Why the Future of Software is AI and Human Collaboration | Steven Fabre, Co-founder and CEO, Liveblocks
The Peel with Turner Novak
Turner Novak
4.6 • 11 Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 97 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Steven Fabre is the Co-founder and CEO of Liveblocks.
Liveblocks builds ready-made AI copilots and collaboration for your product, and Steven is one of my smartest friends on how people are actually using AI on a day-to-day basis.
We talk about what most people get wrong when trying to build AI-native software, how to treat it as more than just a copilot that sits on top of your product, and what he’s learned about how large enterprises are actually buying and using AI right now.
We also talk through Liveblocks journey of evolving from real-time human collaboration components into one that also incorporates AI, what he’s learned going from a designer to a CEO, and how he rebuilt the company after his co-founder stepped away.
Thank you to Numeral for supporting this episode. It’s the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here: https://www.numeral.com
Timestamps:
(2:17) Liveblocks: Infrastructure for people + AI
(6:08) Wrong ways to add AI to software
(8:05) Why humans and AI must collaborate
(12:35) How AI will change software UI
(18:58) AI search optimization
(26:20) How to get #1 on Product Hunt
(32:33) Liveblocks 1.0 to 3.0 evolution
(36:40) Why collaboration software is so hard
(38:38) How customers use Liveblocks
(42:36) Hiring a coach to get better at sales
(47:07) Steven’s biggest enterprise sales mistakes
(50:28) How AI changes GTM and funding milestones
(57:57) Going from a designer to a CEO
(1:01:06) How Liveblocks first started
(1:04:56) Importance of design in company building
(1:06:51) Learning to become a CEO
(1:12:29) When his co-founder left 5 years in
(1:15:49) Becoming stronger hiring a new Head of Engineering
(1:22:10) Remote culture: what doesn’t work
(1:24:08) Remote culture: what does work
(1:26:47) Importance of autonomy on remote teams
(1:28:05) Most underrated basketball players
(1:33:38) ACL injury that kickstarted his first business
Referenced
Liveblocks: https://liveblocks.io/
Careers at Liveblocks: https://join.team/liveblocks
Follow Steven
Twitter: https://x.com/stevenfabre
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-fabre-5510bb38
Follow Turner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak
Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Peel. |
| 0:04.2 | I'm your host, Turner Novak, founder of Banana Capital. |
| 0:07.2 | Today's guest is Steven Fabre, co-founder and CEO of LiveBlocks. |
| 0:10.9 | LiveBlocks tools that help incorporate AI into your product. |
| 0:14.3 | And Steven is one of my smartest friends on how people are actually using AI on a day-to-day basis. |
| 0:19.7 | We talked about what most people get wrong in trying to build AI-native software, how to treat |
| 0:23.5 | it as more than just a co-pilot that sits on top of your product, and what he's learned |
| 0:27.3 | about how large enterprises are actually buying and using AI right now. |
| 0:31.6 | We also talked to the journey of evolving live blocks from pre-built real-time human collaboration |
| 0:36.2 | components, what he's learned going from a |
| 0:38.4 | designer to a CEO. Now he rebuilt the company after his co-founder stepped away. A quick reminder |
| 0:43.5 | that I published two episodes of The Peel every week. Check out the back catalog of over 100 episodes |
| 0:48.5 | exploring the world's greatest startup stories, like last week's episode with Zaderman at Flex, |
| 0:53.4 | I'm building the AI-native private bank for middle market businesses across the U.S. |
| 0:58.0 | And tune in next week for a conversation with Jason Calcanus, host of the All-In podcast. |
| 1:03.2 | Now, let's talk Stephen after a quick word from Numeril. |
| 1:07.0 | This episode is brought to you by Numeril. |
| 1:09.7 | Numeril is the fastest, easiest way to stay compliant with U.S. sales tax and global VAT. |
| 1:14.6 | It's easy to set up and they automatically handle all registrations, ongoing filings, |
| 1:19.6 | and their API provides sales tax rates wherever you need them with all the integrations you need. |
| 1:23.6 | Numeril supports over 2,000 customers in both the U.S. and globally, and they pride themselves on white-glove, high-touch customer service. Plus, they guarantee their work, and they'll cover the difference if they mess anything up. They're fresh off of fundraise, closing a $35 million series B from Mayfield, which they're going to reinvest into building an even better product. If you want to put your sales tax on autopilot, |
| 1:45.0 | check out Numeril at their new domain, numeral.com. That's N-U-M-E-R-A-L.com for the end-to-end |
... |
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