Town CEO on 20VC: $100B AI Assistant Race and $75K AI Tools Per Engineer
soleio · x · 2026-09-08
Key points
The 20VC podcast hosts JD Grèze, co-founder and CEO of Town (ex-CTO of Plaid for 7 years, ex-Dropbox engineering director); Town is reportedly raising at a $1B valuation.
- The $100B AI assistant race: Town competes with Instinct, GrokBot, Apple and Google; JD argues AI assistants are not a bubble and will replace every app on your phone
- Spending: Town spends $75K per engineer on AI tools; he discusses picking best models without destroying margins
- Agent-to-agent (A2A) network effects is a highlighted topic
- Also covers how many mistakes agents can make before users stop trusting them, whether Apple can win the agent race (and the cybersecurity nightmare it may bring), pricing tiers, and how AI changed hiring
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