Shensi Ding

“"There are a lot of really great open source providers out there too that are very cheap... routing a query like 'what's one plus one' or a simple 'thanks' to a cheaper model can cut spend, but it's really hard to automate that." — Shensi Ding”

“The move to 'headless Salesforce' — where agents interact via API or CLI without a UI — is cited as evidence that incumbents are adapting faster than skeptics expect.”

“Shensi cited "Cursor's margin improvements as a signal of where things are heading."”

“Merge looks for Keith Rabois' "barrels" who push to get things done over more task-specific "ammunition."”

“"He's able to adjust really well to whatever market dynamics are coming. And I think it's partially because of his philosophy of the beginner's mind that he always talks about in his book. Like if I started the company today, what would it look like?" — Shensi Ding [00:33:11]”

“"Last year we didn't increase headcount that much, but our revenue accelerated pretty significantly. And so it's had like meaningful leverage on our business." — Shensi Ding [00:08:07]”

“"Christina Cordova had a really great tweet about this... basically like when you've hired these people just because you're really hot, like they're just [going to leave]." — Shensi Ding [00:39:39]”

“"Consumer expectations are higher now. Like you just expect significantly more automation. And so the SaaS platform cannot keep up with the expected automation. It's just hard to compete." — Shensi Ding [00:42:32]”

“"It is very hard to have a dominant product and company for 30 years through multiple tech shifts. And so I just would not count Benioff out." — Shensi Ding [00:33:11]”

“"They are. We love Brex. A good customer of ours." — Shensi Ding [00:09:32]”