20VC: Box's Aaron Levie on Predictions for the Next Wave of AI: Will Foundation Models Be Commoditised | How the Business Model of SaaS Changes Forever | Startups vs Incumbents: Who Wins | App vs Infrastructure Layer: Where is the Value?
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2024
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Aaron Levie is one of the OG founders of the last two decades as the Co-Founder and CEO of Box. Today, Box does over $1BN in revenue with a market cap of $3.85BN, and has raised over $560 million from the likes of DFJ, Andreesen Horowitz, and Coatue.
In Today’s Episode with Aaron Levie We Discuss:
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What You Need to Know Entering This AI Wave:
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Why does Aaron think we are currently in a transformative window in AI?
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What does Aaron think it takes to be successful in this next wave?
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Which areas does Aaron think founders should be focusing on today? Where should they not?
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AI Adoption: Business Model, Implementation, Regulation.
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How does Aaron think AI will change how we work & run a business?
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What does Aaron think is the single biggest obstacle to AI adoption in large organizations?
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Does Aaron agree with Sarah Tavel @ Benchmark AI companies will be selling work not tools?
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How does Aaron think AI will change the SaaS business model?
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Why is Aaron not as worried about AI regulation? What are his biggest concerns today?
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The Next AI Breakthrough: AI Agents
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Why does Aaron believe the next big breakthrough in AI will be agents?
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How does Aaron think AI agents will change org structures?
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How does Aaron think agents will differ from RPA? How will RPA companies benefit from AI?
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What does Aaron think AI agents will look like in five years?
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Startups vs Incumbents: Who Wins?
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What is Aaron’s advice to startups today building against OpenAI?
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Does Aaron think startups have more advantage in foundational models or the application layer?
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What advantages do incumbents have? What are their biggest weaknesses?
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Who does Aaron think are the biggest winners in AI today? Who is underperforming?
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Why does Aaron think Apple isn’t losing the AI race?
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Open AI is kind of telling us what they are going to become. Chat Chubit is going to be this |
| 0:04.3 | universal assistant interaction interface. You probably don't want to do things that instantly |
| 0:09.6 | could be subsumed by a horizontal chat interface. You have to do the workflows that eventually |
| 0:15.8 | a human who wants to go and run a full business process has to implement. We are in at one of these |
| 0:20.5 | moments with AI, which is a period where we are going to see not only breakthrough technology, but |
| 0:25.9 | the breakthrough application of those technologies. That is as much going to be an incumbent's |
| 0:30.0 | game as a startup game this time around. You're going to be working nonstop if you're in one |
| 0:33.9 | of these companies. Like there is no chance that you should be focused on sort of anything other than just pure survival and execution. This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and this show today is a special one. It all started on Twitter on the weekend with the one and only Aaron Levy, sharing some wisdom on the AI landscape today. And I said, hey, let's make a show happen. And just three days later, here we |
| 0:56.3 | are, recorded, released. For those that do not know, Aaron is one of the OG founders of the last |
| 1:01.9 | two decades as the co-founder and CEO of Box. Today, Box does over $1 billion in annual recurring |
| 1:08.4 | revenue with a market cap of $3.85 billion. |
| 1:11.6 | Yes, that 3.8X is something we discussed in the show today. |
| 1:15.6 | And Aaron has become somewhat of a luminary on Twitter on the evolution of the AI ecosystem. |
| 1:21.6 | If you don't follow him there, it really is a must at Levy. |
| 1:24.6 | But before we dive in, I want to talk about Cooley, the global law firm |
| 1:28.7 | built around startups and venture capital. Since forming the first venture fund in Silicon |
| 1:33.4 | Valley, Cooley has formed more venture capital funds than any other law firm in the world, |
| 1:38.2 | with 60 plus years working with VCs. They help VCs form and manage funds, make investments and handle the myriad issues |
| 1:45.9 | that arise through a fund's lifetime. We use them at 20 VC and have loved working with |
| 1:50.9 | their teams in the US, London and Asia over the last few years. So to learn more about the number |
| 1:55.8 | one most active law firm representing VC-backed companies going public, head over to coolly.com and also |
| 2:02.2 | coolly go.com, coolie's award-winning free legal resource for entrepreneurs. And speaking of |
... |
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