
Why does it feel like everyone in startups is wildly excited and deeply uneasy?
On the one hand, AI-native applications are growing faster than at any point in tech history.
On the other, they are achieving that growth with fewer and fewer employees.
(Not dollars, btw - they are spending as much or more than ever as payroll costs and token spend hand off from one to the other).
More growth, fewer people, and a prediction horizon that becomes completely hazy in at most 12 months, maybe less.
Great slides from Redpoint's 2026 market update, highly suggest reading the full thing.
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