Miguel Bagulho
Investment Director, Retail Tech
Bright Pixel (Sonae's VC arm)
Also available as audio
Founders pitch the product when they should pitch the problem. VCs and retailers reward the ones who can explain the pain point and how it is measured, not the technology itself.
Speed changed the whole investment math. Before AI, startups took a year to hit $1M in annual recurring revenue. Now some hit $3M within three months of launch, so the window VCs get to judge a company before committing has shrunk dramatically.
The build versus buy math comes down to headcount, not features. Paying a specialized vendor $50K often beats hiring one $200K to $300K in house engineer, since maintenance, cybersecurity, and staffing quietly erase the savings of building it yourself.
Conversation 134
There's always that conversation. What if OpenAI or Claude starts doing this, or they already are? We go back to the moat aspect of things. Open AI and Claude are out there with a lot of funding, but still there's opportunity for these more specialized players.
Miguel Bagulho, Investment Director, Retail Tech at Bright Pixel (Sonae's VC arm)
Miguel Bagulho
OFFBounds Source · 134Investment Director, Retail Tech · Bright Pixel (Sonae's VC arm)
