How Hugging Face raised $235M

In this episode, Nathan and Erik sit down to analyze Hugging Face in light of its recent $235M Series D round. They analyze Hugging Face’s community and defensibility through the lens of other community businesses like ProductHunt and Yelp, assess its ability to fulfill its $4.5 billion valuation, and assess competitors and other notable companies in the space like Replit, Character, and Runway. If you're looking for an ERP platform, check out our sponsor, NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/cognitive We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com . TIMESTAMPS: (00:00:57) Episode Preview (00:01:52) Nathan’s Introduction (00:04:57) Overview of Hugging Face and recent fundraising announcement (00:08:13) Hugging Face’s product line (00:16:47) Sponsors: Netsuite | Omneky (00:18:36) Community driven businesses and HuggingFace’s moat (00:23:23) Discovery and inference (00:28:04) Hugging Face’s ideological nature (00:31:31) Curation is key (00:33:46) Keeping content fresh when AI moves so fast (00:35:44) If Hugging Face is a $50 billion company one day, what would it look like? (00:48:08) Hugging Face vs Replit (00:57:19) Contrasting Hugging Face with other companies like Character and Runway LINKS MENTIONED: Hugging Face's LLM leaderboard X/TWITTER: @labenz (Nathan) @eriktorenberg @CogRev_Podcast SPONSORS: Shopify | NetSuite | Omneky Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify powers 10% of ALL eCommerce in the US. And Shopify's the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and 1,000,000s of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries.From their all-in-one e-commerce platform, to their in-person POS system – wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With free Shopify Magic, sell more with less effort by whipping up captivating content that converts – from blog posts to product descriptions using AI. Sign up for $1/month trial period: https://shopify.com/cognitive NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you're looking for an ERP platform ✅ head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/cognitive and download your own customized KPI checklist. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off. Music Credit: GoogleLM