This is a 2024 highlight reel from the AI + a16z podcast, featuring founders sharing their insights, advice, and experiences on building AI companies — from foundation-model labs to vertical applications. Topics include:
Timestamps:
1:24 — Approaching AI as developer tooling
5:58 — Systems founders in the AI space
8:05 — Selling AI products vs. selling traditional software
12:11 — Understanding your users
19:23 — Choosing the right models and techniques
25:05 — Building AI founding teams and company culture
28:46 — Differences between academia, research, and running a company
41:08 — Sticking with it and growing as a founder
Andreas Blattman is cofounder of Black Forest Labs.
Ben Firshman is cofounder and CEO of Replicate.
Dean De Beer is cofounder and CTO of Command Zero.
Feross Aboukhadijeh is Founder and CEO of Socket.
Jesse Zhang is cofounder and CEO of Decagon.
Mohammad Norouzi is cofounder and CEO of Ideogram.
Naveen Rao is the vice president of generative AI at Databricks.
Nikhil Buduma is cofounder and chief scientist of Ambience.
Patrick Esser is cofounder of Black Forest Labs.
Robert Nishihara is cofounder and CEO of Anyscale.
Robin Rombach is cofounder of Black Forest Labs.
Tony Holdstock-Brown is cofounder and CEO of Inngest.
Derrick Harris is an editor at a16z, managing the content workflow across the Infra and American Dynamism teams.
Artificial intelligence is changing everything from art to enterprise IT, and a16z is watching all of it with a close eye. This podcast features discussions with leading AI engineers, founders, and experts, as well as our general partners, about where the technology and industry are heading.