The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Bret Taylor: The AI Bubble and What Happens Now | How the Cost of Chips and Models Will Change in AI | Will Companies Build Their Own Software | Why Pre-Training is for Morons | Leaderships Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg
Wed, 02 Oct 2024
Bret Taylor is CEO and Co-Founder of Sierra, a conversational AI platform for businesses. Previously, he served as Co-CEO of Salesforce. Prior to Salesforce, Bret founded Quip and was CTO of Facebook. He started his career at Google, where he co-created Google Maps. Bret serves on the board of OpenAI. In Today's Discussion with Bret Taylor: 1. The Biggest Misconceptions About AI Today: Does Bret believe we are in an AI bubble or not? Why does Bret believe it is BS that companies will all use AI to build their own software? What does no one realise about the cost of compute today in a world of AI? 2. Foundation Models: The Fastest Depreciating Asset in History? As a board member of OpenAI, does Bret agree that foundation models are the fastest depreciating asset in history? Will every application be subsumed by foundation models? What will be standalone? How does Bret think about the price dumping we are seeing in the foundation model landscape? Does Bret believe we will continue to see small foundation model companies (Character, Adept, Inflection) be acquired by larger incumbents? 3. The Biggest Opportunity in AI Today: The Death of the Phone + Website: What does Bret believe are the biggest opportunities in the application layer of AI today? Why does Bret put forward the case that we will continue to see the role of the phone reduce in consumer lives? How does AI make that happen? What does Bret mean when he says we are moving from a world of software rules to guardrails? What does AI mean for the future of websites? How does Bret expect consumers to interact with their favourite brands in 10 years? 4. Bret Taylor: Ask Me Anything: Zuck, Leadership, Fundraising: Bret has worked with Zuck, Tobi @ Shopify, Marc Benioff and more, what are his biggest lessons from each of them on great leadership? How did Bret come to choose Peter @ Benchmark to lead his first round? What advice does Bret have to other VCs on how to be a great VC? Bret is on the board of OpenAI, what have been his biggest lessons from OpenAI on what it takes to be a great board member?
Full Episode
I think we are in a bubble. I am inherently skeptical of companies doing pre-training. Unless you are an AGI research lab, doing pre-training on a model, I believe, is just burning capital. Software is like a lawn. It needs to be tended to. It's not like you write software once and it just works forever.
I think almost every company that has chosen to build their own in an area of their business where there is a software as a solution service available has regretted it.
This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'm so excited to welcome one of the true OGs of Silicon Valley to the show today. This is the most impressive CV in Silicon Valley. He co-created Google Maps. He was the CTO of Facebook. He founded Quip. and sold it to Salesforce for $800 million, where he was then co-CEO with Marc Benioff of Salesforce.
And now he's the CEO and co-founder of Sierra, a conversational AI platform for businesses backed by Peter Fenton at Benchmark. Enough said, the man is a hero. The best CV in Silicon Valley history right there. But before we dive in, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite brands, Atteo. Atteo is the next generation of CRM.
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