Investing in Smaller Models for Specific Use Cases

May Habib is the co-founder and CEO of Writer, a full-stack generative AI platform built for enterprises. The model is trained on a customer’s own data to create content that is consistent with their brand style and voice. Writer recently raised $100M at a valuation of around $500M. Prior to Writer, May co-founded Qordoba, an AI writing assistant.

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In today’s episode, we discuss:

• Advice for AI founders in 2024
• Why it’s difficult to scale AI products for enterprise
• The secret to finding champions
• Signs of a healthy co-founder relationship
• The future of agentic AI

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Referenced:

• Accenture: https://www.accenture.com
• ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/
• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com
• Goldman Sachs: https://www.goldmansachs.com/
• Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com
• Jill Kramer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-kramer-64230840/
• L’Oreal: https://www.loreal.com/
• Northwestern Mutual: https://www.northwesternmutual.com/
• Palmyra: https://writer.com/blog/palmyra/
• Retrieved Augmented Generation: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/what-is-retrieval-augmented-generation/
• United Healthcare: https://www.uhc.com/
• Vanguard: https://global.vanguard.com/
• Waseem Alshikh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waseemalshikh/
• Writer: https://writer.com/

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Where to find May Habib:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/may-habib/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/may_habib

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Where to find Todd Jackson:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/tjack

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Where to find First Round Capital:

• Website: https://firstround.com/
• First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
• This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:34) Writer’s origin story

(06:30) Building a full-stack generative AI platform for enterprise

(11:56) The #1 challenge building Writer

(15:41) Writer’s approach to finding champion customers

(20:29) How Writer is winning the enterprise space

(27:11) Signs Writer found product-market-fit

(29:26) Scaling LLMs for specific use cases

(31:53) Writer’s goals for 2024

(33:57) Advice for 0 to 1 founders

(35:53) Creating a culture of “connect, challenge, and own”