Semil Shah sits down with Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano for a quarterly conversation about AI and its evolving impact on startups, VCs, and incumbents. They also discuss Chris Paik’s essay “The End of Software,” tech cleanses, Apple’s WWDC, and the difference in thinking between LCs, GPs, and VCs in the landscape of AI. Semil Shah is the Founding General Partner of Haystack and a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Intro to Episode

(4:42) “The End of Software”

(7:30) Computer Science and Philosophy

(11:19) Where Technology Won’t Go

(19:33) Tech Cleanse

(24:07) WWDC24 - Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference

(26:40) ChatGPT & Apple Intelligence

(33:13) Tim Cook

(45:20) Ben Thompson

(48:10) Google

(52:09) VC and AI

(59:11) How LPs think about AI

(01:06:57) How GPs think about AI

(01:12:56) Vinod Khosla, OpenAI, and Square

(01:14:49) Opposite George

(01:25:40) Jerry Seinfeld, Neal Brennan, Rick Rubin, Lex Friedman

(01:28:53) “The Greatest Show on Earth”

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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.

The explosion of generative AI-powered technologies has forever changed the tech landscape. But the path to the current AI revolution was paved by many breakthroughs. Bill Dally had a hand in quite a few of them.

In this week’s episode of Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano speaks with Bill Dally, NVIDIA's Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President for Research, whose nearly four-decade long career spans from experiments with neural networks in the 1980s to leading NVIDIA's groundbreaking research. He discusses the work at NVIDIA in advancing GPU technology, as well as the shift towards generative AI. Michael and Bill also explore the challenges of keeping up with rapid advancements in AI, the future implications for the industry, and advice for aspiring engineers.

Bill Dally joined NVIDIA in January 2009 as chief scientist, after spending 12 years at Stanford University, where he was chairman of the computer science department. He has published over 250 papers, holds over 120 issued patents, and is an author of four textbooks. Bill received a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, a master’s in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from CalTech.

Episode Chapters
(00:00) Introduction
(00:22) Bill Dally's Journey from Neural Networks to NVIDIA
(01:39) The Evolution of AI and Computing: A Personal Account
(05:48) The AI Revolution: Expectations vs. Reality
(07:58) Inside NVIDIA: The Role of Chief Scientist and the Power of Research
(10:29) Exploring the Frontiers of Generative AI and Research
(14:23) AI’s Role in the Future of Autonomous Vehicles
(20:53) The Impact of AI on Chip Design and Efficiency
(25:55) Building NVIDIA's Elite Research Team
(36:00) Anticipating the Future: Advice for the Next Generation
(39:58) 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.

What makes AI truly useful and impactful for users? That’s the question that drives Matthieu Rouif, CEO and co-founder of Photoroom, the AI-first photo editing app for mobile. This week on Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano talks to Matthieu Rouif about what he learned from his previous ventures in app development, how Photoroom found product market fit early, and how Photoroom went from a feature to a product with more than 150 million downloads and 30 million monthly active users.

Matthieu started working on photo apps decades ago while studying at Polytechnique in France and Stanford in the United States. Matthieu created the first mobile apps for ski resorts and co-founded the HeyCrowd app to make surveys more social. He later was a product leader for Replay Video Editor (Awarded ‘Best App of the Year’ by Apple and Google). While working as a Product Manager at GoPro, he became frustrated with the time-consuming process of manually removing backgrounds in Photoshop and realized that there was a demand for a better solution on the App Store. This led Matthieu to study machine learning, and he met with Eliot Andres, a machine learning expert, and together they created the first version of Photoroom in just two weeks.

Episode Chapters

00:00) Introduction to Matthieu Rouif & Photoroom
(01:57) Matthieu Rouif's Entrepreneurial Journey
(04:44) Early Startup Successes and Lessons Learned
(10:30) The Creation of PhotoRoom: Bridging AI and Usability
(16:45) Finding Product-Market Fit & The Power of User Feedback
(19:40) Scaling PhotoRoom Amidst COVID-19
(21:05) Unlocking User-Centric AI with Open Source
(23:30) Evolving Beyond Background Removal
(30:19) Wider Application of the APIs and Success Stories with Barbie and Netflix
(37:12) Building a Remote Team Culture & “No DM” Policy
(40:37) Landscape of AI Innovation in Paris

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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.

AI has been powering Grammarly before the current wave of AI adoption. So what can we learn from this beloved AI tool? This week on Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano talks with the CEO of Grammarly, Rahul Roy-Chowdhury. Michael asks Rahul about privacy and safety when it comes to AI products, the future of AI agents and tools, and why he sees Gen AI as a tool for co-creation. Before becoming Grammarly’s CEO, Rahul was Grammarly's Global Head of Product. Prior to Grammarly, he spent 14 years at Google leading product and Privacy, Safety, and Security.

Chapter Episodes

(00:00) Introduction to Rahul Roy-Chowdhury
(01:01) Rahul’s Career: Product at Google to CEO of Grammarly
(07:58) Grammarly's Mission and the Impact of AI on Product Development
(16:23) The Future of AI: Open Source Models and Safety
(19:08) The Future of AI in Browsers and Beyond
(20:32) Gaining User Trust and Data Privacy
(21:55) Generative AI's Impact on Consumer and Enterprise Sectors
(27:38) The Co-Creation Model of Writing with AI
(35:16) Exploring New Frontiers in AI Technology
(39:15) Closing Thoughts and Future Predictions

Stay in touch:

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• Email: generativenow@lsvp.com

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.

Human creativity and AI are often characterized as being at odds with each other. But as the capabilities of AI grow, so too grow the possibilities for empowering humans in creative endeavors.

This week on Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano speaks with Etsy CEO Josh Silverman about the integration and impact of AI technologies in enhancing the consumer and seller experiences. He shares insights into his journey of scaling technology companies and the evolution of internet technologies, starting with founding Evite. Michael asks Josh how Etsy uses generative AI to keep human connection in commerce and empowering sellers and consumers. Josh shares the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in creative marketplaces, Etsy’s engineering culture, and the future of AI in enhancing online shopping experiences.

Josh Silverman previously served as President of Consumer Products and Services at American Express, CEO of Skype, and CEO of shopping.com, and he held various executive roles at eBay. Josh also co-founded Evite, Inc. where he also served as the company's CEO. He is currently on the board of directors of Shake Shack.

Episode Chapters
(00:00) Introduction
(01:24) Josh Silverman’s Career Spanning The Evolution of Technology: from Internet to AI
(06:16) Etsy’s Mission and AI Integration
(08:36) Enhancing Etsy’s Search and Discovery with AI
(15:27) Empowering Creative Entrepreneurs & SMBs with AI
(16:10) Balancing AI Innovation with Etsy’s Human-Centric Mission
(20:51) Etsy's Engineering Culture and Democratizing Machine Learning
(25:26) Audience Q&A: Creativity, AI Challenges, and Consumer Expectations
(32:57) Closing remarks

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• Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: ⁠generativenow.co⁠

• Email: generativenow@lsvp.com

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 on Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano talks to Lisha Li, Founder and CEO of Rosebud AI. Rosebud AI allows users to generate video with a few simple prompts by leveraging AI for every aspect of game design. Lisha shares her diverse background from academia to venture capital and acting, leading up to the inception of Rosebud. Michael and Lisha talk about lessons learned when developing consumer AI products and the different iterations of Rosebud AI and its evolution including stock photos and the viral app TokkingHeads.

Lisha is the Founder and CEO of Rosebud AI. She is a former principal at Amplify Partners. Lisha completed her PhD at UC Berkeley focusing on deep learning and probability applied to the problem of clustering in graphs. While at Berkeley she also did statistical consulting, advising on methods and analysis for experimentation and interpretation, and interned as a data scientist at Pinterest and Stitch Fix. She earned her Master of Science in Mathematics at the University of Toronto, with Highest Distinction advised by Prof. Balazs Szegedy in the area of Graph Limits.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction to Lisha Li and Rosebud AI

(00:47) Lisha Li’s Career: Academia, Acting, VC, and AI

(07:54) The Genesis of Rosebud AI: Creating a Creative Consumer AI Product

(12:14) Navigating Game Development with AI

(17:43) Democratizing Game Creation with Rosebud

(31:20) Building Rosebud's AI-Powered Platform

(35:56) Looking Ahead: The Future of AI in Gaming

Stay in touch:

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• Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co

• Email: generativenow@lsvp.com

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.

One could argue that the model for the news business is broken. So can AI help fix it? This week on Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano talks to Sara Beykpour, CEO and Co-founder of Particle. Particle is an AI-driven news platform designed to help people learn exactly what they want to know about what's going on in the world in the most efficient way possible. Michael and Sara talk about the central product role she played for groundbreaking products like Twitter, Vine, Secret, and Periscope, as well as why she started Particle and how AI could help make new business models work for publishers.

Sara has been on the forefront of creating novel media platforms throughout her entire career. She has built and launched three apps that set the stage for today’s multimedia social landscape online: Vine, Secret, and Periscope. She previously worked as Twitter’s Senior Director of Product Management, leading Twitter Blue, Twitter Video, and conversations.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction to Sara Beykpour

(00:58) Sara's Journey Through Silicon Valley's Startups

(02:43) The Early Days at Twitter and the Birth of Vine

(06:42) Vine's Impact, Decline, and Shutdown

(12:21) From Vine to Secret (Anonymous Social Media)

(14:45) The Periscope Era: Live Streaming's Rise

(21:47) Exploring the Evolution of Social Media and News Consumption

(22:26) The Impact of Twitter on News and Journalism

(27:57) Challenges and Innovations in News Consumption

(32:14) The Rise of Generative AI and Its Effects on News Publishing

(33:26) Leveraging AI in Particle for a New News Experience

(46:15) Exploring New Business Models for Journalism with AI

(49:28) Opportunities With Particle

Stay in touch:

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• Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co

• Email: generativenow@lsvp.com

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.

Cerebras recently announced the launch of The Wafer Scale Engine Three. This is the largest and fastest chip in the history of chips.

This week on Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano talks to Andrew Feldman. Andrew is the CEO and cofounder of Cerebras, the hardware company that builds AI supercomputers known for its Wafer Scale Technology. The Wafer Scale Engine Three is about the size of a dinner plate and promises compute design for AI. Andrew and Michael talk about what it takes to have the conviction to make big bets and push the limits of hardware innovation.

Prior to Cerebras, Andrew co-founded and was CEO of SeaMicro, a pioneer of energy-efficient, high-bandwidth microservers. SeaMicro was acquired by AMD in 2012 for $357M. Before SeaMicro, Andrew was the Vice President of Product Management, Marketing and BD at Force10 Networks which was later sold to Dell Computing for $800M. Prior to Force10 Networks, Andrew was the Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development at RiverStone Networks from the company’s inception through IPO in 2001.

Episode Chapters
(00:00) Welcome to Generative: A Deep Dive into AI Supercomputing
(00:26) The Wafer Scale Engine 3
(00:56) Andrew Feldman's Journey: From Startup to AI Supercomputing Pioneer
(04:53) The Foresight in AI Chip Development: Outpacing the Giants
(07:32) The Wafer Scale Engine 3: A Technological Leap in AI Compute
(17:12) The Future of AI Compute: Expanding Horizons and Synthetic Data
(23:18) Challenges in Chip Design
(23:51) Innovations in Cooling and Powering Chips
(25:02) Overcoming Precedent Challenges
(26:40) The Revolutionary Impact of Wafer Scale Engine 3
(29:08) Diverse Customer Applications
(34:05) Future Directions in Chip Technology and AI Applications
(39:11) Closing Thoughts

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• Email: generativenow@lsvp.com