In this episode of the [Un]Churned Podcast, Josh Schachter sits down with Jake Saper, General Partner at Emergence Capital, to unpack the firm’s 25 year thesis of being “early experts in emerging business models,” from the on-prem-to-cloud shift that birthed their first investment in Salesforce, to vertical SaaS with Veeva, to what Jake calls AI-Native Services, or AINS.
They also dive into:
What “AI-Native Services” actually means, in Jake’s own words
The real story behind Gainsight’s shift from selling software to selling outcomes
Why the biggest headwind to this transformation is cultural, not technical
“Mirage product market fit,” the #1 mistake Jake sees in AI pitches right now
What Jake actually looks for in founders before he invests
Why tech vendors of the future might look more like insurance carriers than software companies
If you’re building anything in the AI services space, thinking about how AI changes SaaS margins, or just want to understand where venture capital thinks the next generational businesses will come from, this episode is a masterclass in spotting a category before it has a name.
Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com.
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Timestamps
00:00 – Intro & Backstory 01:37 – What Emergence Capital Focuses On, and How It Started 08:14 – Naming the Category: Why “AI-Native Services” (AINS) 12:42 – The Walk on the Embarcadero: How Gainsight’s Pivot Was Born 17:28 – The Biggest Headwind: It’s Cultural, Not Technical 20:24 – What Jake Looks For as an Investor: Domain Credibility 31:21 – The Hanover Park Story: 150 Fund CFOs 36:38 – Mirage Product Market Fit: The Overplayed Pattern in AINS Pitches 38:48 – The AINS Idea Jake Wants Someone to Build 42:07 – The Mafia, Dump Trucks, and Unexpected AI Competitors
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