Show notes
Subscribe to stay ahead of technology trends. Never miss future editions.Why email never died — and why Superhuman is betting on voice, AI, and the future of workRahul Vohra, founder of Superhuman and now CEO of Superhuman Mail inside the newly formed Superhuman group, joins NEW ECONOMIES on why email remains the most important layer of modern work, how AI is transforming productivity beyond the inbox, and why distribution and focus matter more than technical moats in the age of infinite software.In our latest podcast episode with Rahul, we unpack Superhuman’s eleven-year journey — from the contrarian decision to reinvent email when everyone said it was dead, to building one of Silicon Valley’s most iconic productivity brands and eventually becoming the foundation for a much bigger ambition: the AI-native productivity suite.We also explore why voice could become the default interface for knowledge work, how AI assistants are becoming a new growth channel for software companies, and why Rahul believes the next generation of winners won’t be defined by who writes the best code — but by who owns distribution, executes relentlessly, and knows what not to build.If that’s not enough, we go deep on the acquisition story that led Grammarly to rename the entire company around Superhuman, why email continues to outperform every prediction of its demise, and what building the productivity bundle of the future actually looks like.Watch or listen now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and SpotifyDownload the transcriptTimestamps(0:00) Rahul Vohra(1:44) Why Go After Disrupting Email(4:22) Will Email Still Stay Relevant?(9:20) The Impact of Voice(14:20) PLG: Sent by Superhuman(18:57) Why Moats Are Becoming Increasingly Hard to Build(24:30) How Does Superhuman Group Stay Focused?(28:55) Inside Superhuman(33:20) Missing Products from the Bundle(36:52) The Acquisition(45:45) Ollie Joining as Chief of Staff(47:45) Angel InvestingOur notes from this conversation* Email is still the most important protocol at work.Every few years someone declares email dead — and every few years they’re wrong. Email remains identity, authentication, and the default layer for company communication. The interface will change. The infrastructure probably won’t.* Voice is becoming the new keyboard.The breakthrough isn’t transcription — it’s intent. Instead of writing emails, scheduling meetings, and prompting AI manually, people will increasingly speak outcomes and let software execute. Work becomes orchestration.* The biggest moats aren’t technical anymore.Software is becoming cheaper and easier to build. Features get copied faster than ever. Distribution, trust, brand, and knowing exactly what not to build are becoming the new defensibility.* Distribution compounds. Products alone don’t.The winners won’t necessarily be the teams with the smartest models — they’ll be the teams that own attention, create habits, and get embedded where users already work. Distribution has become product.* AI changes interfaces before it changes infrastructure.Voice, agents, and AI-native workflows will reshape how we interact with email, docs, and software — but the systems underneath often survive much longer than people expect.* Focus becomes more valuable as building gets easier.When the cost of creation trends toward zero, restraint becomes leverage. The companies that win won’t build the most — they’ll build the few things that matter.* The next growth channel is AI itself.Users are no longer only discovering products through search, social, or sales. Increasingly, AI assistants recommend, connect, and even activate software on behalf of users. Tools such as The Prompting Company help companies get cited in AI models for example. * The future isn’t humans or AI — it’s humans with AI.The products that endure won’t remove people from work. They’ll amplify judgment, creativity, and decision-making while automation handles the repetitive layers underneath.Links Subscribe to NEW ECONOMIES on YouTube here. Follow Ollie on X (https://x.com/ollieforsyth) Follow Rahul on X (https://x.com/rahulvohra) Sign up to Superhuman (https://superhuman.com)Related previous episodesIf you enjoyed this episode, help sustain our work by clicking ❤️ and 🔄 at the top of this post. Get full access to NEW ECONOMIES at www.neweconomies.co/subscribe