ElevenLabs’ Vision for Voice Interfaces | CEO Mati Staniszewski
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
In this episode of GRYT, Mati Staniszewski, co-founder and CEO of ElevenLabs, shares his remarkable journey from identifying a dubbing problem in Poland to building one of the most promising AI voice companies. (00:00) The conversation explores how ElevenLabs started pre-ChatGPT in 2022, focusing on creating emotionally expressive synthetic speech that sounds human. (10:13) Mati discusses the company's dual approach of combining cutting-edge research with practical applications, serving both B2C creative users and B2B enterprise clients through their agents platform. (22:02)
- Main themes: Building AI voice infrastructure, scaling from research to product, navigating competition with tech giants, and the future of human-AI interaction through voice technology.
Speakers
Mati Staniszewski
Mati Staniszewski is the co-founder and CEO of ElevenLabs, the AI voice company building infrastructure for speech and audio in the age of AI. He started ElevenLabs in 2022 with his best friend from high school, identifying the opportunity in voice AI before it became mainstream. Previously, he worked at companies including Google and Palantir, where he developed his technical foundation before diving into entrepreneurship.
Joubin Mirzadegan
Joubin Mirzadegan is a partner at Kleiner Perkins and host of the GRYT podcast. He focuses on exploring the personal and professional challenges of building history-making companies, going beyond the typical highlight reel to understand what it really takes to scale transformative businesses.
Key Takeaways
Start Building Before the Hype Cycle
Mati emphasizes the advantage of starting ElevenLabs in 2022, before AI became mainstream. (05:13) This timing allowed them to hire true missionaries who believed in the vision rather than opportunists chasing trends. The team could focus on solving fundamental problems in voice AI without competing against the massive talent acquisition wars that followed ChatGPT's release. This demonstrates the power of conviction-driven timing - identifying transformative technologies before they become obvious to everyone else.
Combine Research Excellence with Product Application
ElevenLabs' competitive advantage stems from doing both foundational research and building practical applications. (43:37) While competitors often excel in one area, ElevenLabs creates models that are better than OpenAI and Google while simultaneously building the platform infrastructure needed for real-world deployment. This dual approach creates multiple defensive moats and allows faster iteration between research breakthroughs and user feedback, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement.
Hire Researchers Who Want Real-World Impact
The key to attracting top research talent isn't just compensation - it's providing a path from research to immediate user impact. (49:58) Mati explains that researchers at ElevenLabs see their work deployed to users almost immediately, creating a short iteration cycle between innovation and application. This attracts missionaries who want to see their research change the world rather than just publish papers, creating a more motivated and aligned team.
Build Multiple Flanks to Create Defensibility
Rather than focusing on a single product, ElevenLabs deliberately fights on multiple fronts - research, product platform, enterprise integration, and customer success. (45:49) Mati argues that if they win one flank, they become an amazing company, but if they win multiple flanks, they can create a generational business. This strategy provides resilience against competitive threats and creates compound value where success in one area reinforces others.
Use Secondary Sales to Align Long-Term Thinking
ElevenLabs raised $100 million in secondary-only funding to allow early employees to de-risk while staying motivated for the long term. (34:34) This approach helps people take some chips off the table while remaining incentivized to build something that could reach $121 billion in value. Mati compares it to high-performance athletics - when you're winning, great players want to be part of the winning team and aren't just motivated by immediate financial rewards.
Statistics & Facts
- ElevenLabs grew from less than 100 people to 330 people in just 12 months, representing more than 3x growth in headcount. (58:17) This rapid scaling reflects both the company's explosive growth and the complexity of building AI voice infrastructure across multiple markets.
- The company's business is approaching a 50/50 split between B2C creative use cases and B2B enterprise applications. (29:22) This balanced revenue mix provides diversification and demonstrates the broad applicability of voice AI technology.
- ElevenLabs operates with 20 product teams of 5-10 people each, totaling around 330 employees globally. (41:26) This micro-team structure allows for rapid iteration and autonomous decision-making across different product areas.
