Nearly a decade after launching Anchor, cofounders Michael Mignano and Nir Zicherman have a new venture: Oboe. Oboe’s mission is to make humanity smarter through AI-powered tutors. The duo delves deep into their entrepreneurial journey, starting from the early days of Anchor to their latest venture, Oboe, where Nir is the CEO. They discuss the trials and errors of building Anchor, their vision for Oboe, and why AI-driven learning could revolutionize education. Additionally, they touch upon the evolution of social audio, challenges in growth marketing today, and answer questions from X.

Episode Chapters

00:00 Introduction

Did 2024 live up to the AI hype? Investor Semil Shah joins Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano for another installment of Generative Quarterly. They cover key tech trends from 2024, including Jensen Huang’s Rockstar CEO status and AI consumer devices. Looking ahead to 2025, the duo delves into venture capital dynamics, IPO and M&A prospects, and the influence of tech in Washington D.C. Plus, Michael spins Juan Soto's signing into a lesson for Tech.

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The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.

Dr. Olga Russakovsky, Computer Science at Princeton University, joins Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano to discuss what the next generation of AI talent is learning and where she expects to find the next big innovation in artificial intelligence. 

From her research in computer vision and human-computer interaction to her work in fairness, accountability, and transparency in AI, Dr. Russakovsky has earned many awards, including the MIT Technology Review’s 35-under-35 Innovator award and the Foreign Policy Magazine’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers award. Dr. Russakovsky is also the co-founder and Board Chair of AI4ALL, a nonprofit that aims to increase the diversity of thought in Artificial Intelligence. 

00:00 Introduction and Guest Overview

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The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.

What is the future of AI in consumer technology? Marissa Mayer believes this future includes AI that makes the mundane magical. Marissa has been leading consumer technology that affects billions of lives since the dawn of the modern Internet. She was one of the first 20 employees at Google and worked on Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Search. She served as the CEO at Yahoo! where she reinvented the website for the mobile era. Now she is the co-founder and CEO of Sunshine Products, a technology startup focused on making everyday tasks, like contact management or scheduling, magical.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction
(01:23) The Evolution of AI: Learning, Reasoning, and Expressiveness
(05:22) Scaling Laws and the Future of AI
(09:00) AI's Impact on Business and Team Dynamics
(14:47) The Future of Search and Advertising
(19:52) Sunshine: Making Mundane Tasks Magical
(24:04) The Future of Advertising in an AI World
(35:39) Looking Forward: The Future of AI and Sunshine
(37:55) Closing Thoughts

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The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lsvp.com/legal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This week, Logan Kilpatrick joins Michael Mignano on the Generative NYC Stage to discuss leading the product for Google AI Studio. He and his team built the Google Gemini API into one of the best platforms in the world for developers to build with AI. Logan worked at OpenAI before Google, and he has had a front row seat to the meteoric rise to AI over the past few years. Michael and Logan discuss how Google feels like a startup, why consumers care about product over anything else, and what’s the future landscape of artificial intelligence.

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The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lsvp.com/legal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.

We are back with PART 2 of our conversation with Matthew Hartman, a managing partner at the venture firm, Factorial Capital. Factorial partners with angel operators, with a focus on startups in the AI space. Host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano talks with Matt about the value of premium content, software on demand, and the shifting economics of the Internet. Plus, is this actually the moment for product managers?

(00:00) Introduction
(00:38) AI in B2B SaaS Products
(02:58) www.nysignal.com
(07:05) The Future of Advertising and AI
(09:07) Attention Is All You Need
(11:23) Entertainment and Productivity
(19:02) Zero Coding Apps and Products
(21:39) www.myrequestroom.com
(24:28) Is it an AI wrapper or does it lack defensibility?

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The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lsvp.com/legal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This week, we are sharing PART ONE with Matthew Hartman, a managing partner at the venture firm Factorial Capital. Factorial partners with angel operators, with a focus on startups in the AI space. Host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano sits down with Matt to discuss how Factorial partners with technical founders to explore opportunities. They discuss OpenAI, Apple Intelligence, WebGPU, Suno, and much more. Join us next week for PART TWO of this conversation. 

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction
(01:42) Factorial and Technical Founders
(06:24) WebGPU
(10:47) Future of AI and LLMs
(15:47) AI and Calendars
(18:16) Understanding Scout Funds
(23:07) The Role of Angels in Investment
(24:12) Focus on AI and New Tech Products
(25:42) Transformers and Predictive Models
(27:26) Making Music with Suno
(33:27) The Future of Creative Tools
(42:30) The Economics of Content Creation

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The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see ⁠⁠⁠⁠lsvp.com/legal⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Lulu Cheng Meservey puts founders in control of their narrative using one simple principle: Go Direct. Lulu is the Founder and CEO of Rostra, the go-to communications expert for Silicon Valley founders of places like Ramp, SSI, Scale, Andruil, Suno, and The Free Press.

Lulu joins Lightspeed Partner and Host Michael Mignano on the podcast to talk about her ​​modern communications playbook for founders and why a comms strategy is just as important as a product strategy. Plus, Lulu shares her after action reports on Based Zuck, SpaceX, Tesla, and Waymo. 

Episode Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction 

(01:29) Why Founder Led Communication Works 

(03:47) Challenges and Strategies for Founders

(06:49) Lulu's Career Experience

(08:34) Substack 

(12:11) Have a Clear Company Mission 

(18:01) The ‘Go Direct’ Manifesto

(23:59) Traditional Media in Communication Strategy

(24:40) Targeted Communication: Persuading Key Decision Makers

(25:54) Effective Use of Press and Media Outlets

(28:30) Lulu’s After Action Report: Tesla's Recent Event

(36:11) Apple's Strategy and Public Perception

(38:46) Waymo's Underrated Progress in Autonomous Vehicles

(40:17) Meta's Positive Feedback Loop and Based Zuck

(43:42) The Importance of Founder-Led Companies

(47:27) Final Thoughts

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The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see ⁠⁠⁠lsvp.com/legal⁠⁠⁠.

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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The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see ⁠⁠lsvp.com/legal⁠⁠.