Why your next co-founder could be an AI l TechCrunch Sessions: AI

The speaker reflects on past experiences with a startup, Mindverse AI, and the challenges faced due to fractured partnerships and lost knowledge, drawing parallels with historical figures like Gutenberg and Tesla. They introduce Tena, a product designed to transform business communication by integrating AI to create a "second brain" for teams, enhancing memory retention, decision-making, and collaboration. Tena aims to revolutionize how teams work by preserving knowledge, facilitating seamless communication, and enabling AI to act as real collaborators. The future, they suggest, will involve AI as integral partners in business, reshaping team dynamics and work processes.

• The speaker reflects on the challenges faced during their previous startup, Mindverse AI, particularly focusing on the difficulties in maintaining a partnership.
• The initial vision of the startup was to create an AI agent marketplace, Mind OS, which was innovative at its time.
• Conflicts arose due to differing opinions on whether to pivot the company in response to market changes.

"We thought that we built things together forever. But as the market swan, we no longer had enough time to be the marketplace fly whale. Instead, we needed to pivot."

• The speaker emphasizes the emotional and strategic challenges when a team must decide whether to stick to its original plan or adapt to new circumstances.

"One said, 'But we made this decision a long time ago.' The other said, 'Yeah, but the circumstance has changed, so the logic never applies.'"

• This quote highlights the tension between adhering to original decisions and adapting to new market realities.

• The speaker discusses how internal team conflicts can lead to the demise of great ideas, as much as market forces can.
• Historical examples are used to illustrate the impact of lost partnerships on technological progress.

"How many great ideas die not because the market rejects them, but because the team behind them fractures too many bias and ego, broken partnerships, lost knowledge."

• This quote underscores the idea that internal team dynamics can be as critical as external market conditions in determining the success of a startup.

• Johan Gutenberg's invention of the printing press is presented as a case where partnership issues led to the loss of innovative techniques.
• The speaker suggests that the loss of Gutenberg's original methods delayed the progress of the Enlightenment.

"But he trusted a wealthy man called Feast. And when the partnership soured, fused suit him, took his shop, took his methods."

• This quote illustrates how personal and financial disputes can lead to significant setbacks in technological advancement.

• Nicola Tesla's story is used to highlight the consequences of lacking a supportive partnership or successor, resulting in lost innovations.

"He built coils that lit bulbs wirelessly, sketched global energy towers. But free energy scared investors. They vanished and he died broke alone in a hotel without any co-founder or successor by his side."

• This quote reflects the idea that without a supportive network, even the most groundbreaking ideas can fail to materialize or be preserved.

• The speaker imagines alternative historical outcomes if visionary ideas had been preserved and supported.
• The loss of Tesla's work is lamented as a missed opportunity for advancing clean energy technologies.

"What if we had preserved Tesla's vision? Maybe we might have already entered the age of abundance, a world running on clean energy, and we lost it to silence."

• This quote emphasizes the potential global impact of preserving and nurturing innovative ideas and the tragedy of their loss.

• Tena is introduced as a transformative tool designed to enhance organizational knowledge retention and operational efficiency.
• It is described as a "knowledge base reborn as a messenger," integrating features from tools like Slack and Glean.
• Tena aims to address the loss of institutional knowledge and facilitate better communication and action within teams.

"Meet Tena, the product I've been building since then. At its core, Tena is your knowledge base. Reborn as a messenger."

• Tena combines the functionalities of messaging and knowledge management, serving as a comprehensive tool for startups.

• The speaker emphasizes the importance of preserving institutional knowledge that often dissipates with departing employees or co-founders.
• Tena is positioned as a solution to prevent the loss of valuable ideas and information.

"How much institutional knowledge leaves with a departing co-founder or a resigned employee?"

• The quote highlights the problem of knowledge loss in organizations, which Tena seeks to mitigate.

• Tena offers advanced search capabilities, allowing users to locate information quickly across various platforms and document types.
• This feature is crucial for efficient access to historical data and decision-making processes.

"Whether it's marketing budget spent last year or some ideas that you shared in Slack channels or some very specific information buried in some PDF somewhere, Tena finds it instantly."

• The quote underscores Tena's ability to retrieve diverse types of information swiftly, enhancing productivity.

• Tena integrates with multiple communication platforms, enabling seamless conversation management and AI-assisted replies.
• The AI mirrors the user's tone and context, ensuring personalized and accurate responses.

"You can reply to emails, Slack messages, WhatsApp, Telegram, all from Tena. And you can ask AI to reply to them."

• Tena's integration with various communication tools and AI capabilities facilitates streamlined and context-aware interactions.

• Tena automates actions based on shared organizational memory, turning AI agents into proactive team members.
• This feature reduces the need for manual prompt engineering and accelerates task execution.

"Shared memory turns agents into real teammates."

• The quote illustrates Tena's ability to transform AI agents into collaborative entities that contribute to team efficiency.

• The speaker envisions a future where Tena empowers founders and teams to achieve more by optimizing knowledge management and communication.
• Tena is presented as a tool that not only preserves information but also enhances decision-making and operational agility.

"How much more can we achieve if every piece of information, every message, every decision is remembered, organized, connected, enhanced, and instantly searchable and actionable."

• The quote reflects the potential impact of Tena in maximizing organizational capabilities through comprehensive information management.

• Different landing pages can be created for various clients to improve conversion rates.
• AI tools can assist in building pitch decks, product UIs, and PRDs, streamlining communication and feedback processes.
• AI facilitates memory transfer within teams, allowing for efficient onboarding of new hires like contractors, freelancers, and interns.

"You can actually create different landing pages for different clients to increase your conversion rate."

• This highlights the customization capability of AI tools to enhance marketing effectiveness.

"Memory transfer on board with AI. Now you can hire contractors, freelancers, interns without having to spend days briefing them the contexts."

• AI aids in the seamless transfer of knowledge, reducing onboarding time and increasing efficiency.

• Business messengers are pivotal in daily communication and decision-making processes.
• Despite their importance, messages in these platforms are often scattered and unstructured.
• AI can transform these scattered messages into structured memory, enhancing team collaboration and decision-making.

"Messengers are actually a place that we spend a lot of time on every day. And more importantly, it is where most information turns into decisions."

• Emphasizes the central role of messengers in business operations and decision-making.

"No one has transformed scattered messages into structured memory."

• Identifies a gap in current communication tools that AI aims to address.

• AI is evolving from a mere tool to a collaborative partner, akin to a co-founder in business settings.
• Collective memory, powered by AI, defines a team's identity and preserves company knowledge.
• The future belongs to those who build alongside AI, utilizing it as a collaborator rather than just a tool.

"With memory, AI stops being a tool and starts being a real co-founder."

• AI is positioned as an integral part of the team, contributing to the company's growth and identity.

"The next decade will reward those who build alongside AI, not just with it."

• Suggests that the strategic integration of AI into business processes will be a key differentiator in future success.

• AI is being adopted across industries, with examples of small teams leveraging AI for global operations.
• Case study of a New York-based global publishing house run by two co-founders with AI assistants illustrates AI's potential to scale operations efficiently.

"Harry Rasbuk and his co-founder Yan Zaka are leading a New York-based global publishing house powered by just two full-time co-founders and their two AI assistants."

• Demonstrates the practical application of AI in reducing workforce size while maintaining or increasing productivity.

• AI is revolutionizing how work is done and how teams are formed, leading to a future where traditional structures are replaced by dynamic networks.
• AI is evolving from a mere tool to an autonomous economic agent, fundamentally changing organizational structures and roles.
• The future work environment will see individuals orchestrating AI collaborators and forming teams with minimal human management.

"The world is changing faster than we thought, and this change will take us to wayer place than we ever imagined. It doesn't only change how work is done but also how teams are formed."

• This quote highlights the rapid pace of change driven by AI, affecting both the nature of work and team dynamics.

"AI is no longer a tool. It's an autonomous economic agent. Companies will shift from departments to dynamic test networks."

• AI's role is expanding beyond a supportive tool to an independent entity that will reshape organizational structures into flexible, project-based networks.

• The concept of a "one person unicorn" is becoming feasible, where a solo founder can leverage AI to achieve what traditionally required a full team.
• Language barriers will be eliminated through real-time translation, enabling seamless global collaboration.
• Fractional work will become standard, with professionals like CFOs supporting multiple startups simultaneously with the help of AI.

"The future of teams may have just one solo founder, a few freelancers, and 50 AIS like in this chart. No middle managers. Language barriers gone."

• This quote illustrates the potential for drastically reduced human management and the elimination of language barriers, fostering global teamwork.

"Fractional work becomes the norm. Even fractional CXOs. A CFO might support five startups at once with one human brain and five AI agents."

• The idea of fractional roles suggests a future where professionals can multiply their impact across several companies with AI assistance.

• AI will enable deeper innovation by freeing up time and resources previously spent on manual tasks.
• Companies will benefit from AI's ability to preserve and enhance organizational memory, preventing the loss of valuable knowledge.
• The future will see AI-driven companies, potentially with AI CEOs, while humans remain as shareholders.

"The time and funding previously spent on manual research tracking can now be redirected towards deeper innovation."

• AI's efficiency in handling routine tasks allows human resources to focus on innovative and strategic pursuits.

"And there will be even be companies formed completely by AI even AI CEOs. Of course, shareholders will be human."

• This quote underscores the potential for AI to not only support but also lead organizations, while humans maintain ownership and oversight.

• The future will emphasize the augmentation of human capabilities with AI, rather than competition between the two.
• Successful founders will leverage AI to enhance their creativity and problem-solving abilities, focusing on uniquely human traits like empathy and connection.
• AI co-founders will enable faster idea realization, reduced burnout, and more space for human-centric activities.

"The founder of the future isn't just smart, fast, or creative. They are augmented."

• This quote emphasizes the importance of integrating AI to amplify human strengths and capabilities.

"You win not by competing against AI, but by making the best of being human. You win by building with purpose."

• The focus here is on the complementary relationship between humans and AI, where success is achieved through purposeful collaboration.

"With AI co-founder, we bring ideas to life faster with less burnout and more room for what only humans can do. Connection, empathy, and love."

• AI's role as a co-founder highlights its ability to streamline processes, allowing humans to focus on emotional and relational aspects.