🎥 Vista Equity Partners' Monti Saroya - "harnessing" the power of AI in the enterprise: AGM Live at SuperReturn

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.We sat down with Vista Equity Partners’ Senior Managing Director, Co-Head of Flagship Fund, Monti Saroya.We were live from Berlin, which becomes the “capital of private capital” in June as the private equity’s industry leaders make the annual pilgrimage to the city for one of the marquee private equity conferences, SuperReturn Berlin.Much of the SuperReturn conference is centered on fundraising. GPs take up every available space — from hotel rooms to Tiny Space cabins that line the parking spots on Budapester Strasse outside of the InterContinental conference venue — to conduct meetings with LPs.With Prosek Partners and former Bloomberg TV journalist Deirdre Bolton as my producer, along with her team, we took over a Tiny Space cabin to hold big conversations with some of the industry’s leading alternative asset managers.Vista Equity Partners has been a pioneer in enterprise software investing. They have been at the forefront of every major technology platform shift, whether it was on-prem to cloud, the adoption of enterprise software, and now the agentification of the enterprise with AI.The $103B AUM scaled specialist software investor has dedicated its efforts to building “mission critical” enterprise software companies that organizations can’t live without.Monti has had a front row seat in building and developing both infrastructure and software that the technology industry can’t live without. He brings to bear the perspective of someone who lived through the early days of the internet from his time working at Cisco Systems and Siebel Systems. Through this lens, as well as his experience investing in enterprise software companies since joining Vista in 2008, Monti is able to make sense of where, how, and why AI will be adopted within the enterprise and what it means for both operators and investors.This conversation with Monti was one of the most illuminating conversations I’ve had on AI recently. He pieced together so much of what is happening in AI today, covering:The different layers of AI adoption.Why “harness” companies can be valuable.Where AI agents are having the most impact on a business.Why open source is the next wave of the AI buildout.Why Monti is so excited about the firm’s investment in SambaNova.Do “harness” companies have a moat?Why the moats for many AI companies might surprise you.Why sovereign AI is the next big thing.BioMonti Saroya joined Vista Equity Partners in 2008 and is Co-Head of the Vista Flagship Fund and sits on its Investment Committee.Additionally, Monti serves as a member of Vista’s Executive Committee, the firm’s governing and decision- making body for matters affecting its overall management and strategic direction, and Vista’s Private Equity Management Committee, the firm’s decision-making body for matters affecting Vista’s overall private equity platform.Monti is also the Co-Chief Executive Officer of VistaOne, Vista’s evergreen private equity vehicle, and serves on the Investment Committee. Monti helps lead Vista’s artificial intelligence initiatives, driving the firm’s approach to AI adoption through strategic partnerships and the deployment of AI-enabled infrastructure and capabilities across the platform and portfolio ecosystem.He currently sits on the boards of Acumatica, Allvue Systems, Avalara, Cloud Software Group, Duck Creek, Finastra, Infoblox, Playlist, Smartsheet, Solera, among others. Monti was actively involved in the firm’s investments in Apptio, Cvent (NASDAQ: CVT), Datto (formerly NYSE: MSP), Marketo, PowerSchool (formerly NYSE: PWSC), SumTotal, The ACTIVENetwork, and Transfirst, among others.Prior to Vista, Monti worked as a Senior Research Analyst for JMP Securities, where he provided research for buy-side clients on public on-demand (SaaS) companies. Monti previously worked as an Associate on the enterprise software/applications team. Before JMP, Monti worked at Siebel Systems in a sales capacity for the CRM On Demand division. Prior to Siebel, Monti worked for Cisco Systems in various operations roles.Thanks Monti for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about AI, enterprise software, and technology transformations.Show Notes00:00 Intro: Live from SuperReturn Berlin00:21 Meet Monti Saroya00:51 Career Origins Cisco and Siebel01:12 Building Internet Infrastructure02:17 Internet Lessons for AI02:38 Adoption Moves Slower03:34 What We Underestimate04:09 AI Value Stack Layers04:56 Why the App Layer Wins05:12 From Screens to Agents06:28 Agents Boost Productivity06:56 Engineering Impact Today08:55 Harnesses and Model Routing13:49 Token Costs and SambaNova14:49 Hosting Cost Shock15:13 Finding Cheaper Hardware15:23 Token Pricing Reality16:02 Public Markets Raise Prices16:15 Should You Build It16:34 Open Weight Pivot17:10 Why Open Source Wins17:13 Linux vs Unix Lesson17:38 China Open Model Lead17:50 Enough Intelligence Threshold18:19 Deployment Is The Bottleneck18:58 Building An AI Factory20:03 Avoiding Services Trap20:26 Where Value Accrues Next25:25 Sovereign AI Is ComingJoin over 16,800 Substack subscribers & followers and 44,000 LinkedIn and podcast followers who are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hamilton Lane, StepStone, Partners Group, General Atlantic, Hightower, Focus Financial, Corient, Cerity Partners, and more. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit altgoesmainstream.substack.com