One of the most
talked-about panels during B. Riley Securities' 26th Annual Institutional
Investor Conference tackled how generative AI is reshaping the enterprise
software model. Moderated by Equity Research Managing Director, Erik Suppiger,
The Agentic Pivot: Re-Architecting the SaaS Stack brought together Kyle Brown
(CEO, Trinity Capital), Jonathan Lamm (CFO, Blue Owl), David Morken (CEO,
Bandwidth) and Umesh Sachdev (CEO, Uniphore). With perspectives spanning
technology, lending, and investing, one theme emerged clearly: the shift from
selling software to selling intelligence is underway.
Key
takeaways:
The redefined moat
With AI able to replicate code quickly, the panel argued that tomorrow's moats
rest on three pillars: proprietary data that models can be trained on,
distribution and incumbency that startups struggle to acquire, and usage-based
infrastructure positioned to capture the value of autonomous agents rather than
static seat counts.
The pricing reset
Seat-based licensing breaks down when a single agent can do the work of many
users in a fraction of the time. The panel's view: winners will price business
outcomes and intelligence, not the number of logins or seats.
The investor lens
From a capital-allocation standpoint, historical SaaS retention metrics no
longer tell the whole story. The emphasis is shifting toward technological
defensibility — backing mission-critical, data-rich, accuracy-oriented
businesses where AI expands the opportunity, and looking for core
system-of-record companies with clear, actionable AI roadmaps.
The bottom line
The discussion covered a lot of ground, but the closing sentiment was unified:
incumbency remains a powerful weapon, but only when paired with agility. The
companies that thrive will stop treating AI as a feature and start treating it
as the core engine of the intelligence they deliver.
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