for this type, this title, you know, and that's what I found. So intriguing about why even started this, which was like on the tech side is where I saw the most dramatic shift.
00;01;43;14 - 00;02;02;27
Unknown
Right? It was like, you know, yeah, we're going to hire a bunch or we're never going to hire junior people again. Or and actually, I'll credit my little brother. He's, he, he's a AML, engineer at a startup here in town called the utility. And and he. Yeah, I remember is like two years ago. And I was like, well, this is what we're hearing.
00;02;02;27 - 00;02;19;01
Unknown
Like, we're going to, you know, they're never going to hire junior people and just like, do this or whatever. And he's like, that's the dumbest shit I've ever heard. What? Yeah. What are you talking about? Yeah. And and we went back and forth, and I obviously me with very limited information and, and a lot of a lot of VC bravado, thinking, oh, that's how it's going to be.
00;02;19;01 - 00;02;45;05
Unknown
And, and, and of course, like afterwards realizing now I think, you know, he was he's absolutely right. And I need to like I need to check myself a little bit in, in making, you know, very deterministic assessments of how things are being built, because there are people that have been doing this for a lot longer. And when I was doing this, meaning building technology companies for a lot longer with the same tools, and I'm telling people that they need to be using to replace.
00;02;45;05 - 00;03;04;19
Unknown
Yeah. And they're not replacing. Yeah. So yeah, yeah. I think, it also kind of speaks to me. I was like, still so, so early. Right. And so I think like when you look at the like the impact on the bottom line, we're still early in like that potential of it and you know, figuring out like I mean what is the interface look like for AI.
00;03;04;25 - 00;03;25;29
Unknown
You know what what are the interaction patterns. And like a lot of that stuff is still so nascent that I think, like, you just don't see the level of impact that it ultimately like we'll have, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think yeah, we're early, we're, we're very early. And I think like just having realistic and grounded expectations of like, you know, if I have to deliver in six months, like what's, what's actually true, do I, you know, exciting and terrifying.
00;03;25;29 - 00;03;36;17
Unknown
Yes. Yeah. At the same time. Cool, man. All right. Matt Robillard CTO smart I see any any last thoughts? Oh, man. Smooth. Awesome cool. Yeah I appreciate it, man. Yeah. Awesome.