Generative Now | AI Builders on Creating the Future

Latest Episodes:

Toshit Panigrahi: Navigating the Future of Content Monetization Oct 24, 2024

Show notes

Toshit Panigrahi, CEO and co-founder of TollBit, joins Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano for this week’s episode of Generative Now. TollBit is a platform that enables publishers and content creators to extract revenue from AI companies that use their data. Toshit and Michael discuss how advancements in AI are already reshaping the economics of the internet, TollBit’s innovative “bot paywall” for publishers, and how to incentivize content creation in this constantly evolving landscape.

Toshit previously spent nearly a decade at restaurant software company Toast, where he helped build many consumer products as well as Toast’s contextual ad business. Toshit earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and minored in business administration at Boston University.

Episode Chapters:
(00:00) Introduction
(01:40) Toshit’s Background at Toast
(05:08) Building an Ads Business at Toast
(07:15) AI and Content Monetization
(10:52) The Birth of TollBit
(12:53) Opportunities and Challenges for Publishers
(16:17) The Role of AI in Content Strategy
(20:52) The Importance of SEO in the Age of AI
(22:04) Introducing the Bot Paywall
(23:45) Market Dynamics vs. Regulation
(25:03) Challenges in AI Licensing
(27:28) The Future of Content Creation and Monetization
(33:18) Unlocking the Full Potential of AI Agents
(36:15) Current Publisher Collaborations with TollBit
(41:38) The Future of Advertising and Content Valuation
(44:55) Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Andrew Mason: Craft and Control in AI Content Creation with Descript Oct 17, 2024

Show notes

Descript CEO and founder Andrew Mason joins Lightspeed Partner and Host Michael Mignano on the podcast to talk about the future of content creation with AI tools. Michael and Andrew talk about the evolution of Descript as an AI product designed for podcast and video creators, navigating a world of synthetic content, and Descript’s new features including Descript Rooms and Underlord. Andrew talks about raising a $50 Million Series C led by OpenAI Startup Fund and how seeing an early version of ChatGPT inspired confidence in Descript’s foundational vision and goal to simplify media production.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction
(00:09) Introducing Descript Rooms
(01:10) Descript's Versatility with Media Creation
(04:22) Social Clips and Longform Content
(07:15) Craft and Control in AI in Content Creation
(13:16) Descript AI Tools, OpenAI, and ChatGPT
(17:30) Multimodality and Improving Quality
(26:17) Trust and Adoption of AI Features
(29:29) Detour and Groupon
(37:31) Closing Thoughts

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Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: ⁠generativenow.co⁠
Email: generativenow@lsvp.com

PART 2: Generative Quarterly with Semil Shah | ASI, AI Agents and The Future of Work Oct 10, 2024

Show notes

This week, we are back with part two of Generative Quarterly with Semil Shah and Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano. Semil is a founding General Partner of Haystack and a Venture Partner at Lightspeed. Semil and Mike pick up their conversation on consumer AI technology, starting with innovative consumer tech like Friend AI by Avi Schiffmann. Mike and Semil consider the impact of Artificial Super Intelligence on the future of work, debate the future evolution of software on demand, and ask if we need AI agents to help us solve our boredom?

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction

(00:31) Consumer AI Tech

(03:05) Autonomous AI Agents Versus Copilots

(04:19) Matt Levine: Robots Make Good AI Junior Analysts

(05:53) Future of Training Entry Level Consultants

(07:55) Artificial Super Intelligence as a Drop in Coworker

(09:38) Will We Have Our Own Agentic Consultants?

(11:50) Software On Demand

(16:32) AI Generated Music and Content

(20:31) Conclusion

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Email: generativenow@lsvp.com

PART 1: Generative Quarterly with Semil Shah | Consumer AI Tech, Seed Investing, and Apple Oct 03, 2024

Show notes

Semil Shah is back for another episode of Generative Quarterly with Michael Mignano, Lightspeed Partner and host of Generative Now. Semil is a founding General Partner of Haystack and a Venture Partner at Lightspeed. Semil and Mike discuss the seed investing landscape, challenges and opportunities in building consumer tech, and competition between Apple and Google.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Welcome and Introduction

(00:37) Shohei Ohtani and Baseball

(03:25) State of Seed Investing

(11:04) Semil’s Advice on Pitching Venture Capitalists

(14:26) VC Fund Dynamics and AI Hype Machine

(18:42) Miami’s Tech Scene

(19:18) Building the Next Big AI Consumer Product: Hype vs Reality

(26:52) Apple’s New iPhone: Where is the Apple Intelligence?

(32:17) Google Android

(34:04) Conclusion

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Johnny Ho: Perplexity’s Opportunity to Reinvent Search Sep 26, 2024

Show notes

Johnny Ho, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Perplexity, joins Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano for this week’s episode of Generative Now. Perplexity is the AI powered search engine that is rapidly growing and challenging the industry status quo. Johnny and Michael talk about his background as a competitive programmer, the business model of search, and Perplexity’s Publisher Program, where publishers earn a share of advertising revenue.

Johnny has been ranked number one in the world of competitive programming. He previously worked at Quora as a software engineer – he accomplished all of this before graduating from Harvard.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction

(00:40) Johnny Ho's Engineering Background and IOI Achievements

(02:44) Transition to Product Strategy

(05:39) Perplexity: The Answer Engine

(11:06) Technology Behind Perplexity

(15:47) Challenges and Future of AI Models

(19:41) Growth and Distribution Strategy

(23:54) Setting and Achieving Team Goals

(25:35) Perplexity's Business Model and Future Plans

(31:01) Challenges and Opportunities in AI and Search

(32:55) Publisher Program and Content Credibility

(39:59) Voice and Multimodal Experiences

(42:04) What's Next for Perplexity?

(43:12) Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Stay in touch:

www.lsvp.com
X: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp
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Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co
Email: generativenow@lsvp.com

Chris Urmson: The Future of Autonomous Vehicle Technology Sep 19, 2024

Show notes

Generative AI is making it possible to not only remove the human from the driver seat, but, in the world of trucking and freight, from the vehicle entirely.

This week on Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano speaks with Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora Innovation, a company that makes software for autonomous vehicles with a focus on the trucking industry. Chris shares his journey from participating in the self-driving vehicle DARPA Grand Challenge early in his career, to leading the autonomous vehicle program at Google. Michael also talks with Chris about why Aurora focuses on the trucking and freight industry, the challenge of designing AI systems for self-driving technology, and how technological advancements in radar and LiDAR have helped make autonomous vehicles possible . Chris discusses his insights about developing AI systems to mimic human driving, and how he sees the future of autonomous vehicles for both trucking and personal cars.

Chris Urmson is the co-founder and CEO of Aurora Innovation. Before co-founding Aurora, Chris led the development of Google’s autonomous vehicle project (later known as Waymo) from 2009 to 2016. As a graduate student, he also led the Carnegie Mellon University team for the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenge as the Director of Technology, winning second and third place in 2005, and first place in 2007. Chris received his BEng in Computer Engineering from the University of Manitoba, and his Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction

(01:44) Chris Urmson’s Early Work

(04:43) Founding Aurora Innovation

(06:25) Aurora’s Focus on Freight and Trucking

(09:32) The Challenges in Trucking

(17:08) Advancements in Autonomous Vehicle Technology

(25:01) Using AI to Enhance Safety in Autonomous Vehicles

(27:06) Handling Complex Driving Scenarios

(31:40) Addressing Maintenance and Fueling for an Autonomous Vehicle

(36:36) Regulatory Considerations

(45:47) Predictions for the Future of Autonomous Vehicles

(48:57) Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Stay in touch:

www.lsvp.com
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/
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Gustav Söderström: Catapulting Spotify to the Front of the AI Revolution (Encore) Sep 12, 2024

Show notes

Spotify’s personalized recommendations have set it apart from the pack of music streaming platforms for years. Those curated recommendations have only gotten stronger with the onset of AI, with the ability to power things like your own personal AI DJ. This week on the podcast, we’re revisiting a conversation with Spotify’s Co-President, CPO & CTO, Gustav Söderström. Gustav joins host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano to talk about building UX that can power more efficient AI, the future of AGI, and what the technology could look live over the next few iterations.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) An introduction to Gustav Söderström

(01:29) How Spotify became one of the first consumer AI companies

(05:57) A philosophical shift: UI that works for AI, not the other way around

(12:52) “Talk is cheap, so do a lot of it”

(15:00) Building for the tech we will have, not the tech we do have

(19:43) What will AI do for media creation?

(25:00) The Wild West of model training

(29:45) How anthropomorphizing AI can help you understand its potential

(37:04) What happens when cognitive labor gets automated?

(40:42) How much more intelligent could AI get?

(47:45) Is AGI on the horizon, or already here?

(53:48) Should we be worried about AGI?

Stay in touch:

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Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co
Email: generativenow@lsvp.com

Gaurav Misra: Building an AI-Powered Creative Studio (Encore) Sep 05, 2024

Show notes

Captions.AI is taking the world of video creation by storm. With features like AI-corrected eye contact and automatic captions in 28 languages, more creators than ever can bring their ideas to life. This week, we’re revisiting a conversation with Captions.AI Co-Founder and CEO Gaurav Misra. Guarav joined Lightspeed Partner and Host Michael Mignano for a conversation spanning from his days as a design engineer at Snap to finding a surprise $500k in his Apple account.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) An intro to Gaurav Misra, co-founder and CEO of Captions.AI

(06:03) Gaurav got an early start in startups

(09:24) Getting a phD in machine learning before it was cool

(12:04) From Lattice Engines to Microsoft to Localytics

(17:26) Making the leap to Snapchat’s elite engineering team

(20:57) Keeping innovation alive at a huge consumer company

(26:48) Being on the ground floor of Snapchat’s major feature overhauls

(30:47) Leaving Snapchat to found a top-tier AI company

(33:48) It all started as a social network

(38:10) The happy accident of the original Captions.AI tool

(44:08) They raised a series A for the social network only to find a $500k surprise

(50:00) Building a text-based video editor from the ground up

(58:25) Beyond the editor - launching the AI-powered Lipdub

(01:04:14) What will video editing look like 5 years from now?

(01:06:52) Is Captions.AI hiring?

Stay in touch:

www.lsvp.com
X: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co
Email: generativenow@lsvp.com

Mikey Shulman: Suno and the Sound of AI Music (Encore) Aug 29, 2024

Show notes

Most of the hype around AI has revolved around its text capabilities, and the powers of LLMs like ChatGPT. But Suno is focusing on the unsung hero of AI - music. Suno is building a future where anyone can make good music - all you need to do is type in a prompt, and out will come a song that’s never existed before. This week, we’re revisiting a conversation with Mikey Shulman, CEO and Co-Founder of Suno. He joined Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano earlier this year to talk through the intricacies of programming for sound, and what this technology could mean for music.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction to Mikey Shulman and Suno

(04:03) How transcribing S&P earnings calls inspired Suno

(08:41) There’s no Common Crawl for audio - they had to make their own

(12:37) Hacking text-to-speech to make music

(16:25) What’s the product market fit for generative music?

(21:15) How will AI change the format of music?

(28:44) Suno’s highlight reel so far

(31:39) Designing with the end user in mind

(38:26) Can AI transcend the creativity ceiling?

(40:48) How does Mikey think regulation and music rights will shake out?

(46:19) Is Suno hiring?

Stay in touch:

www.lsvp.com
X: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co
Email: generativenow@lsvp.com

Chris Pedregal: Revolutionizing Meetings with AI Aug 22, 2024

Show notes

For many of us, meetings take up a disproportionate amount of our time at work. But with the advent of AI-powered tools, meetings may become more manageable and even productive, all without the sacrifice of control.

This week on Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano speaks with Chris Pedregal, CEO and co-founder of Granola, an AI-powered notepad and meeting assistant. Chris discusses the unique features that set Granola apart from other AI meeting bots, as well as the challenges of building AI-driven products. Michael also talks with Chris about Granola’s development, user feedback, and the importance of AI-human collaboration. Chris shares his insights about the nuances of effective note-taking, and the future potential of augmented thinking tools.

Chris Pedregal is the co-founder and CEO of Granola, an AI-powered meetings tool designed to to change the way we work, with tools that understand us, anticipate our actions, and augment our abilities. In May 2023 they raised a $4.25m Seed round from Lightspeed Venture Partners, betaworks and FirstMinute. He is based in London. Prior to Granola, Chris studied Computer Science at Stanford before joining Google as a Product Manager, where he worked on Gmail, Search and Maps. In 2013 he quit to launch Socratic, an AI-powered tutor for high school students, which was acquired by Google in 2018.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction

(00:39) Life in London - from Shoreditch to Street Art

(02:10) Building Startups in London vs. New York

(03:53) The AI Talent Pool in London

(05:03) Deep Dive into Granola's Product Design

(11:33) Granola's Unique Approach to AI Meeting Bots

(18:38) Avoiding the Feature Trap

(20:14) User-Centric Design in Granola

(21:07) Ensuring Accuracy in AI-Generated Notes

(23:43) Collaborative AI Interfaces

(26:23) Future Directions for Granola