A VC and a Founder intellectually spar on Vertical Tech & AI, covering the latest news, unpacking in-depth business strategies, and interviewing world-class leaders in the space. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

In this episode, Luke Sophinos and Nic Poulos sit down with Jack Greco, Co-Founder of ACV Auctions and founder of Greco VC, to dig into building marketplaces, the operator-to-investor shift, and how AI is reshaping product, margins, and retention.

We cover:

- The shift from systems of record to systems of action why AI-native UX lowers adoption friction

- Verticalized spend management vs horizontal cards (when niches win; construction/healthcare examples)

- The AI margin debate: inference costs, valuation sanity, and why true retention/cohorts matter

- AR glasses and real vertical use cases once hardware reaches “consensus” (field service, supply chain, healthcare)

- The ACV Auctions playbook: uniform info + guarantees, region-first scaling, and how to “hot-wire” marketplace liquidity

- Operators → investors: how operator empathy changes selection, support, and outcomes

If you’re building in SaaS, AI, or service-based marketplaces, this one’s for you.

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