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

Summary

In this inspiring talk, the founder reflects on their journey from Mindverse AI to the creation of Tena, an AI-powered knowledge management platform. Tena aims to revolutionize startups by transforming scattered team messages into a structured memory graph, enabling better search, communication, and decision-making. The founder highlights how AI, not just as a tool but as a co-founder, can enhance productivity and preserve valuable institutional knowledge. Looking ahead, they envision a future where solo founders collaborate with AI agents, changing how teams work and businesses grow in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker previously co-founded Mindverse AI, which launched Mind OS, an AI agent marketplace, before GPT Store was introduced.
• 😀 The vision behind Mindverse AI was to replace traditional SaaS and apps with AI agents, supported by an operating system called Mind OS.
• 😀 The speaker highlights the importance of maintaining team unity, as many startup ideas fail due to internal conflicts and fractured partnerships.
• 😀 Historical examples like Johan Gutenberg and Nikola Tesla are used to emphasize how lost partnerships and ideas can affect progress and innovation.
• 😀 The speaker reflects on how many revolutions are stuck in someone's head or lost due to broken partnerships and lost knowledge.
• 😀 Tena is introduced as a knowledge base and business messenger, helping teams organize conversations, documents, and emails into a searchable memory graph.
• 😀 Tena can automatically reply to messages in various platforms like Slack, WhatsApp, and email, while mirroring the user's tone and keeping work memory intact.
• 😀 Tena helps teams take faster action by turning shared memory into real teammates, streamlining tasks like building websites, pitch decks, and product UIs.
• 😀 Tena’s memory transfer feature allows quick onboarding and knowledge transfer to new employees, contractors, or freelancers.
• 😀 The future of work involves AI as collaborators, with roles like fractional CXOs and AI-trained workers. Tena’s vision includes the potential for AI CEOs and global, decentralized teams.

Q & A

What is the key idea behind the speaker's previous startup, Mindverse AI?

The speaker's previous startup, Mindverse AI, aimed to create Mind OS, an AI agent marketplace with a collaborative canvas and workflow, which was launched more than a year before GPT Store was introduced.

What challenge did the speaker face with their co-founder in Mindverse AI?

The speaker and their co-founder had a disagreement on how to pivot the company as the market conditions changed. Despite their shared vision, their differing perspectives on the future led to the speaker leaving the company.

What is the main concept behind the product 'Tena' introduced by the speaker?

Tena is a business messenger that acts as a second brain for teams, turning every conversation, email, and document into a living memory graph that can be easily searched, organized, and acted upon using AI.

How does Tena improve communication within teams?

Tena improves communication by allowing users to reply to emails, Slack messages, and other communications across different platforms, with AI-generated responses that mirror the user's tone and context, enhancing the quality and speed of conversations.

What makes Tena different from traditional AI tools in terms of action and memory?

Unlike traditional AI tools that require prompt engineering, Tena leverages shared memory across all platforms, making it capable of taking action based on context and history, and it can even build websites, pitch decks, and UI designs with minimal effort.

How does Tena solve the challenge of knowledge transfer in startups?

Tena addresses the challenge of knowledge transfer by enabling memory transfer on board, allowing new employees, freelancers, or contractors to quickly get up to speed without extensive briefings.

Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of a business messenger in the future?

The speaker emphasizes business messengers because they are central to communication in modern workplaces. They transform scattered, unstructured messages into organized memory, allowing teams to make decisions and take actions more effectively.

What historical examples does the speaker use to highlight the importance of preserving knowledge and ideas?

The speaker uses examples like Johan Gutenberg, Nicola Tesla, and Bell Labs to show how great ideas were lost due to fractured partnerships or lack of knowledge preservation, which hindered progress in their respective fields.

How does the speaker envision the future of teams and work structures?

The speaker envisions a future where teams are composed of a solo founder, freelancers, and AI agents. These teams will work collaboratively, with AI performing much of the repetitive work, while humans focus on creative and strategic tasks.

How does the speaker describe the role of AI in the future of work and startups?

AI is seen as a collaborator rather than just a tool, with founders and teams co-creating with AI. In the future, AI will function as an autonomous economic agent, and humans will interact with AI as co-founders, augmenting their creativity and productivity.