2025 Trend Opinions, World Models, & Tigers in Love ????

Greetings ??.?Time for the last full send blast of 2024. It’s been real and it’s been fun. I’ve had fun writing these this year. Have you enjoyed reading them? Do you actually care? Doesn’t everyone question whether or not their time is being valuably spent? Well, I hope the few minutes that I get to share with you via this newsletter falls into the “fun, informative, and worthwhile” categories. If not, why not? Find me on LinkedIn and tell me what you want more of.

To frame our update: we help growth companies elevate their financial and operational data through leveraging the best humans, platforms, and tech in the market.

Let’s Dive In ??

?? TL;DR

1. What to Look for in 2025
2. The Rise of Online Communities
3. Next Big Thing in AI - World Models?
4. Fluid Isn’t Liquid, A Bankruptcy Story
5. A Tiger Love Story

??? 3 Trends to Look for in 2025

2024 was certainly better than 2020, right? Remember in December of 2020, everyone was itching to be DONE. To look forward to greener pastures. To escape the wild ride that year was. 2024 has had it’s fair share of intrigue - remember the solar eclipse? The Summer Olympics? The electio….nah, let’s move past that. Let’s go ahead and look forward to 2025:

• Waning Interest Rates = More Growth Focus? Interest rate increases are a direct result of inflationary environments. With increased interest rates, capital to fuel business growth becomes more expensive, thus investors shift their focus towards profitability and cash flow. It feels logical that decreasing interest rates will result in a renewed focus towards growth versus profitability. Look for investors to begin prioritizing monthly growth rate over months-to-profitability again. Check out some data below from SaaS Capital .

• The Continued Rise of Personal Privacy Historically, large tech companies and ad agencies have utilized copious amounts of digital information about each and every one of us to drive consumerism. As AI continues to evolve at its blistering pace, the knowledge base around you as an individual will continue to amass greatly. This data is tremendously important for growth. Look for startups in the personal data privacy category to accelerate in 2025.
• The Increase of Customer Acquisition Costs With the immediate use case of utilizing large language models to create content (and now better quality video), your feed is littered with more low quality AI-driven content than you can comprehend. In 2025, companies will continue to leverage AI to ship higher volumes of mediocre content, thus taking up ad space. It will become more difficult to compete for attention, but there will still be ample opportunity for the storytellers, the creatives, and those who hyper-focus on their target market with quality content. Look for your customer acquisition costs to go up - both in creating quality content and in the click-through rates for online consumers.

What do you think? On the mark? Way off base? Let us know at [email protected].

??? The Rise of Online Communities

Micro-communities have popped up all over the place in 2024. There is an innate desire in each of us to feel a sense of belonging. Micro-communities have enabled folks to find groups that share similar values, thoughts, and interests. Having a community to share feedback in a comfortable space provides a sense of freedom.

You may have seen this on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and other platforms - “Join XYZ Community!” Think about it…Reddit is the fifth most visited website and accounts for 1.6% of total social media website traffic in the US alone. People crave community.

The beauty of the online community is that there’s typically a desire to drive value over sales and to encourage members to engage - thus driving the value towards one another. It really is a beautiful business model when you can set up an environment for others to continue building the ‘product’ that others find value in.

Announcing the Full Senders Community!

?? Totally joking, but our #full-senders Slack channel is ??????

We’ve seen it first hand in our industry - folks desire a place to share common ideas, frameworks, best practices, and common grounds with others who are rowing the same direction.

In 2025, think about how you can create a community or community-feel within your client base, your referral network, or your peers in industry. It will serve you well, I promise.

Thank you for being here. We’re grateful for you being a part of our little newsletter community.

??? Need to know: Business News

>?YouTubeTV Raises Prices Again. In 2017, YouTubeTV was announced for $35/mo. Last year, the price was $72.99, and we’re moving up again in January 2025 to $82.99. Highway robbery or a cop-out in the name of inflation? As a paying subscriber, I’m not thrilled and I have looked up alternatives. Even so, the thought of changing my ‘set-up’ is not super compelling and they know that. We might be able to learn a lesson or two from the likes of Google / YouTubeTV - how much value is our service truly driving? (Seriously, Another Price Increase?)

>?The ‘Next’ Big Thing in AI? How familiar are you with world models, aka world simulators? World Labs has raised $230M to build “large world models“. The premise of world models revolves around mental models that the human brain develops naturally - taking abstract representations from senses and forming them into concrete understandings of the world around us. The next generation of robots, games, efficiency tools, and any other conceivable connective device may come with a side of being able to reason more intelligently than you. (AI World Models Coming Soon)

>?What is Venture Capital Now Anyway? Have you heard the story of Benchmark Capital? Here’s an interesting article on Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, and the future of Venture Capital. If you’re up for a 3-hour podcast, check out Acquired’s podcast on Benchmark. It provides an incredible history lesson on their approach. Worthwhile if you’re interested in VC and history.

Are you fundraising/hiring? Know someone who is? We want to feature those in our network who are seeking capital, connections, or resources. Reach out to us at [email protected] for more information!

???? Colorado Business: Our Backyard

>?Amp Robotics Raises $91M. While seed and pre-seed investments are tougher to come by, late stage investment is still active. Amp Robotics Corp. raised $91M to scale a waste sorting system that has the potential to ‘revolutionize’ the recycling industry. They started by building AI-driven recycling robots to efficiently sort materials based on various factors. Now they’re fully sending it with a full recycling system with much of the same technology. (Robots Sorting Waste)

>?10 Colorado Companies make Deloitte’s 500 Fastest-Growing. You’ve gotta love seeing a former client go off to do great things. That’s exactly what FusionAuth has done by being recognized as one of Colorado’s fastest growing companies - clocking in an impressive 409% growth rate. Congrats to the others on the list as well! We didn’t make the list here at Full Send, but we clocked over 100% growth too ??. (Deloitte x Colorado Fastest 500)

>?The Venture Game Isn’t All Roses, Fluid Filed for Bankruptcy. If you’re anything like Michael Scott from The Office, you declare bankruptcy and then proceed to by the entire bar a round of drinks the next day. Hopefully, things look up for Fluid after their October Chapter 11 filing. Their revenue skyrocketed from $50M in 2021 to $103M in 2023, but liquidity was always a challenge. Keep your revenue close, but your accountants closer. (Here’s the Latest on Fluid)

?Help share No Half Sends ??

As a reminder, Full Send provides accounting services for $1M to $20M growth businesses and our data team helps scale businesses beyond $20M. If you or someone you love is struggling with their accountant that never calls them back or their data that never seems to be organized, don’t hesitate to reach out.

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We want to amplify voices of the builders, backers, and servant leaders. Reach out!

?? If you’d like to be featured or have a message that would be helpful for our community, please let us know.

???? Sending it in the Wild

> The last month carried a bit of travel - Mexico, New York, and then commuting all the way to Denver. New York carried a fresh change of pace—spending time with the fantastic team at Gusto and advising them on their future product builds.

> Spending time in Denver was another opportunity to dig into our industry at AICPA & CIMA’s Digital CPA Conference. What a privilege it was to share a stage with such impressive folks. We had the opportunity to speak on technology in our industry and how to best architect accounting firms for the next generation.

> On the Full Send front, we’re knee deep in year-end planning with our clients, diving into EOS, and prepping for our holiday party! We’ll have some fun pics for you next month. Enjoy the holidays and see you in 2025!

Clickbait:?These orphaned tigers traveled 120 miles to reunite. Even if you’re a dog person, these little cats have the most unlikely love story. The cutest.

??Roman Villard, CPA @ Full Send - Accounting | Data

Why No Half Sends? We’re on a mission to elevate data through high quality accounting, finance, and data services, building more knowledgeable and engaged team members, and engaging in our industry to move our world forward.

Send us your feedback at?[email protected] and help us stay as sendy as humanly possible. We’re ready to listen.