What lesson did you learn adapting to major AI technology shifts?

Zach Lloyd

Founder / CEO · Warp

Go all in on AI early

Zach Lloyd says he wishes they had gone all in on AI sooner, faster and harder, because a competitor beat them to market and earlier execution would have left them further along.

The answer starts at 52:13.

Eric Ries

Chair, LTSE Services · Long-Term Stock Exchange

Use AI to teach, not replace

Eric Ries says not to ask AI tools to do the work for you but to ask them to teach you how to do the work, since asking them to do it is corrosive to your originality.

Sam Stephenson

Founder · Granola

Prioritize real user value

Sam Stephenson says the lesson is to prioritize real user value over just shipping, since the easier it gets to build things, the more it matters to sweat details and ensure people actually get daily value.

Palmer Luckey

Founder · Anduril Industries

Hire people to do the work

Palmer Luckey says the founder's job is to hire people to displace them and do what they like doing better, and that AI doesn't change the legal, interpersonal, or decision-making parts of the job much.

The answer starts at 34:44.

Tom Bilyeu

CEO · Impact Theory

AI as extension

Tom Bilyeu says the aim is for AI to be an extension of him rather than him becoming watered down to it, because he thinks that will fundamentally rewrite the human-AI relationship.

Reid Hoffman

Co-Founder, Executive Board Chair · Manas Ai

Maintain a beginner's mind

Reid Hoffman says to continue with a beginner's mind, not just begin with one, because the possibility landscape shifts often and you must keep learning and adjusting.

Jeff Finkelstein

Owner · Customer Paradigm

Focus on end‑user needs

Jeff Finkelstein says his lesson is to focus on end-user needs, because AI software can fail when treated as a shiny object and not focused on what matters to the end customer.

Euwyn Poon

Founder · Orbital - Space Data Centers

It should feel difficult

Euwyn Poon says the lesson is that it should feel difficult, because company building is incredibly difficult and if it feels easy it likely isn't the right thing.

Dan Martell

Founder & CEO · Martell Ventures

Push back on AI

Dan Martell says he learned to push back on AI and ask it to be a brutally honest, ruthless mentor that red-teams ideas, because AI tends to be a people pleaser that agrees and won't say an idea is dumb.

The answer starts at 18:13.

Sam Altman

Chief Executive Officer · OpenAI

Sacrifice good for great

Sam Altman says the lesson is to sacrifice good for great, citing OpenAI killing good products Sora and Atlas to protect compute for Codex; discipline means cutting what works, not just what fails.

Arvind Jain

Founder and CEO · Glean

Focus on niche unmet by models

Arvind Jain says to focus on a niche that model companies won't cover, because they won't meet even 10% of the market's needs.

Andrew Ng

Founder · Deeplearning.Ai

Product management bottleneck

Andrew Ng says the lesson is that because AI has plummeted the cost of building, the challenge shifts to deciding what to build, which he calls the product management bottleneck.

Eldar Sadikov

Co-Founder & CEO · Field Materials Ai

Stay open to change

Eldar Sadikov says the lesson is to stay open and change how you operate, because AI and LLMs transform the way we work, from sales and marketing to how he runs the startup as CEO.

Bret Taylor

Co-Founder · Sierra

Reskill continuously

Bret Taylor says the lesson is to reskill and learn new trades, since rapid technology advancement makes that an imperative in our careers.

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Todd Olson

CEO / Founder · Pendo.Io

Adopt an engineering mindset

Todd Olson says the secret is applying an engineering mindset: when the technology is bad at something, attack the problem and make it do it well, since it can be good, just not out of the box.