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Latent Space · 2 min · Oct 20, 2026
Conference conversations expose a product adoption gap
Anekha Sokhal
Founder & CEO, Moshi
Shawn Wang (swyx)Host · Co-founder, AI Engineer
Wrote “The Rise of the AI Engineer” and founded Smol AI, maker of AI News.
About this segment
Attendees describe pressure to build systems meant for ten people, but also tools users leave unopened. Founders should test actual use, not just stated demand.
From “The Recommendation Engine for Commodity Traders — Anekha Sokhal, Moshi”, Oct 20, 2026. Watch the full episode
Thanks. We'll look at and fix what's off.
Takeaways
- Some engineers are asked to build systems sized for ten people.
- A tool users requested may still go unopened.
- Test actual use alongside stated demand.
In this episode
Full episode- 5:39Moshi turns market data into portfolio-specific insights3:28
- 8:56Moshi recommends connected market insights, not just dashboards4:36
- 14:36Conflicting sources can be a signal, not just a problem3:51
18:28Conference conversations expose a product adoption gap2:12
- 20:29Roundtables can make conference meetings more efficient2:25Up next
- 23:34Moshi is prioritizing customers over hiring2:21
Transcript
Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.
- 18:35
Obviously, we like pitch it and market it very heavily for this crew. What kind of people did you end up talking to? Yeah, we it was a fantastic opportunity because we have been like back to back speaking to people. And what we initially thought would be the interest. We've had people like in the past hour messaging me on LinkedIn saying, hey, I saw your talk. Are you in Houston? Can we get a meeting? Or hey, are you in New York?
- 19:01
Can we get a meeting? The types of people we've had. a lot of traders either at funds consulting and then AI engineers was an interesting one because a lot of them are feeling like overwhelmed with the pressure from management to do it because people now say we don't need a team you are the team and so it's like hey I need to now build this whole system myself but that system would be typically done by 10 people so a lot of people have talked to us and they're like hey i i need to build the system but like you know do i need to have a swarm of agents but then like what if something breaks something interesting is hey i built the system people told me they needed it it's in their email no one's no one's clicking it but they complain that they have this problem like what do i do so that was that one area
- 19:57
and then partnerships you know we've been meeting people and people like hey you're doing this that's interesting because we're doing this let's have a conversation after so i've actually extended my stay in new york because we've like now i was meant to leave today we've now got meetings on thursday extended it another day friday extended it another day monday and then i've got now meetings where people are like hey we're in energy let's talk in houston so we've like filled up a week after the conference of meetings oh my god yeah and my team was like hey anika another person signed up another person signed up so it's super cool is it interesting to do these one-to-one i