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As AI talent salaries soar into the stratospherewith new graduates commanding $200K+ and Meta dishing out $100M+ compensation packagesmany early-stage founders are wondering: How can you build a frontier technology company when single individuals are getting paid well more than the average Series A total financing? As a partner at Bison Ventures, I back founders working in deep tech, particularly those using AI. Ive seen firsthand the challenges startup teams are experiencing competing with Big Tech compensation packages flush with stock options. Assuming the only way to win is to outbid is a losing strategy. Heres the advice I share with founders. In this piece (for paid subscribers only), you will learn: Why your company mission is more important than ever The one type of AI expert you dont need to try to recruit How you can use compensation strategically even without Big Tech resources 1. Be honest about which AI talent you actually need While many early-stage founders believe they need a top AI researcher, the reality is . . . they dont. What most teams really need are great AI engineers, focused less on fundamental theory and more on fine-tuning existing models, rapidly adopting new libraries and approaches, and ultimately shipping high-quality products that they can iterate quickly on with customer feedback. This does not mean relaxing the bar on quality. What it does mean is being incredibly thoughtful about job descriptions and understanding what you actually need. The best teams will be laser-focused on where innovating in their technology stack actually moves the needle and where smart integration of existing tools is enough. 2. Stay lean and comp well On a long enough time horizon, its reasonable to believe the cost to write software will drop to near-zero. We are already seeing co-pilots and coding agents drive massive increases in productivity for top users. If your best engineers can now contribute to your codebase at 3x the rate they might have two to three years ago, it means your org chart and hiring plans likely need a reassessment. All organizations get less, not more, efficient as headcount scales. It also means the people you have likely deserve better compensation! Make sure that their productivity gains are reflected in their pay. By adopting tools that allow for drastic increases in productivity and hiring individuals that embrace them, you not only free up room in the budget to invest in the best hires, but you can also keep your company at a Goldilocks size for longer. When your company is neither too big nor too small, you can move more quickly and effectively than competitors. 3. When you cant compete on cash, lean on equitygenerously But bear in mind: Equity only motivates if candidates believe the company can be massive. Everyone, to some extent, is chasing a Figma-esque IPO moment. That means you have to make the case that your companys equity offers a genuine shot at life-changing upside. Back up your pitch with a clear story about the big vision for what you will become, your edge, and why youre the team to win. This brings us to . . . 4. Lean into the why The most promising candidates will optimize for more than just salary; theyll optimize for mission. For the same reason engineers are turning down multi-hundred million-dollar pay packages because they would rather work at the frontier with Thinking Machines Lab than sell ads for Instagram Reels, you too have an edge that is more valuable than money. Find it and exploit it. Perhaps youre working to cure a complex disease or eliminating the need for humans to do unsafe work. Your mission matters for more than just a slide on your pitch deck or tagline on a site. Dont underestimate the power of a personal connection to the problem you are solving to tip the scale in your favor, like the talented robotics engineer who joins an AgTech startup because their family ran a farm in Californias Central Valley or the AI researcher who joins your TechBio company because they have a close friend impacted by the disease areas youre working to solve. 5. Sell personal impact Roles at larger companies like Meta, Google, and Microsoft are definitionally narrower in scope, and therefore, individual impact. Most engineers own a slice of a slice of a project. At a startup, on a lean and agile team, scope is limitless. One persons work can make or break the product; one idea can redefine a road map. Remember, before ChatGPT became the fastest growing consumer product of all time, it was originally a hackathon project shipped within 10 days by a team that was relatively early-career. For the right candidates, that high degree of responsibility isnt a deterrentits the allure. Lean into the messiness of early-stage building, where ones impact is only limited by an individual’s creativity and drive. This will attract the exact people you want: those driven by autonomy and impact. While it may seem daunting competing with Big Tech for AI talent, the truth is that you dont have to. You can win by being crystal clear about the skills you actually need, offering equity tied to a believable and outsized upside, showing conviction, and leaning into what draws people to startups in the first place: purpose and impact. Amidst the AI talent war, the founders who win arent the ones who spend the most. Theyre the ones who can persuade the best people (the right people) that the riskand the rewardare worth it.
Category:
E-Commerce
A young couple is casually hanging out in an apartment. The girl takes a fork full of food off a plate, as the young man asks, “Good?” She nods, furrowing her brow in a way that signals slight surprise that she’s impressed. “Really good.” As “Fool” by Perfume Genius fades in, the white text of a ChatGPT prompt overlays on the frame: “I need a recipe that says, ‘I like you, but want to play it cool.'” ChatGPT’s answer? Lemon Garlic Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes. This is one of a series of new ads in OpenAIs first major brand campaign for ChatGPT. The spots depict everyday uses of ChatGPT, from finding recipes, to sourcing exercise tips, to road-trip planning. Its a stark departure from the brands only other commercial, which aired during the Super Bowl, and lacked any real emotion. Now, about seven months later, after building up its internal creative team, OpenAI is releasing work that’s capital-A advertising, aiming right at our hearts and minds. And it’s exactly what the company needs at this pivotal moment, as the race to attract users heats up in the AI category. Its important for people to understand that we’re in this true technological revolution, and we dont all have the same vision for how this will go, says OpenAI chief marketing officer Kate Rouch. Winning hearts and minds According to OpenAI, 70% of users say ChatGPT helps them in their daily life. This first campaign aims to showcase the ways those people are already using the technologyand more importantly, it’s a way to get the other 30% to find value in the product. Just unlocking these small, meaningful moments, people are really feeling this kind of collaboration, this partnership in many areas outside of work productivity use cases, and we really feel like we have an opportunity to highlight that, says Rouch. It can be so easy to think of this as a one-to-one technology, but what we really see is that people are using it as a booster for their lives in ways that are social and very connected to so many things that they want to do. OpenAI is hoping that tying its brand to these small, meaningful moments will be a key differentiator in what is quickly becoming a crowded and competitive market for our AI loyalties. AI brands everywhere ChatGPT quickly established itself as standard bearer among LLMs after its launch in 2022. The platform now boasts more than 700 million global weekly active users. This new campaign reflects an increasingly competitive landscape among the likes of giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft, as well as fellow AI-era companies like Anthropic. (Googles Gemini app has 450 million global monthly active users, while Claude has more than 30 million.) Earlier this month, Anthropic launched its own new, splashy ad campaign for Claude called Keep Thinking. Created by agency Mother, its a stylish hype reel of how AI can solve big problemscreative, technological, and everything in between. Meanwhile, Googles recently launched a new campaign for its Pixel 10, which highlights Geminis own everyday uses. Rouch recognizes the competition, and says the brand team has a responsibility to illustrate both product differences and company values. I think its about communicating with people about what our vision of that future is, how we see this technology empowering and enabling people in their livesin very big and small ways, she says. To do that, Rouch has been steadily building OpenAIs in-house marketing team. In the past couple of months, the brand has named Omnicoms PHD as its first global media agency of record, and hired Michael Tabtabai (formerly of Coinbase and Google) to be its first vice-president of global creative, as well as Brandon McGraw, who most recently led Anthropics consumer marketing, as its head of product marketing for apps. Rouch says that the internal creative team has evolved from one led by primarily brand design, into a more full-fledged internal creative studio. We really have found that the best work happens when you have a really strong internal studio that you can partner around the world with amazing external agencies and creatives. Just ChatGPT It OpenAI is quick to say that while ChatGPT was used to brainstorm ideas, streamline logistics, and more, the campaign was shaped by a team of very human creatives, directors, photographers, and producers. A spot like Dish, makes the human element here palpable. It also hints at the potential for OpenAI to become an iconic brand like Nike, with the right mix of style and substance. The music, casting, and product storytelling are pitch perfect in OpenAI’s campaign. The opportunity is for Rouch and her team going forward is to mix this type of quotidian relatability with more aspirational and advanced uses of ChatGPT. Nike has a playbook for this approach. Just look at how the company can straddle the epic talent of world class athletes like Aja Wilson and Caitlin Clark, with the more earthbound but no-less emotionally stirring story of a last place marathon finish. OpenAI is clearly tryig to set the tone of who it is as a company and brand. By tapping into human stories and emotion, the company is attempting to build goodwill towards its product. Part of the companys mission, and the original mission of launching ChatGPT at all is so that regular people can have access to this powerful intelligence as it is being developed, says Rouch. That is actually core to why the product exists, and the mission of the company. In our perspective as a brand, this isn’t a replacement for humanity, this is a tool to aid humanity. The ongoing brand challenge in that is to make sure those values arent just a hallucination.
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E-Commerce
When Iga Światek breezed to victory in this years Wimbledon womens final, little mention was made of the head-to-toe On kit she was wearing. The reaction was testament to the “softly, softly” approach used by On these last few yearsbut the victory and subsequent exposure cemented its place among the fastest-growing challengers in a category long dominated by household names like Nike, Adidas, and Puma. Together, these legacy brands still command a significant portion of the global athletic footwear market, but their grip is loosening. Between 2021 and 2023, challenger brands like Hoka and On (sometimes referred to as On Running) grew their revenues by 29%, compared with just 8% for the incumbents. Hoka recently posted record quarterly sales of $653 million, up 20% year-on-year, despite raising prices and expanding globally. On made roughly $2.6 billion in sales in the 2024 fiscal year, tripling its net profit from the previous year. Sportswear is a difficult category to enter, let alone disrupt. A strong product isnt enough. To grow in this space, you need a brand strategy thats clear, consistent, and built for scale. Challenger brands like On and Hoka are showing how its done. Here are five lessons for others looking to follow. It’s more than a look, you need a brand On launched with a very focussed and modest product range, some proprietary cushioning technology called CloudTec, and a focus on performance. It leveraged its Swiss heritage with a Swiss engineering marque on each pair of shoes. But while its products were technically excellent, it’s also given the brand an emotional feel. Whereas Nike leans into power, pushing limits, and being the best, On has taken a softer, more inclusive stance. The brand celebrates the pleasure of physical trainingtogetheras well as beating a personal best. Its products look good socially and casually, but they also perform. They were inspired by serious athletes, and despite their mass fashionable appeal, serious athletes still wear them. The companys mission has been to ignite the human spirit through movement. A brand that wants to scale needs to understand who they are and what they offer, and build that into everything: design, advertising, and tone. Creating that well-articulated brand from the outset helps guide them as they grow. Know how and when to broaden appeal Performance can take a brand only so far. At some point, emotional connection becomes the growth driver. But scaling up and becoming a lifestyle brandwhich Nike did decades ago and On has done more recentlyis about timing and relevance. The mistake brands looking to broaden their appeal often make is to try to appeal to everyone too early. Starting small, with a focused core, is what builds credibility. Mass appeal should come when the foundation is strong enough to support it, and methodically. For those looking to grow, the challenge is to expand without losing what makes them distinctive. Technical credibility builds trust, but identity and feeling shape long-term loyalty. They need to consider how their product makes people feel. Do they inspire confidence? Belonging? Aspiration? And are these perceptions powerful enough to shape purchasing decisions during that crucial time when a customer is in buying mode? Build a brand beyond the logo For smaller brands, its essential to clarify which brand assets are fixedlogo, symbol, color, toneand which can evolve. Nike can play with its assets because it’s so recognizable. But for brands still establishing themselves, repetition and consistency are key. Ons early identity focused solely on the “On” symbol. It became their most visible asset through sheer repetition, despite many customers still reading the symbol as QC. In its perfectly pitched series of ads with Roger Federer and Elmo, On used this identified confusion to charming comic effect, proving that theres still room for creativity, but within parameters. Younger brands must also be bold in how they deploy these assets, in fast-moving, crowded markets they have to stand out. Identify which brand elements are fixed, which are flexible, and ensure theyre applied with purpose. Dont get lost chasing growth Rapha revolutionised cycling apparel by capturing the emotion of the best of the sports history and matching it with uncompromising quality and design. But in recent years, it has lost its way. In October 2024, the brand reported an operational loss of 21 million ($28 million) over the year, the seventh loss-making year in a row. The brand had grown quickly but seemingly lost control of its core offering. The Rapha Cycling Club sounded smart but hasnt added much: Subsidized bike hire at global hubs isnt relevant to most riders. Over the same period, its club membership dropped by 4,000 to 18,000 members. A flood of newer competitors now mirrors Raphas original proposition, often at lower prices. For scaling brands, its important to recognise that the opportunities you turn down are just as important as the ones to take up. When a brand gets distracted by growth, it risks losing sight of what made it special in the first place. Holding your ground and not chasing every trend is a strength, not a weakness. Ons “Soft Wins” is more than a slogan, its a signpost to a core brand behavior. Communities cant be forced For smaller brands building their market presence, communities are incredibly valuable. They increase loyalty and create fans who share and showcase the brand, helping wider audiences to grow organically. From the outset, On, for example, developed a really core fanbase by telling stories that people wanted to hear, often about the joy of the activity, with kindness and a positive outlook. However, as Rapha shows, you can create the conditions for a community, but you cant dictate it. In the case of bike brand Brompton, brand communities look totally different in different markets. In the U.K., its bearded tech-heads commuting across London. In China, its color-themed Sunday ride-outs in the park. A brand has to know when to step back, but at the same time it can watch, listen, and learn. Scaling without losing your edge It is one thing building a brand and a product that does well, its even harder to be that challenger brand looking to scale up in a crowded market. Growth adds pressure to diversify, monetize, and be everywhere at once. However, brands like On and Hoka prove that it is possible to reach those taller heights. They are succeeding because theyve built something clear, valuable, and repeatable and then scaled it with focus and a great deal of attention to detail. To be a successful challenger, dont dilute what makes you distinctive, and resist the urge to say yes to everything. Define your brand early and scale on your own terms.
Category:
E-Commerce
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