About Francisco Partners
Francisco Partners is a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch 25 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in more than 450 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. With approximately $45 billion in capital raised, the firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.
Francisco Partners’ Challenge
With generative-AI technology reaching an inflection point for many industries in the early spring of 2023, Mike Barry, Managing Operating Partner at FP for Product/Technology, knew that the firm’s 70+ portfolio companies needed to focus on the opportunities and threats posed by this rapidly developing technology. To address this, Mike formed a focused GenAI internal task force team to identify the best way to support FP’s portfolio companies and identify opportunities for further accelerating GenAI adoption with a focus on both product strategy and operational efficiencies.
Why Tribe AI?
Faced with the task of educating, inspiring and structuring the response across a diverse portfolio of companies, Mike knew he needed an external partner with a proven track record of engagement in GenAI projects that could also provide deep domain expertise to assist supporting this initiative.
“The easy approach would have been to engage one of the large consultancies. But we didn’t want consultants. We wanted actual practitioners that were experts in these technologies, who also had industry experience. We needed experienced professionals who our companies’ executives could really trust to support innovations that were impactful,” said Barry.
When Barry and his team met Tribe AI, they were impressed by Tribe AI’s deep expertise in Generative AI technology and the willingness of Tribe’s executive team to partner closely with FP to create a series of tailor-made workshops to achieve these goals.
Together, FP and Tribe AI developed and delivered successful industry vertical ideation workshops less than 6 months later, with resounding success. The combined team established a plan to enable experimentation with portfolio companies, resulting in over two dozen pilot projects implemented along with Tribe experts in the next few months.
The true value of the workshop, from Barry and his team’s perspective, was that Tribe AI’s team helped FP’s portfolio companies cut through the hype of emerging technologies to uncover actionable insights and develop a strategic plan to guide their future AI development efforts.
Impact
Through the workshop and ongoing partnership with Tribe AI, FP was able to see a significant increase in the number of portfolio companies undertaking AI projects, as well as the acceleration of several projects that needed the injection of more GenAI expertise. This process further established an effective ongoing framework to guide future portfolio AI initiatives.
The Future
As the POC engagements conclude and many move into production, Barry and his team eagerly await the launch of new and exciting offerings from FP’s portfolio companies that demonstrate the impact GenAI can deliver for businesses looking to innovate.
“I’m excited to see these technologies brought to life in our portfolio companies’ products and the results they are delivering. This could be a pivotal moment for tech companies willing to invest in their GenAI strategy,” concluded Barry.
