Refounding in the face of AI with Des Traynor of Intercom
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's almost like you're building but the the things you're building with are constantly adapting themselves. So everything is up for grabs all the time. And um, you know, there's a phrase I heard recently which is like it it'll basically never be chill again. And I think there's a there's a lot of truth to that.
Welcome to Orbit, the HG podcast series where we talk about some of the most successful leaders of technology businesses and hear how they built some of the most successful software companies across the world. I'm Amr Laban, head of data and AI at HG, and I'm delighted today to be joined by Des Trainer, co-founder and CSO of Intercom. Intercom's Fin is the first AI agent that delivers human quality customer support service. And Des spoke earlier today at this year's HG Digital Forum in Madrid on the subject of AI transformation in customer support. Des, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Maybe for listeners who don't know you, could you tell us a little bit about your background?
Sure, I I'm from Dublin, Ireland. I kinda studied computer science, became a lecturer, star attempted a PhD, dropped out. I met Owen, who's the CEO of Intercom. We had a consultancy together. We tried to have a side project. That didn't work as well as we had hoped, but in doing so we discovered a bigger problem, which was internet businesses talking to their customers was a really hard thing to do in in 2011. And we, you know, together with uh Kieran and David, we launched Intercom where I've been working ever since. My job at Intercom is primarily product, so all of product design and engineering, etc., all ultimately rolls up to me. And then on top of that, I deal with various other, you know, kind of foundry levels.
level stuff, including podcasts. And like right now, one hundred percent of my attention is on Finn, our AI agent that you mentioned at the start. That's like a we've carved out a little sort of um specific group who focuses entirely on Finn and that's where I spend most of my days.
And we'll we'll get into Finn in a minute, but can you share a little bit more about what that early journey was like, being a founder of a business and then growing it to the kind of scale that intercom reached?
Uh it was a lot of fun. It was pretty manic. Yeah, we uh our fundraising uh was initially we did like one million, five million Uh twenty three, thirty five, fifty, so and then one, two, five or whatever. I think at every given point, every time you do something like, you know, uh there for fundraising tends to be the moment where these things get punctuated. And it always felt feels like both an achievement and also a new target at the same time.
What is Des Traynor’s background and how did Intercom get started?
So you're like, you know, bank that we've clearly done something, but now we have to do something even bigger again. It's like jumping from treadmill to treadmill and they're all set on slightly higher speeds or slightly higher inclines. And it's a privilege to do the jump, but uh but it's also you have to be aware of what you're doing. And that's kind of like what the uh the emotional side is like. It's like you're always just kind of feeling there's like the one more, like, you know, uh so much to climb. The other piece is just um there's an all encompassing aspect, which is things break all the time. You know, people leave leaders don't work out, functions are missing a leader. And so I would say like in my time at Intercom, I've led everything from like, you know, the customer education team to the customer support team to marketing in general to product in general.
You know, I've I've bounced around quite a bit. You have this obligation of being a type of a fire person. Wherever you see there's a fire, you run towards it. Uh and that that that's honestly like what happens a lot is like, oh something's not working out, I better run towards that problem. When other people are maybe more inclined to like detach themselves from it, you need to lean in harder. That's the other aspect. But Lastly I just say um you start off very narrow, like I started off be identifying and thinking of myself just as a product manager as somebody who really cares about like what we're building and you know, the art and craft of product management.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–2:27
2
What is Des Traynor’s background and how did Intercom get started?
2:27–9:01
3
How did the emergence of ChatGPT in November 2022 trigger Intercom’s 15‑day AI pivot?
9:01–14:54
4
What organizational changes were required to launch Finn, Intercom’s AI support agent?
14:54–20:23
5
Why does Des say AI is not a “cherry on top” but the only game that matters?
20:23–26:26
6
How did Intercom redefine product boundaries and pricing for a post‑AI world?
26:26–30:51
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