20VC: Mistral's Arthur Mensch: Are Foundation Models Commoditising | How Do We Solve the Problem of Compute | Is There Value in the Application Layer | Open vs Closed: Who Wins and Mistral's Position

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The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Arthur Mensch is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mistral AI. Since its inception in May 2023, Mistral has raised over $520M in funding from investors like Andreeseen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Microsoft with a current valuation of $2 billion. Before founding Mistral, Arthur was a research scientist at DeepMind, one of the leading AI institutions in the world.

In Today’s Episode with Arthur Mensch We Discuss:

From Models to Team Building: Arthur’s Greatest Lessons at DeepMind

What were Arthur’s biggest lessons from his time at DeepMind?
How did DeepMind shape how Arthur built Mistral?
Why does Arthur believe smaller teams are better for AI?
Why did Arthur decide to leave DeepMind and start Mistral?

Scaling Mistral to $2 Billion Valuation Within a Year

What made Mistral 7B so successful? What did Arthur learn from the model release?
What are the biggest barriers at Mistral today?
How does Arthur balance the sales and research teams at Mistral?
What does Arthur know now that he wishes he had known when he started Mistral?

How to Win in AI: Open Source, Cost, & Adoption

Why did Arthur open-source some models? Why did he close some?
How quickly will the cost of compute go down? Why does Arthur believe marginal costs will not go to zero?
How will open-sourcing LLMs affect the marginal cost?
Does Arthur think open source is ready for enterprise adoption?
What questions should enterprises be asking about AI adoption today?
What are the biggest challenges to AI adoption today?

The Future of LLMs

What does Arthur think are the largest bottlenecks of model quality today?
Does Arthur think future models will be more generalized or vertical-focused?
What does Arthur think about the future of commoditization in models?
Why is Arthur optimistic about the profitability of the application layer of AI?
How should models differentiate themselves today?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you feel like you have enough cash now? I guess the startup is always fundraising. Do you think enterprises are ready for open source? The most technical savings enterprises are definitely ready for it. In order to widen the adoption, there's definitely some tooling to be brought to the market. What are the biggest barriers to Mistral today? We are still bottlenecked by compute for sure, but that's because we don't have many of it. We have 1.5k800, which is a few percent of our competitors. Can I ask finally, was it a mistake for you to not scale that quicker? I mean, you can't really scale that much quicker. You can't raise like 2 billion on the seed round. I mean, at least you couldn't in 2023. Which competitive do you most respect and admire? We are surprised by recently. It's your landscape.
0:41.7	We are always mixing it up with new intro styles.
0:44.0	Let me know what you think of that new intro style and what a show we have for you today on 20VC.
0:46.7	Mistral is one of the most exciting AI companies today
0:49.5	at the forefront of the foundation model charge.
0:52.5	Joining us is Arthur Mench, co-founder and CEO at Mistral, where he's raised over $520 million
0:58.9	in funding from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, General Canalist, Lightspeed Venture Partners
1:04.8	and Microsoft.
1:06.0	And before founding Mr. Al, Arthur was a research scientist at DeepMind, one of the leading
1:10.4	AI institutions in the
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	...

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