When ElevenLabs was still fourth in the market, its instant voice cloning was already 10x cheaper and 10x faster than competitors.

That was enough for Bryan Kim, Partner at a16z, to book a same day flight from San Francisco to London and close the Series A over lunch in Notting Hill. What followed was a rare transition from creator led self serve revenue to serious enterprise scale, as the company grew from seven people to 400 and became one of Europe’s defining AI businesses.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel - check them out here:

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Omni: The AI analytics platform trusted by fast-growing companies like Perplexity, Synthesia, and dbt Labs. Check them out here: https://omni.co/

Venture Comet: The platform that gives startups and scale-ups real-time equity tracking, daily business insights and automated management information. Check them out here: https://venturecomet.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction to Scaling Europe show

0:08 - Bryan Kim's connection to ElevenLabs

1:01 - Conviction in audio AI potential

2:32 - Quick trip to secure partnership

4:32 - Deepening relationships over three years

5:36 - Transitioning from consumer to enterprise sales

6:54 - Building a strong company culture

7:38 - The importance of kindness in leadership

9:50 - The urgency in competitive environments

10:20 - Earning the right to work with founders

11:00 - Specialization in investment sectors

12:28 - Impressive growth in European tech landscape