Most consumer AI so far has been single-player: you and a chatbot, alone.
Benchmark partner Sarah Tavel, one of Pinterest's first 30 employees, is betting that's about to change. She's looking for a product genius who can build an AI product with social DNA: status, network effects, and multiplayer dynamics. That'll enable users of ChatGPT and other models to learn from how others use AI and level up.
On this week’s AI & I, Dan Shipper revisits his conversation with Sarah. They talk about why technical founders dominate the early days of a platform shift while product-minded founders win later, what ChatGPT is still missing, and what separates a founder's real network effect from a slide with a flywheel diagram.
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To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe
Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper
Timestamps for YouTube:
2:26 Why the future of consumer AI belongs to founders with product intuition
11:09 What Sarah sees as ChatGPT's biggest weakness
18:45 How Sarah would design a consumer AI app with social DNA
24:10 The kind of founders Sarah invests in
28:33 How to know if your startup's network effects are real
35:40 What's catching Sarah's eye beyond AI
40:41 How AI will change the way top venture capitalists invest
Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Sarah Tavel on X: https://x.com/sarahtavel
Benchmark: https://benchmark.com
Agentio (marketplace for YouTube creators and brands): https://agentio.com/
Chainalysis: https://chainalysis.com
The Five Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007BZBRB8
Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HBBW23PM
What is AI & I?
Learn how the smartest people in the world are using AI to think, create, and relate. Each week I interview founders, filmmakers, writers, investors, and others about how they use AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Midjourney in their work and in their lives. We screen-share through their historical chats and then experiment with AI live on the show. Join us to discover how AI is changing how we think about our world—and ourselves.
For more essays, interviews, and experiments at the forefront of AI: https://every.to/chain-of-thought?sort=newest.