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Yaz El-Baba

Partner, Emergence Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investor@yazanelbaba ↗emcap.com ↗

Yaz El-Baba focuses on early-stage enterprise software and AI investments across infrastructure and application layers, working with companies such as Together AI. Prior to joining Emergence in 2019, he worked in corporate development and business operations at LinkedIn and was a collegiate national boxing champion at the University of Michigan.

9statements → 4claims → 1claims resolved → 4/5average certainty → 2.33/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 4 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 2 assertions · 1 opinion · 3 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 4 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Yaz argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
El-Baba: StackBlitz's Bolt.new reached a $20M run rate in two months
“So for example, we just invested in a company called Bolt, or previously the parent organization called StackBlitz... They've gone zero to 20 million in run rate in two months. And we were lucky to lead their series, be there.”
Yaz El-Baba Jan 30, 2025 ▶ 56:08 How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Yaz El-Baba on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Yaz El-Baba said on Sourcery that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Prediction Not checkable as stated
El-Baba: AI-era startups will not need billions before going public
“No long gone are the days where you're going to have to raise Billions of dollars before you go public. 15 years down the road, you actually can follow the Viva capital efficiency story and build a really great company that can drive a really strong venture ou…”
Yaz El-Baba Jan 30, 2025 ▶ 15:31 How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea
Assertion Supported
El-Baba: StackBlitz's Bolt.new reached a $20M run rate in two months
“So for example, we just invested in a company called Bolt, or previously the parent organization called StackBlitz... They've gone zero to 20 million in run rate in two months. And we were lucky to lead their series, be there.”
Yaz El-Baba Jan 30, 2025 ▶ 56:08 How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea
Insight
El-Baba: Top organizations will use multiple AI models, not just OpenAI
“Like, I think the major takeaway from that piece is that the best organizations are going to use multiple models in concert with one another to power their end experiences. It would no longer be a world in which you just plug in to open AI's latest model.”
Yaz El-Baba Jan 30, 2025 ▶ 37:13 How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea
Opinion
El-Baba: Younger founders grow fastest by breaking traditional SaaS playbooks
“And I know this has been a little bit more of a provocative one, it's like, the younger teams are the ones that are growing the fastest right now. They're the ones that are willing to just break things, try new stuff, and sometimes they'll, they'll move away f…”
Yaz El-Baba Jan 30, 2025 ▶ 39:41 How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea
Assertion Not checkable as stated
El-Baba: Enterprise AI Deals Close in a Month but Face 12-Month POCs
“We're no longer going through 12 months, 18 months enterprise sales cycle. Sales cycle was a month. You're in the door. But we're gonna evaluate you for 12 months in a POC or POB.”
Yaz El-Baba Jan 30, 2025 ▶ 41:06 How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea
Prediction Not checkable as stated
El-Baba: Fast-to-build AI apps without data moats cannot sustain pricing
“Because if it's really quick to build, you're not building a data proprietary moat around what you're building. It's gonna be really hard to sustain the pricing that you see today, and that's gonna become a really, really challenging business proposition.”
Yaz El-Baba Jan 30, 2025 ▶ 24:54 How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea
Insight
El-Baba: Modern AI application startups require applied research talent
“The DNA of an app layer company is very different than what a traditional SaaS business used to look like 10 years ago, five years ago, even two years ago. Like you're seeing more and more job openings for applied research roles, applied scientist roles. In a …”
Yaz El-Baba Jan 30, 2025 ▶ 29:55 How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea
Insight
El-Baba: AI Winners Will Build Proprietary Datasets from User Workflows
“The next phase and what gets me really excited is there's richness in the data of the users that is being created as they use your product. The more someone puts in an input that's unique as to how they should look at a certain certain asset class or a certain…”
Yaz El-Baba Jan 30, 2025 ▶ 49:42 How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea
Disclosure
El-Baba: Portfolio company Mechanical Orchard charges strictly on project outcomes
“There's one in our portfolio, Mechanical Orchard, that's working on legacy to modernization efforts, moving things from on-premise mainframes to the cloud. And that is very much on a project basis... They're pricing based off of the outcome of being able to su…”
Yaz El-Baba Jan 30, 2025 ▶ 57:59 How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery wi Jan 30, 2025 25m
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