Why Businesses Are Rejecting the AI They’ve Asked For: Agency CEO Elias Torres
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 revealing episode of Training Data, serial entrepreneur Elias Torres shares his journey from Nicaragua to becoming one of Boston's most successful tech founders. Torres, who co-founded Performable (acquired by HubSpot), Drift (valued at over $1B), and now Agency, discusses the fascinating challenges of building in the AI era. (02:34) He explores why customers simultaneously demand AI while rejecting its imperfections, drawing from his experience managing email entirely through AI automation. The conversation delves into his unconventional hiring philosophy, the lessons learned from scaling companies, and his vision for AI-led customer experience at Agency. (39:00) Torres emphasizes building products that customers obsess over rather than rushing to monetize, while working toward his ambitious goal of creating a billion-dollar company with fewer than 100 employees.
• Main themes: AI adoption challenges, scaling companies without losing customer focus, building transformative products, and leveraging AI for customer experience
Speakers
Elias Torres
Elias Torres is a serial entrepreneur who immigrated from Nicaragua and built multiple billion-dollar companies in Boston. He co-founded Performable, which was acquired by HubSpot, then co-founded Drift with David Cancel, which achieved a valuation of over $1 billion. At HubSpot, he led the rebuilding of the entire platform and hired exceptional talent including Andrew Bialecki (Klaviyo founder) and Christopher O'Donnell. Torres is currently the founder and CEO of Agency, an AI-powered customer experience platform that's redefining how businesses deliver customer service at scale.
Key Takeaways
Embrace AI's Imperfection for 10x Productivity Gains
Torres advocates for accepting AI's current limitations rather than demanding perfection. (03:23) He uses his own email management as an example, where Agency handles all his correspondence automatically. Rather than spending 20 minutes perfecting each email, he sends AI-generated responses that may not be perfect but allow him to communicate with 500 prospects instead of just two. The key insight is recognizing that individual recipients don't know how much time you spent on their email - they only care about receiving a timely, relevant response.
Focus on Product Obsession Over Early Revenue
Unlike his previous ventures where he immediately sought revenue, Torres now prioritizes building something customers are "obsessed" with before monetizing. (36:12) He's deliberately not charging his 50+ Agency customers, instead focusing on making them "deliriously happy" with the product. This approach stems from observing that many founders with $50 million in revenue are still delusional about their product's actual value. Torres believes creating genuine product-market fit requires patience and a willingness to forgo short-term revenue for long-term customer obsession.
Hire for Intelligence and Grit, Not Credentials
Torres' hiring philosophy centers on giving exceptional people a chance rather than focusing on pedigree. (18:18) He specifically avoids candidates with impressive credentials, finding them "suspicious." Instead, he looks for people doing "the crappiest jobs" who demonstrate intelligence, hunger, and grit. This approach led him to hire future founders and executives like Andrew Bialecki and Christopher O'Donnell early in their careers. His method involves testing intelligence through conversation and providing opportunities for growth, then letting high-potential individuals choose their own paths.
Scale Customer Experience, Not Just Headcount
The biggest lesson from Drift was that scaling through hiring more people fundamentally doesn't work for customer relationships. (24:16) Torres realized that when you have thousands of customers, you can no longer personally know and serve each one effectively. Traditional scaling through additional customer success managers and support staff creates distance from customers and reduces the quality of relationships. This pain point directly inspired Agency's mission to deliver AI-led customer experience that can scale infinitely without requiring proportional human resources.
Build AI That Takes Action, Not Just Provides Information
Torres distinguishes between AI tools that help humans work versus AI that actually does the work. (39:51) He's uninterested in building "tools that help humans do something" and instead wants AI that can execute tasks infinitely after being instructed once. Rather than creating dashboards that require human interpretation and action, Agency aims to identify what needs to be done and execute it automatically - from analyzing customer data to sending emails to booking meetings. This represents a fundamental shift from AI as an assistant to AI as an autonomous operator.
Statistics & Facts
- Torres went from supporting 20 customers at Performable to 5,000 customers immediately upon joining HubSpot, creating a massive scaling challenge in customer experience delivery. (15:20)
- IBM employed 400,000 people when Torres worked there, making it impossible for any individual to have significant impact within such a massive organization. (11:21)
- Agency currently has over 50 customers using the product, though Torres deliberately isn't charging them yet as he focuses on achieving product obsession before monetization. (34:55)
