He saved OpenAI, invented the “Like” button, and built Google Maps: Bret Taylor on the future of careers, coding, agents, and more
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You were CTO of Meta, you were co CO of Salesforce, you're chairman of the board at Open
AI. How do you think the AI market is gonna play out? The whole market is gonna go towards agents. I think the whole market is going to go towards outcomes based pricing. It's just so obviously the correct way to build and sell software.
So makes me think about I had Mark Benioff on the podcast. You guys were co CEOs. He was extremely agent pill. It's so hard to sell productivity software, which I learned the hard way. What's a story that comes to mind
when you
think
about your biggest mistake? I was the product manager for was called Google Local. I had a pretty tough product review with Marissa and Larry, and to not do that well with a link from the Google homepage is like kind of embarrassing.
I think it's really empowering for people to hear it's possible to succeed in spite of a massive failure like this.
They sort of gave me another shot to do a V two of it that resulted in Google Maps. We got about ten million people using it on the first day.
What mindset contributed to being successful in such a variety of roles?
Waking up every morning, what is the most impactful thing I could do today?
Today, my guest is Brett Taylor. Brett is an absolute legendary builder and founder. He co-created Google Maps at Google. He co-founded the social network FriendFeed, which invented the like button and the real-time newsfeed, which he sold to Facebook. He then became CTO at Facebook. He then started a productivity company called Quip, which he sold to Salesforce for $750 million. He then became co-CEO of Salesforce. He's also Currently, chairman of the board at OpenAI. At one point, he was chairman of the board at Twitter. Today he's co-founder and CEO of Sierra, an AI startup building agents to help companies with customer service sales and more. In our conversation, we cover so much ground, including what skills and mindsets have most helped Brett be so successful in so many roles, why we're all still sleeping on the impact that agents are going to have on the business world, how coding is going to change in the coming years, where the
Biggest opportunities remain for startups, lessons on pricing and go-to-market in AI, the story behind the like button, and so much more, this is a truly epic conversation with a legendary builder.
What early product failure led to the creation of Google Maps?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:57
2
What early product failure led to the creation of Google Maps?
1:57–9:09
3
How did Sheryl Sandberg’s daily question shape Bret’s impact‑driven mindset?
9:09–19:02
4
Why does Bret believe AI agents will replace traditional SaaS products?
19:02–28:12
5
What framework does he use to decide whose advice to trust?
28:12–38:21
6
How does outcome‑based pricing work for AI customer‑service agents?
38:21–56:52
7
What go‑to‑market strategy does he recommend for AI startups?
56:52–1:15:35
8
What skills should kids learn to thrive in an AI‑driven world?
1:15:35–1:28:53
Speakers
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How to close $100K+ enterprise deals, step by step | Jen Abel
OpenAI’s Head of Design: This is the best time in history to be a designer | Ian Silber
The playbook for building high-talent-density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor