S9E7 - From Clicks to Conversations ft. Tom Drummond, Founder & Managing Director at Heavybit Industries

Tom Drummond, founder and managing director at Heavybit Industries, dissects the seismic shift from graphical interfaces to conversational AI—and why most SaaS companies are thinking about it wrong. This isn't about adding chatbots to legacy products. It's about fundamentally rethinking what software means when voice becomes the primary interaction mode and agents become your customers. Drummond reveals why rapid execution trumps defensibility, how API-first companies will dominate the agent economy, and why trust—not technology—remains the ultimate bottleneck.

Key Takeaways:

1. Large Language Models Are Creating the Biggest Interface Shift Since the GUI

• The fundamental breakthrough isn't AI intelligence—it's natural language interpretation that frees computing from screens
• This democratizes access beyond anything the mobile revolution achieved, making software ubiquitous without requiring visual interfaces
• The transition will be generational: today's builders remain skeptical while the next generation will trust AI as naturally as we trust Wikipedia

2. Visual Interfaces Won't Disappear—They'll Become Trust Mechanisms

• GUIs will shift from primary interaction mode to verification and confidence layer for voice-driven commands
• Humans need visual confirmation not because they're old-fashioned, but because they require ownership and accountability
• The winning pattern: conversational interfaces for input, visual interfaces for trust and evidence

3. Software Must Do More When Friction Disappears

• If you previously delivered value by creating forms to fill out, you've been selling toil—not solutions
• When a 22-second phone call replaces a 10-minute form, your platform value collapses unless you deliver actual outcomes
• The new bar: integrate across systems, automate end-to-end workflows, and eliminate entire categories of work

4. Momentum Is the Only Moat That Matters at Early Stage

• Defensibility discussions are premature when the entire market is being redefined and expectations reset
• Investors have shifted to momentum-based evaluation even at seed stage—growth velocity trumps articulated competitive advantages
• Execute aggressively with AI internally before worrying about competitive positioning: ship faster, operate leaner, reimagine everything

Lightning Round Insights:

• Learning accelerator: Experiential over theoretical—don't read about programming, program; don't study sales, sell
• Career wisdom: Agency and aggressive opportunity capture matter more than perfect strategy in high-change environments
• Daily AI tool: Continue (Heavybit portfolio company)—enables rapid internal tool development with model-agnostic approach and custom data sources

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction and Heavybit's Investment Thesis
04:33 - The Language Model Revolution: From Screens to Voice
12:13 - Rethinking Product Design: Phone Numbers Over Websites
21:36 - Key Challenges: Trust, Pricing, and Agent Distribution
30:04 - Differentiation Strategy: Momentum Over Moats
36:56 - Why Switching Costs Still Matter for Sustainable Growth
40:04 - Lightning Round and Closing Thoughts

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