Alex Kovalov

Meet Lisa Su - TIME’s CEO of the Year. She leads AMD, the American chip-making company she brought to a $123 billion valuation. Here are her 7 thoughts on the future of AI and the semiconductor industry🧵:

7/ "AI’s energy consumption is a challenge, but it’s also a tool for greater efficiency." Lisa acknowledged that AI systems require massive energy inputs, but she believes their potential to solve problems outweighs this (for example, speed of drug development in medicine).

Meet Lisa Su - TIME’s CEO of the Year. She leads AMD, the American chip-making company she brought to a $123 billion valuation. Here are her 7 thoughts on the future of AI and the semiconductor industry🧵:

5/ "Technology evolves in waves; when you reach a plateau, the next big breakthrough follows." Lisa rejected the idea that AI is "plateauing." She explained that innovation happens in cycles: new technologies take off, hit limitations, and inspire the next big leap.

Meet Lisa Su - TIME’s CEO of the Year. She leads AMD, the American chip-making company she brought to a $123 billion valuation. Here are her 7 thoughts on the future of AI and the semiconductor industry🧵:

3/ "Chips are now a matter of national security." While there are restrictions on exporting advanced chips to China, she emphasized the importance of maintaining balance and dialogue to protect both national security and global trade opportunities.

Meet Lisa Su - TIME’s CEO of the Year. She leads AMD, the American chip-making company she brought to a $123 billion valuation. Here are her 7 thoughts on the future of AI and the semiconductor industry🧵:

1/ "AI is the most transformational technology I’ve seen in my career." Lisa Su emphasized that we’re at the very beginning of AI’s journey, describing it as a 5-10 year cycle. Current AI systems may not always be perfect, but their ability to revolutionize industries is undeniable.

In 2024, the ChatGPT wrapper myth was officially debunked. It’s now validated by Y Combinator. The conventional wisdom was that anything built on top of ChatGPT was just a "GPT wrapper," and that the ChatGPT app store would obliterate startups creating their own applications. But guess what?

I know because we’ve spent countless hours fine-tuning the model and teaching it the intricacies of marketing metrics and dimensions. I once told my co-founder:

In 2024, the ChatGPT wrapper myth was officially debunked. It’s now validated by Y Combinator. The conventional wisdom was that anything built on top of ChatGPT was just a "GPT wrapper," and that the ChatGPT app store would obliterate startups creating their own applications. But guess what?

The ChatGPT store turned out to be a nothingburger. Meanwhile, AI tools and applications like Glean, CaseText, Harvey, Photoroom, and OpusClip crushed the market, generating tens of millions in revenue. A trend YC now sees in its latest YC batches is multi-model orchestration, which is...

Wade Foster scaled Zapier to a $5 billion valuation in just 3 years. His approach? Obsess over customers, launch early, and keep things weird. Here are 9 lessons from Zapier’s journey that every startup founder needs to know:🧵👇

9/ Do Not Afraid To Stand Out Wade Foster emphasized embracing their quirks and avoiding the temptation to conform. Using playful plan names like "Amps, Volts, and Ohms" reflected their distinct personality and captured user attention and helped them stand out in a competitive SaaS market.

Wade Foster scaled Zapier to a $5 billion valuation in just 3 years. His approach? Obsess over customers, launch early, and keep things weird. Here are 9 lessons from Zapier’s journey that every startup founder needs to know:🧵👇

7/ Experiment with Pricing They experimented with pricing models to balance affordability and value. For example, the initial pricing model was based on the Fibonacci sequence ($1, $23, $58), which was unconventional but attention-grabbing.

Wade Foster scaled Zapier to a $5 billion valuation in just 3 years. His approach? Obsess over customers, launch early, and keep things weird. Here are 9 lessons from Zapier’s journey that every startup founder needs to know:🧵👇

5/ Start Lean and Agile In the early days, the founders managed all aspects of the business, including customer support, marketing, and product development. Their first hire was a customer support representative to free up time for product improvements.

Wade Foster scaled Zapier to a $5 billion valuation in just 3 years. His approach? Obsess over customers, launch early, and keep things weird. Here are 9 lessons from Zapier’s journey that every startup founder needs to know:🧵👇

3/ Focus on Product-Led Growth (PLG) Zapier leveraged a self-serve model, allowing users to sign up and use the product without interacting with a salesperson. This approach resonated with their target audience - users of SaaS tools like MailChimp and Dropbox.

Wade Foster scaled Zapier to a $5 billion valuation in just 3 years. His approach? Obsess over customers, launch early, and keep things weird. Here are 9 lessons from Zapier’s journey that every startup founder needs to know:🧵👇

1/ Obsess Over the Customer Experience Zapier's success heavily relied on its commitment to improving the user experience for non-technical users. Wade Foster personally onboarded dozens of customers, noting their struggles and relaying the issues back to the engineering team for improvements.

My online meeting protocol saves me hundreds of dollars every day. Here are the 5 non-negotiable rules I follow to run efficient and productive meetings for my agency and startup:👇

Additionally, the Host can assign tasks in Asana to ensure accountability and follow-through. This ensures that nothing discussed in the meeting is lost and everyone knows their responsibilities moving forward.

My online meeting protocol saves me hundreds of dollars every day. Here are the 5 non-negotiable rules I follow to run efficient and productive meetings for my agency and startup:👇

5/ Follow Up with a Meeting Summary and To-Do List The minute a meeting ends, people move on and forget half of what was discussed. Not on my team.

My online meeting protocol saves me hundreds of dollars every day. Here are the 5 non-negotiable rules I follow to run efficient and productive meetings for my agency and startup:👇

4/ Appoint a Meeting Host. Every meeting needs a Host - even if it’s just two people. It can be the same Host for regular meetings. The Host’s responsibilities:

My online meeting protocol saves me hundreds of dollars every day. Here are the 5 non-negotiable rules I follow to run efficient and productive meetings for my agency and startup:👇

2/ Send Me Your Numbers Upfront Reviewing metrics and KPIs before the meeting is essential. Even more important is preparing and sharing a report with all relevant data at 24h before the meeting. If your performance is data-driven, show me the numbers first, then we can talk. Numbers don’t lie

My online meeting protocol saves me hundreds of dollars every day. Here are the 5 non-negotiable rules I follow to run efficient and productive meetings for my agency and startup:👇

1/ Never Have a Meeting Without an Agenda. When I schedule a meeting, Google automatically sends an invite to all participants. In that email chain we discuss the purpose of the meeting and clarify its objectives. The final agenda is then added to the Google Calendar event description.