Verticals: A Weekly Biz Show
How AI Is Rewriting the Marketplace Model | Mike Duboe
What happens to marketplaces when buyers and sellers don't need to be human anymore? AI agents are getting increasingly capable of searching, negotiating, purchasing and eventually transacting with other agents. And according to Mike Duboe, General Partner at Greylock, that could completely reshape how marketplaces and commerce itself work. In this episode of Verticals, Luke and Nic sit down with Mike to explore why AI could make entirely new markets addressable to the marketplace model. Transactions that once required brokers, sales reps, phone calls and complex negotiations could increasingly be handled autonomously by agents. They discuss: -Which transactions consumers will actually hand over to AI -Why B2B commerce could be transformed by autonomous agents -How AI unlocks markets that were previously too complex for marketplaces -What trust and reputation look like when the buyer is an AI agent -Whether vertical SaaS and marketplaces eventually converge If you're building in vertical AI, marketplaces, B2B commerce or agentic software, this episode is a look at what happens when AI doesn't just help us shop, it starts participating in the economy itself. ️ TICKETS DROPPED. Vertical Software Summit — 5-billion-dollar Vertical AI CEOs confirmed to speak. Snag a ticket before they're gone: https://verticalsaasgroup.com/conference FOLLOW MIKE DUBOE LINKEDIN ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduboe/ FOLLOW LUKE SOPHINOS X ➡️ https://x.com/lukesophinos LINKEDIN ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukesophinos/ NEWSLETTER ➡️ https://www.newsletter.lukesophinos.com/ FOLLOW NIC POULOS X ➡️ https://x.com/picnoulos LINKEDIN ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/npoulos/ NEWSLETTER ➡️ https://insights.euclid.vc/ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 How AI could transform B2B commerce 02:02 Why Mike is still betting on network effects 03:43 AI is making new marketplaces possible 05:20 Which purchases should AI automate? 08:30 The opportunity for agent-to-agent marketplaces 10:02 What is a “dark marketplace”? 11:46 Why AI threatens traditional marketplace take rates 13:54 Proprietary catalogs as the new marketplace moat 16:33 Trust in a world of autonomous AI buyers 20:42 Why B2B marketplaces historically became vertical SaaS 22:55 Will vertical AI and marketplaces converge? 24:18 The massive embedded advertising opportunity 28:49 Why AI products could become ad-supported 34:26 Distribution becomes the moat when software gets easier 35:55 Mike’s framework for investing in AI marketplaces TOPICS 1. AI Marketplaces 2. Agentic Commerce 3. B2B Commerce 4. AI Agents 5. Vertical AI
