How do you diffuse AI into the real world? — Varun Shenoy, Long Lake
Long Lake raised $3B to acquire service businesses and deploy AI inside them directly.
“AI diffusion is perhaps the single most important problem for the next 20 years.”
Long Lake, backed by $3B from Elad Gil, General Catalyst, and AlphaWave, is pursuing an unconventional strategy: acquiring real services businesses (35 so far across HOA management, architecture, HR) rather than selling software, then deploying AI internally. The talk frames AI adoption as analogous to electrification — capabilities exist but real-world diffusion takes decades of structural change. This 'buy and transform' model is a notable alternative to the SaaS go-to-market playbook for AI deployment.