a16z@a16z7h ago

Lio co-founder and CEO Vladimir Keil joins a16z's Seema Amble and Elena Burger to discuss where AI-native startups have an advantage when incumbent software companies already own the customer, the data, and the system of record: Their answer comes down to the work that happens outside those systems. In procurement, a final price in an ERP can hide hundreds of emails, spreadsheets, supplier conversations, engineering analyses, and decisions across legal, finance, and operations. Vlad explains how Lio uses multi-agent systems to take on more of that end-to-end work, from sourcing and RFQs to negotiation, shipment tracking, and invoices. They also discuss how enterprises learn to trust agents with increasingly consequential decisions, why the last 20% of an internal AI build can require most of the effort, and what happens when both buyers and suppliers have agents working on their behalf. 00:58 Why AI startups still beat incumbents 04:19 The hidden work behind an $8K line item 06:18 Retrieval, process, policy, principal 09:27 The incumbent's internal conflict 14:48 What procurement actually looks like 21:13 Procurement at Boeing-scale 28:03 A bolt order, end-to-end 37:57 What a durable vertical AI company looks like 44:46 When both sides deploy agents YouTube: https://youtu.be/OTQ-lFsq7zA @askvladi @seema_amble @VirtualElena