The Agentic Web, Building Marketing Orgs, Expectations for Product Leaders

Things you don’t want are more important than things you don’t have.

Good morning

I’m the guy to schedule Sunday’s newsletter for August 2025 (I think it will still be relevant in 2025). Apologies.

In today's edition, among other things:

• Building B2B Startup Marketing Orgs

• Expectations for Product Leaders

• Job Boards, Marketplaces, and Communities: Essential Resources for Finding Your Next Opportunity

• The Silicon Valley Canon - books and blogs

• How to Identify and Mitigate Risks in Your Startup

• Onboarding as a Web Engineer

• How to Get a Job at a Startup

Onwards!

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The Agentic Web

90% or more of web traffic will be non-human in the near future.

The “Agentic Web,” is a concept that envisions a future where autonomous software agents act on behalf of users to navigate and interact with digital environments. This new paradigm that many people believe in (including yours truly) shifts the current web from a passive repository of information and services to an active, agent-driven ecosystem that fundamentally transforms how users engage with the internet.

In the current web, users primarily engage with content and services through direct interaction, searching for information, making decisions, and executing actions manually. However, the Agentic Web introduces a layer of autonomy where intelligent agents, powered by advanced AI, are empowered to act on behalf of users. These agents are not just tools but sophisticated entities capable of understanding user preferences, learning from interactions, and making decisions independently, all while aligning with the user’s goals and values. That is the promise. Here’s Theory Ventures:

Imagine a web with no websites. All your favorite apps are now just databases, queried for information by agents that zip around on your behest.

Bots made up nearly half of global web traffic in 2023. With LLM agents, this number will explode. It seems plausible that 90% or more of web traffic will be non-human in the near future.

Today’s products and websites are designed for humans. They render information visually via carefully crafted UIs. They erect captchas and other roadblocks to try to stop bots, which are associated with spam and fraud.

In a world primarily composed of bots, what happens to websites? Do agents learn to navigate them like a human? Do they go away entirely?

The dual-use web

It’s tempting to think that websites are obsolete in a world full of agents. Websites are just visual interfaces to interact with data. Why make an AI agent click through a set of buttons when it could just query the application directly?

Even though some applications will build agent-friendly APIs, for the foreseeable future we believe the web will remain dual-use.

For that to happen from a product perspective, a couple of important things need to be in place.

Core Components of the Agentic Web

• Autonomous Agents: These are the cornerstone of the Agentic Web. They are designed to act independently, using AI and machine learning to make decisions based on user-defined goals. Over time, these agents can evolve, becoming more attuned to the user’s preferences and behaviors.

• Interoperability: For the Agentic Web to function effectively, interoperability between different agents, platforms, and services is crucial. This requires standardized protocols that allow agents to communicate and collaborate across the web seamlessly.

• Ethical Frameworks: As autonomous agents gain more control, ethical considerations become paramount. Ensuring that these agents act within ethical boundaries, respecting user privacy, security, and autonomy, is essential. The development of ethical AI and regulatory frameworks will play a critical role in guiding the evolution of the Agentic Web.

That future is already being built. Here’s how: