ElevenLabs CEO: Why Voice is the Next AI Interface
ElevenLabs CEO and co‑founder Mati Staniszewski joins Jennifer Li to explain how the team ships research‑grade AI at lightning speed—from text‑to‑speech and fully licensed AI music to real‑time voice agents, and why voice is the next interface for human‑computer interaction. He shares the small, autonomous team model, global hiring approach, and how the Voice Marketplace has paid creators over $10M while evolving into an enterprise platform.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:20 Lucky Number Eleven
02:50 Early Research and Product Work with Piotr
03:35 Shipping quickly with small, high ownership independent teams
04:40 Balancing research and product launches
06:50 A Remote-first approach: Meeting talent where they are
10:01 US vs Europe work cultures
10:40 Removing titles and flat leadership layers
13:35 The creative industry’s adoption of AI
15:10 The Voice Marketplace: Empowering creators to earn
16:43 Challenges in licensing and 18-month negotiation process
18:05 Hiring in complex domains
19:10 Finding risk-tolerant talent
20:45 Transitioning from creator-first to enterprise adoption
21:48 Lessons from hiring the first salespeople
23:34 Scaling orchestration, long sales cycles and cultural adjustments
26:22 Customer choice in adopting early features
27:55 Phases of company growth: product, sales, scaling
30:06 Turning down licensing to a competitor
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