In Depth

How goal-setting and planning is different for AI products | Anastasis Germanidis (Co-Founder & CTO at Runway)


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Anastasis Germanidis is the Co-Founder & CTO at Runway, an applied AI research company shaping the next era of art, entertainment, and human creativity. Runway has raised $237m and was one of Time Magazine’s “100 most influential companies” in 2023. Runway has been a persistent viral sensation in recent years, and is behind many of the most famous AI demos online.

In today’s episode we discuss:

  • The origins of Runway
  • The limitations of being “customer-driven” when building in AI
  • How Runway balances research development with product development
  • How goal-setting and planning is different for AI products
  • Advice for early-stage AI founders
  • Referenced:

    • Containerization: https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/containerization/
    • Docker: https://www.docker.com/
    • Green screen tool by Runway: https://runwayml.com/green-screen/
    • Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/
    • Hugging Face Spaces: https://huggingface.co/spaces
    • Hugging Face Model Hub: https://huggingface.co/docs/hub/models-the-hub
    • Replicate: https://replicate.com/
    • Runway Gen-1: https://research.runwayml.com/gen1
    • Runway Gen-2: https://research.runwayml.com/gen2
    • Runway’s 30 AI Magic Tools: https://runwayml.com/ai-magic-tools/
    • Where to find Anastasis Germanidis:

      • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/agermanidis
      • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agermanidis
      • Personal website: https://agermanidis.com/
      • Personal blog: https://blog.agermanidis.com/
      • Where to find Todd Jackson:

        • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/tjack
        • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0
        • Where to find First Round Capital:

          • Website: https://firstround.com/
          • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
          • Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround
          • Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
          • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
          • Timestamps:

            (00:00) Introduction

            (03:23) The unique story of how Runway's co-founders met

            (08:27) The origins of Runway

            (09:28) Forming the initial product

            (13:55) Turning Runway into a company

            (14:41)Approach to initial market segments

            (18:53) Early-adopters

            (21:20) The limitations of being “customer-driven”

            (25:54) Forming a vocal community

            (27:08) Fostering community

            (29:05) The progression of Runway's tech and use-cases

            (33:08) How they picked users for early release

            (34:00) Expanding past the first 100 users of Gen-2

            (35:33) Runway’s approach to safety and content moderation

            (36:44) Balancing product development and research development

            (43:51) Runway's org structure

            (45:08) Goal-setting amidst constant change in AI

            (46:50) Why Runway doesn't plan very far ahead

            (50:26) Advice to early-stage AI founders

            (53:11) Will AI replace video editors?

            (55:04) When Runway had the most momentum

            (56:49) Anastasis' #1 piece of advice

            ...more
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