Show Notes
Meta just cut its AI developer pricing to a quarter of what Claude and OpenAI charge. Is that a smart land grab or a sign of weakness? Jared Blank and Andy Hoar (Brian's on vacation) break down the emerging market for cheap AI tokens, then dig into the trend reshaping B2B distribution: get big, get small, or get squeezed. Ferguson's $1.6B FloWorks deal and Affiliated Distributors' latest acquisition show the scale side. A small Akron, Ohio doorknob distributor shows the other. Plus: IBM's worst trading day in 115 years, and what it might mean for AI infrastructure spending. Topics covered:
Why Meta cut AI token prices by 75%, and what happens next The emergence of token arbitrage (OpenRouter) and off-peak AI pricing Ferguson's $1.6B acquisition of FloWorks and what it means for distribution TAM Affiliated Distributors' acquisition of supplyFORCE Smart scale vs. dumb scale: when getting bigger stops working The case for specialization: a doorknob distributor's turnaround IBM's historic 25% stock drop and the AI infrastructure spending debate
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More from Master B2B Friday 15
Andy Hoar and Master B2B's Jared Blank are joined by Christina Chatfield, Head of Growth at materials distributor Composites One, to talk about lessons learned from a digital transformation undertaking at the company. Christina talks about the importance of communicating with different departments BEFORE tech is fully built, how she got the sales team on board, and how a company knows when it's time to undertake a huge endeavor like this.
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Andy and Brian preview the 2027 Master B2B Mindshare Summit - our 5th annual! - taking place in Chicago on March 16-17, 2027. This year's event moves to a bigger venue (Convene Willis Tower), but features the small group conversations attendees rave about. In the podcast, the guys talk through some of the new sessions and improvements we're making for the event. Tickets available at summit.masterb2b.com
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