Grit

#212 Founder Magic Leap & SynthBee Rony Abovitz: Underdog

Oct 14, 2024

01:34:03

Snipd AI

Rony Abovitz, founder and CEO of SynthBee, has a remarkable background in innovative technology, particularly spatial computing. He shares his vision of a more benevolent AI future, challenging the current powers that control data. Rony dives into the resilience required during the pandemic, his intriguing encounters in tech, including a memorable day with Shaquille O’Neal, and navigating the challenges of leadership transitions. He emphasizes the need for a human-centric approach in tech, blending ambition with empathy to empower individuals.

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Quick takeaways

Rony Abovitz emphasizes that resilience is crucial for founders, encouraging them to maintain their ambitions despite global challenges like the pandemic.

Fundraising is framed not just as a transaction but as a powerful articulation of vision, where passionate communication attracts like-minded investors.

The significance of relationships in the startup ecosystem is highlighted through Rony's impactful meeting with John Doerr, leading to transformative investment opportunities.

Deep dives

Resilience in Adversity

The importance of resilience for founders is emphasized through the perspective that challenges, including global events like a pandemic, should not deter one's ambition and vision. Founders are encouraged to maintain belief in themselves and their ideas, indicating that creativity and innovation can continue to thrive despite setbacks. The speaker notes the universal impact of difficulties, such as the pandemic, and suggests that instead of feeling anger or frustration towards external circumstances, one should focus on moving forward. This mindset fosters a continuous flow of ideas and possibilities for future endeavors.

Intro

2min

A Memorable Visit from a Tech Legend

5min

Navigating Tech and Neuroscience in Crisis

18min

A Day with Shaq: Bridging Reality and Digital Innovation

4min

Navigating Tech Innovation and Leadership Transitions

24min

Navigating Entrepreneurial Dilemmas

24min

Revolutionizing AI: A Human-Centric Vision

9min

The Balance of Empathy and Ambition in Tech

4min

Finding the Right Talent: A New Wave in Software Engineering

2min

Guest: Rony Abovitz, founder & CEO of SynthBee

SynthBee CEO Rony Abovitz grew up “really believing” in Star Wars and the idea that there could be benevolent, artificially intelligent beings like R2-D2 and C-3PO.

“It wasn't a dystopian vision of the future,” he says. “It wasn't HAL from 2001. It wasn't the Terminator. It wasn't Skynet. It was this kind of friendly, empathetic, more utopian vision.”

George Lucas himself told Rony to tone it down and not “take it so literally” — but he was undeterred. The way he describes today’s leading AI powers sounds like an idealistic Rebel conceptualizing the Evil Empire.

“You’ve got companies that receive massive funding that want to take all the data in the world ... I feel that's a massive mistake,” Rony says. “We become serfs. They become the Lords. They become the Kings. I'm completely opposed to that. So I started to imagine for SynthBee what is a different form of computing intelligence, one that could help us, but have much more safety [and] human centrism.”

Chapters:

(01:12) - Fundraising
(02:27) - Meeting John Doerr
(07:05) - The Beast
(10:06) - Unfinished business
(11:47) - Apple and Meta
(15:20) - The COVID-19 pandemic
(21:12) - “Investors panicked”
(25:28) - Shaquille O’Neal vs. digital Shaq
(29:43) - Magic Leap alumni
(32:45) - Financial outcomes
(38:27) - Peggy Johnson
(40:27) - “A weird version of hell”
(44:08) - A strange intro to Google
(50:42) - Larry Page and Sergey Brin
(54:27) - Founder voting power
(01:00:40) - Mako Surgical
(01:03:04) - The 9/11 term sheet
(01:06:40) - The worst pitch ever
(01:09:55) - The 2008 IPO
(01:16:15) - Selling to Stryker
(01:18:30) - What is SynthBee?
(01:26:44) - Humility in tech
(01:31:44) - Who SynthBee is hiring

Mentioned in this episode: Scott Hassan, Bing Gordon, Chewy, Mary Meeker, Suitable Technologies and Beam, NASA, Mark Zuckerberg, Matthew Ball, NTT Docomo, Blade Runner, Wired Magazine, CES, Dow Jones, Tesla, Zoom, OpenAI and Anthropic, Adam Silver and the NBA, John Monos, the Apple Vision Pro, Madden NFL, McLaren, Satya Nadella and Microsoft, the HoloLens, Godzilla and King Kong, Willow Garage and ROS, Trading Places, Z-KAT, Frederic Moll, John Freund, Christopher Dewey, John and Christine Whitman, Sycamore Ventures, Andy Bechtelstein, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, Kevin Lobo, Muhammad Ali, Star Wars and George Lucas, Yuval Noah Harari, and Infosys.

Links:

Connect with Rony

Connect with Joubin

Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

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