Karen Song-Walker

San Francisco is getting its groove back again...sort of. Like the heyday of the tech boom, the City by the Bay has become the techie bohemian outpost for AI startups who are snatching up San Francisco office space. And, it comes at a time when the city needs it with office vacancies at a mind-boggling 35 percent. Remote work...what's that? With AI companies - big and small - clamoring for office space, that's a sure sign workers will be expected in the confines of the office. Many are requiring workers in the office at least four days. In many ways, it's very reminiscent of the go-go culture when tech was young, snacks a plenty, and ping pong tables ding dong. Given the high cost of living in San Francisco, that in-person, in-office approach can potentially limit the talent pool. It's a new culture based on the old one. Work-life balance is the mantra of today's workforce. Whether that clashes with the resurrection of the 'work hard, play hard' AI culture is definitely something to consider. With AI barely out of diapers, leaders and their workforce are charging ahead, living and breathing and when you can get it, sleeping AI. Combine that with startups vying for funding or justifying their valuations with small, lean teams, it's HP in the garage all over again. For San Francisco, AI and the funky bunch of startups can only bring much needed energy to a city that remains in the pandemic doldrums. With high office vacancies, monthly rents are down. On the bright side, it's provides opportunities for a new wave of innovation. That can only be good for, well, everyone https://cnb.cx/4fZwTHP #sanfrancisco #startup #realestate ##artificialintelligence #talent #workforce #innovation #officespace

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where’s OpenAI ‘s sama? oh look. he’s in elon’s shadow. makes sense. he’s shorter. Lol. the island of cannibals that is silicon valley has a new co-chair as mayor of sf. unelected. uninfluential in washington. has weasled his way into a transition team for sf. I wonder is watching elon w trump he found his trump locally in sf. sama is a mirror. he was for pg. he was also for many others. including elon. I guess this is a way to perhaps shore up political points locally in sf. to protect himself as best as he can. washington is a country wide, global game. kinda reminds me of another rebranding. im just jenny from the block. https://lnkd.in/e_jNXXRD if ai companies are to flourish OpenAI Google Microsoft Amazon Apple will require that startups are not somehow impeded. this is a game of davids and goliaths. where the slingshot appears innocuous. that is llms, transformers, access to privileged data. this out of no-where announcement demonstrates that this is a defense tactic by sama. he speaks fondly of sf and has done nothing until now. so his disingenuous nature finds yet another loop hole to worm into. we would be more supportive of his efforts except he’s created an industry for himself through a con game approach. why is he ceo of OpenAI when he’s there 6-7 hours a week. forgive me. isn’t a ceo supposed to be singularly focussed. his game is getting funding that invests in companies that he’s already invested in and as it’s a non for profit there are no conflicts of interest applied. wow. he uses other peoples money to invest in what he’s already invested in. sounds like y combinator showed him how to play the sv players. the next trick will be to do something no one has ever done. take a multi-billy non for profit and flip to for profit. as a non for profit there is no reporting required. there are tax incentives. a moral narrative to spin. then. oooops. how do we monetize this. we believe he will not succeed. to do so would cannibalize capitalism as it’s structured. it also would create a new pathway for universities which are by definition research centres. creating this precedent would alter their business. given that elon has beef with sama. and elon has never been more on top of his game. well. we find local political maneuvering is a way of squirming. OpenAI investors chiefly Microsoft are about to be thrown under the bus. unwittingly. recall it’s the talent at OpenAI that makes it special. the a team has left. the b team is in place. 2025 will not be good for OpenAI elon will have his revenge. 44 millys invested. for what. for sama to throw his weight around. he’s a lightweight. just look at him. lol. source: https://lnkd.in/e9WtQ48k < . >

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Ever wondered where the perfect balance between tranquility and innovation lies? For me, it’s Seattle. Unlike the Bay, Seattle has a more serene environment that’s perfect for focusing on building products and businesses. The city’s vibe encourages deep work and creative thinking, free from the overwhelming hustle. But let’s be honest, Seattle’s founder and investor communities aren’t as vibrant as those in SF. Yet, this city holds a special place in my heart – a blend of my love for startups and the charm of Seattle. I believe in Seattle’s potential and I’m on a mission to help ignite its startup community. From connecting with fellow founders to engaging investors, let’s come together to build something extraordinary here. Seattle has all the ingredients to be a startup hub – talent, innovation, and a supportive ecosystem. What it needs is a spark. Let’s be that spark.

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Building regulation around AI requires a conversation that supports both innovation and responsibility. I'm happy to see that bills are being drafted and vetoed—it's a process we go through to make things better. I just hope this is a trend that leads towards more bills being presented and more discourse being had in public about this important topic. At the same time, the tech industry needs to think responsibly about guardrails. It's why I'm optimistic about companies like meetsynthia.ai and Squirro who are building real-world solutions today to help organizations leverage Generative AI solutions today while maintaining responsible guardrails. Drew Rayman

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TLDR: 🚀 In 6 months, I've transformed my challenging homebuying experience into Home inSights—an AI-driven app I built to help navigate Portland, ME's challenging market. Like, share and read on to see how you can help. 🏠 Like many of you, I've faced the challenges of today's housing market firsthand. In just one year, we made 10 offers, toured dozens of homes, and combed through hundreds of listings. After repeatedly coming up short, I had a realization — the current tools weren't serving the actual consumers: homebuyers and homeowners. 📈 In Portland, home prices have surged by 85% and mortgage costs have tripled in just five years. We're in the midst of a nationwide crisis marked by limited supply, skyrocketing prices, and escalating borrowing costs. With this increased pressure on consumers, homebuyers need all the help they can get. 🔍 Home inSights is built to empower buyers and homeowners with personalized insights, community discussion, and smart comparison tools. You may be a home owner wanting to better estimate the equity you can roll forward, waiting for the right home to popup within a school district, or a new buyer with constantly changing buying power. Existing apps prioritize lead generation, and maintain this information asymmetry. There is a better way. 🌅 This version of Home inSights is only the beginning, currently focused on the Portland market. I’m racing to keep building this, but I want to begin including you all. Here’s my backstory on why I’m embarking on this journey: 💼 My career began in the aftermath of the last housing crisis. I worked on mortgage-backed securities lawsuits worth billions, reviewing tens of thousands of mortgages. The countless stories of hardship have stayed with me, fueling a deep-seated desire to make a difference. 👔 As a CFA charter holder, I love markets and valuations and feel driven to help make the market better by empowering consumers through information and tooling. 🥒 Later, I grew my family's pickle company to $3M revenue, gained hands-on business management experience, learned to listen to customers, and how to grow and lead teams when the future is unknown. 📱 Most recently, at Appex, I managed dozens of mobile apps with hundreds of thousands of consumers, worked with many founders, and learned how to build a mobile business. 💡🤖 But I wasn't a coder. Determined to create a solution, I turned to AI. In a few months, I launched not one, but two apps. These unique keystone experiences laid the foundation for what has become Home inSights. If you have read this far, thank you thank you thank you. 🫵 Any help is appreciated: 👍 1. Like, share, comment and/or tag someone on this post 🫶 2. Follow my progress on Instagram: @Buildwithphil.ai 📲 3. Download Home Insights on iOS, subscribe to support ongoing development, and share feedback https://lnkd.in/eQQc8tm9

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🎧 Wake up babe—part 2 just dropped! This week I returned to the Unsolicited Feedback podcast with Fareed Mosavat to discuss companies starting with L like Loom, Linear and…yeah—I forgot LaunchDarkly for a minute. We talked a lot about AI, collaboration, and introducing new features. Mostly we laughed a lot and showed our generations (wait for us to say “modem.”) 🌐 Multi-modal work perfect for you We talk a lot about Loom’s video to docs feature and how we’re entering a choose your own adventure world when it comes to how you consume content at work. 🚪 Entry points in products We inspect Atlassian's swift integration of Loom's video capabilities into its platform, especially Jira, debating whether this creates a new front-door for Jira or expands the value prop of standalone Loom. 🛠 Simple is a winning strategy Linear is winning hearts and minds by simplifying tasks and collab in ways that feel natural for product teams. Teams are loving the design and simplicity of the new product focused releases (and 😍 to that blink-and-you’ll-miss-it AI elegance) but can we really start putting docs in one more place? 💡 Pricing Nerds: the AI edition Farreed cracked some eggs of wisdom on pricing, and categorized AI features into three buckets: Leaders: Crucial features that attract users and often become the main reason they choose a product. Fillers: Enhancements that bolster the product's value without being decisive in purchase decisions. Killers: Complex or costly features that might deter potential customers. Everyone thinks AI is a “leader” feature, but they can become “killers” if they introduce significant security risks or operational overhead. 🚀 Think Like a Beginner Finally I shared a bit more about the best “L” company of all: LaunchDarkly and how putting on a beginners hat helped me re-experience (and quickly improve!) the product. L-L-Link below 👇

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Today is Workstream’s 7th birthday! 7 years ago today --- Max, Lei and myself started Workstream after going door to door around San Francisco Bay Area talking to hundreds of business owners and learning that there was not a good all in one solution built for hourly businesses. Business owners were doing manual tasks from payroll, onboarding, hiring to HR tasks and spending 10s of hours each week manually running HR processes. Therefore, we started Workstream together! We have never looked back since. On our 7th birthday, I like to share 7 learnings from the past years 1/ Find truly great co-founders to be on this journey together I am incredible thankful to say I found not one, but two amazing co-founders. Just last week, Max, Lei and myself had our usual weekly sync and we had a 6+ hours call on Friday late night till midnight. To be able to be at it for 7 years, and still feel the same passion, determination and drive -- I'm thankful to have met the best co-founders one can ever have! 2/ Find a pain point that you want to invest 10 or 15 years in To build something great, you need time. Media and PR often glamorizes businesses & startups growing overnight. That is often not the truth. Choose wisely what you really want to spend 10 or 15 years on, because you will spend that and more on it. 3/ The team you build is the company you build Find great people who align with you on values, mission and purpose. The people you hire and work with is the team you build = the company and product you will build for your customers. 4/ Embrace the lows and highs Building a business is not easy. There's more lows than highs on the average, but one should learn to embrace both of them. Michael Jordan often says "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. That's why I win" 5/ Find a mission and purpose you care about Both my parents are hourly workers and I grew up seeing how hard it is for hourly businesses to manage payroll, HR and hiring all in the same place. Find a calling that you really want to work on and care about, despite the lows and highs. 6/ Go all-in 120% Building a business, whether you are an early employee/streamer or a founder, is extremely hard. We need to go all in to have a chance at winning. 7/ Enjoy the journey The days are long but the years are short. Enjoy the journey! Happy birthday, Workstream! P.S Photo was taken in 2018 when Workstream was a 6 months old baby (I would say we all looked younger back then too!) as we were outside our co-working space in San Francisco at South Park / Soma.

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Where did all the product engineers go? Is there a new title in town? I'm talking about people who are skilled at traversing the entire stack (frontend/backend/api +) to build incredible product and ux. #engineering #recruiting #product

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I've spent multiple semesters in the SAC and learned a lot about my own investment thesis, learning the mechanics of investing and meeting fascinating startups! If you're on the fence about angel investing, this is a good starting point

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If you’re building anything in AI, there’s no where else to be. The ecosystem just knows what founders want and nothing is impossible. If you’re building the future, SF is as close to future as it gets.

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"Finding community is so much harder than founding a company 🚀" That's what a friend said the other day, who just moved to SF. I wished I could have pointed him to something like a magic list of all the SF-based communities directed at new founders. Before moving to SF myself to build my current startup, I wanted such list as well. In fact, I spent a good amount of days googling and googling "top hackerhouses in SF" and "founders community SF", only to find few results, things I already knew and outdated blogposts. Thankfully, On Deck's SEO was solid, so I applied and got accepted and that was my lucky baptism in SF's founder communities. Some folks like Garry Tan, say that SF's uniqueness is not its taxes, but its people. It's the builders, the hustlers, the AI startuppers, even -maybe- the VCs. That's definitely true, as long as you're able to find them! If you can't find them in the first place, there's no point in paying the SF rent, nor a reason to move there. You may as well live in Treasure Island! (fun fact, I do) So, for those like my friend, like myself, and for you, here's *our* imperfect list. Shoutout to the tons of friends who invited me to, hosted me at and co-infiltrated different communities and events over these past few months. Did I miss any other communities/accelerators/hackerhouses? Definitely comment below or DM me and I'll edit ASAP. On Deck Julian Weisser Noémie Federico South Park CommonsZ Fellows Inception Studio Entrepreneur First Founders, Inc. A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN Y Combinator Techstars Unshackled Ventures Sequoia Capital Pear VC Alchemist Accelerator 500 Global Race Capital HF0 AGI House Rocky Yu SHACK15 Ventures SHACK15 Studio 45 Nate Padgett The Battery The Commons The Long Now Foundation Commonwealth Club World Affairs

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Just spoke to someone who is spending 5 hours/day commuting from SF to South Bay 3x/week by transit. They want to join Upshift to get a car every Tue-Thu every week so they can get another hour of sleep in the morning and get home in time for dinner. Sound like you or someone you know? Our new personalized fractional car subscriptions are selling like hotcakes. Optimize your plan to meet exactly your situation. Need a car to commute 1-3x/week? Want a car to get out of town every weekend? We’ve got a plan for you! Everything is included in one fixed monthly fee, even insurance. Flexible - change how much car you need over time if your lifestyle changes, swap between Toyota Corolla hybrid or AWD Honda CRV hybrid SUV. Predictable - always get the same type of car, clean, gassed and professionally maintained. Convenient - delivery to your door, refueling service, return anywhere in our zone. Learn more and subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/g7cHCjU2 #EV #AV #carshare #transportation #autonomousvehicles #electricvehicles #VC #venturecapital #angelinvesting #mobility

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Friends/Fellow Founders - TIMELY– As many of you know, I recently visited lawmakers in #Sacramento to speak out against harmful #AI #legislation. This was an incredible experience, and I was grateful for the opportunity to share my story. Thanks to the advocacy of many AI startups, one bad bill was defeated, but another, SB 1047, is headed to the Governor who has not decided whether to let it become law or veto it. #SB1047 would regulate AI in unprecedented ways. Though the bill says it’s about corporate AI giants, I fear small startups will be hit the hardest. Companies like mine will struggle to overcome the new #regulatory hurdles enforced by this reckless #policy. I’m sure everyone agrees AI abuses and misuses should be prevented and prohibited, but SB 1047 would punish businesses that build technology instead of those that misuse it. The government should regulate misuse and harm, not core technology. Please consider joining other #startup and #smallcompany leaders in signing the letter below urging #Governor #Newsom to #veto SB 1047. Thank you! https://lnkd.in/gAJNDEDJ

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Today, I’m incredibly proud to announce a major milestone for PayZen: we’ve just closed a $232 million Series B round in equity and debt, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). This round includes $32 million in equity and a new $200 million credit warehouse from Viola Credit and a syndicate of insurance companies. I’m thrilled to welcome Mohamad Makhzoumi, NEA’s Co-CEO, as a PayZen board member! Partnering with the right investor at each stage of our company’s growth is both an art and a science (with a bit of luck thrown in). We were fortunate to find strong alignment with the NEA team in terms of business philosophy, mission, market, and strategy. With their extensive experience and stellar track record, I look forward to collaborating with the NEA team as we guide PayZen into the future. This funding will enable us to continue leveraging our AI-powered platform to tackle healthcare affordability. Our proprietary AI/ML models and seamless EMR/EHR integration simplify patient payments for health systems while making it easier for millions of patients to access and afford the care they need. We’re committed to driving innovation in the Revenue Cycle Management market and are excited to expand our affordable, customized healthcare payment options to even more Americans. This partnership with NEA brings back memories. Twenty-five years ago, I fondly recall pitching Webex Communications to NEA alongside my then CEO and mentor, Subrah. That investment certainly worked out for everyone! Time seems to fly, but it’s comforting to know that some things remain constant. I want to thank all the investors and individuals that supported us along the way (Viola Ventures, Omry Ben David, SignalFire, Chris Scoggins, 7wireVentures, Lee Shapiro, Alyssa Jaffee, Ido Vigdor). Mostly, I want to thank my team for raising the bar every day, creating magic and making all of this possible. #healthcare, #fintech, #affordability, #RCM,

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There’s a lot of hype around AI Product work these days, but what does it really mean, and where do you fit in? 🤔 Aakash Gupta and Marily Nika, Ph.D do a fantastic job breaking down the sub-specialization and different kinds of AI PM work. From Core Product PMs implementing AI to Growth PMs optimizing with AI, and the full-fledged AI PMs managing models—there’s something for everyone in the AI PM space. Whether you’re integrating AI into existing features, creating new ones, or building products that wouldn’t be possible without AI, this is a must-read. Play the bingo game—see which boxes you check or want to check—and go build it! 🚀 Check out the article here https://lnkd.in/gygMbcth

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In a flurry of holiday launches from my team, the next one is shopping on Google Maps. This holiday season, let Google Maps be your guide to stress-free shopping. My team has been hard at work integrating new shopping features to help you find the perfect gifts with ease. Here's how Google Maps can help: - Search for specific items: Looking for that must-have toy or the latest gadget? Search for it directly in Google Maps to see which stores nearby have it in stock. - Browse store inventory online: No more wasted trips! Check out a store's selection before you even leave the house. - Discover new stores and hidden gems: Expand your shopping horizons and find unique gifts you wouldn't have discovered otherwise. With Google Maps, you can navigate the holiday shopping frenzy like a pro. Happy hunting! Product search in Maps is launching in the U.S. in the coming weeks. Blogpost: https://lnkd.in/eycnpRVe #GoogleMaps #HolidayShopping #GiftGuide #ShopLocal #Convenience #TechInnovation

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Apple’s shift away from the annual release cycle toward multiple, smaller launches throughout the year feels long overdue—especially in today’s world where AI and machine learning are reshaping how we interact with tech at lightning speed. For those familiar with SaaS, rapid, frequent releases are nothing new. Apple had the perfect ecosystem to pioneer this shift earlier but missed the mark, leaving valuable opportunities on the table with their delayed entry into AI-driven capabilities. At the pace GenAI and LLMs are evolving, a single year is practically a lifetime. By embracing more frequent, timely releases, Apple can course-correct and stay agile, catching up with innovation that’s moving faster than ever. #Apple #AI #TechInnovation #Agility

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