To convince executives at traditional companies of AI's potential, abstract presentations fail. Instead, provide tangible, immersive experiences. A ride in a Waymo car, for instance, serves as a powerful product demo that makes the future feel concrete and inevitable, opening minds in a way slideshows cannot.

Contrary to the belief that great products sell themselves, truly transformative ideas require more marketing, not less. This is because they demand significant behavioral change, and marketing must provide the psychological reassurance for consumers to overcome the hurdle of adoption.

When investing in high-risk, long-development categories like autonomous vehicles, the key signal is undeniable consumer pull. Once Waymo became the preferred choice in San Francisco, it validated the investment thesis despite a decade of development and high costs.

After proving its robo-taxis are 90% safer than human drivers, Waymo is now making them more "confidently assertive" to better navigate real-world traffic. This counter-intuitive shift from passive safety to calculated aggression is a necessary step to improve efficiency and reduce delays, highlighting the trade-offs required for autonomous vehicle integration.

Startup founders often sell visionary upside, but the majority of customers—especially in enterprise—purchase products to avoid pain or reduce risk (e.g., missing revenue targets). GTM messaging should pivot from the "art of the possible" to risk mitigation to resonate more effectively with buyers.

Simply promising a desired outcome feels like a generic 'win the lottery' pitch. By first articulating the audience's specific pain points in detail, you demonstrate deep understanding. This makes them feel seen and validates you as a credible expert who can actually deliver the solution.

To overcome public skepticism about safety, autonomous vehicle companies need a grand public demonstration. A livestreamed, overnight "robo-taxi" journey between cities, framed as a "self-driving hotel," could serve as a modern spectacle to prove the technology is safe and build consumer trust, much like elephants walking the Brooklyn Bridge did.

Waymo identified that the first ride transformed anxiety into acceptance. Unable to offer rides at scale, they created a 360-degree VR video to virtually place people in the car, demystifying the technology and replicating the game-changing “demo” experience for a mass audience.

The public holds new technologies to a much higher safety standard than human performance. Waymo could deploy cars that are statistically safer than human drivers, but society would not accept them killing tens of thousands of people annually, even if it's an improvement. This demonstrates the need for near-perfection in high-stakes tech launches.