Growth lessons from consumer tech operator‑investor

Most vertical AI companies fail because they're building features, not businesses. Rachel ten Brink, GP at Red Bike Capital and former Scentbird co-founder (scaled to 500K+ subscribers, $29M raised), breaks down how to build defensible vertical AI that survives the regulatory gauntlet. She reveals her operator's test for distinguishing product businesses from services wrappers, explains how winning data network effects emerge from proprietary processing of public data, and shares the specific go-to-market playbook that works for enterprise AI sales cycles.