Issue #25: AI's Guiding Light

Braintrust Data: Transforming Enterprise AI from Risky to Reliable

In the high-stakes world of enterprise AI, one wrong move can spell disaster. Imagine a customer service chatbot confidently spewing misinformation, or a financial AI flagging your best clients as high-risk. Or consider the anxiety of not knowing how tweaking a prompt or switching to a new model might affect your customer experience. These aren't hypotheticals—they're the nightmares keeping tech leaders awake. Enter Braintrust, the startup that's turning these AI nightmares into dreams of precision and reliability.

The AI Whisperer: Taming the Wild West of Enterprise AI

Braintrust isn't just another tool in the crowded AI space—it's the secret weapon that's giving tech giants their edge. This powerhouse platform is revolutionizing how companies build, test, and deploy AI, making the unpredictable... well, predictable.

At its core, Braintrust offers three key capabilities:

1. Evals: Run experiments to test changes to AI features before shipping.

2. Observability: Use logs to ensure production code successfully delivers AI features.

3. IDE: Leverage playgrounds to quickly iterate by exploring changes to prompts and other parameters.

In simpler terms, Braintrust lets you test your AI thoroughly before it goes live, watch it closely once it's running, and play around with improvements easily. It's like having a test kitchen, a surveillance system, and a lab for your AI, all in one place.

From Startup to Industry Standard

Braintrust isn't just making waves—it's creating tsunamis in the AI industry. Tech behemoths like Zapier, Coda, and Notion are already singing its praises. Mike Knoop, Co-founder & Head of AI at Zapier, puts it bluntly: "Braintrust fills the critical gap of evaluating non-deterministic AI systems. We've used it to successfully measure and improve our AI-first products."

The buzz hasn't escaped the notice of tech's biggest names. Investors read like a who's who of Silicon Valley, including Greg Brockman (OpenAI), Howie Liu (Airtable), and Olivier Pomel (Datadog). When the creators of the world's most advanced AI systems are backing a tool, you know it's something special.

The Future is Braintrust

As AI moves from a nice-to-have to a must-have, Braintrust is positioning itself as the must-have for the must-haves. It's not just about building AI anymore—it's about building it right. And in a world where AI can make or break a company's future, Braintrust isn't just offering a product—it's offering peace of mind.

If you’re developing anything with LLMs, we’d suggest you reach out start integrating Braintrust into your workflow.

Reach out here

Vocabulary

💡Each edition we’ll bring you a new “Startup word” to help bolster your vocabulary and understanding of the subject!

"Prompt Engineering": noun /prɒmpt ˌendʒɪˈnɪərɪŋ/

Definition: The practice of designing, refining, and optimizing text prompts to effectively guide AI language models in generating desired outputs.

Why It Matters: As AI language models become more sophisticated, the ability to craft effective prompts is crucial for businesses looking to leverage AI for various applications, from chatbots to content generation.

In Action: A marketing team uses prompt engineering to fine-tune their AI copywriting tool, ensuring it consistently produces on-brand, engaging content across various campaigns and platforms.

Quick Bites

🛋️ Presti Raises $3.5M for AI-Powered Furniture Photography

🧘 The Way Secures $1.4M for Zen Master-Led Meditation App

⚛️ Marathon Fusion Raises $5.9M for Tritium Filtration Tech

Startup Shutdown Of The Day :(

Avail Medsystems: When the Pandemic Pivot Fades

🏥The Premise: Develop technologies for remote communication in operating rooms.

💸The Numbers: Raised $138 million, peaked at a $290 million valuation.

🦠The Plot Twist: Gained momentum during Covid-19, struggled post-pandemic.

Let's break down this medtech meltdown:

• Funding Failure: Avail couldn't secure new capital for growth as pandemic restrictions lifted.

• Market Shift: As ORs returned to normal, demand for remote solutions decreased.

• Valuation Volatility: From a $290M peak to shutdown in November 2023.

• Silver Lining: Mendaera acquired Avail's telepresence technology in March 2024.

What's Next? Asset Acquisition: Mendaera plans to integrate Avail's tech into its robotics platform.

Avail's story underscores the risks of building a business model heavily reliant on temporary market conditions. It also demonstrates how valuable technology can find new life through strategic acquisitions.