Why the Next Hit AI Product Will Be Social Why the Next Hit AI Product Will Be Social (Best of the Pod)

Most consumer AI so far has been single-player: you and a chatbot, alone.

Benchmark partner Sarah Tavel, one of Pinterest's first 30 employees, is betting that's about to change. She's looking for a product genius who can build an AI product with social DNA: status, network effects, and multiplayer dynamics. That'll enable users of ChatGPT and other models to learn from how others use AI and level up.

On this week’s AI & I, Dan Shipper revisits his conversation with Sarah. They talk about why technical founders dominate the early days of a platform shift while product-minded founders win later, what ChatGPT is still missing, and what separates a founder's real network effect from a slide with a flywheel diagram.

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Timestamps for YouTube:

0:00 Start

1:10 Introduction

2:26 Why the future of consumer AI belongs to founders with product intuition

11:09 What Sarah sees as ChatGPT's biggest weakness

18:45 How Sarah would design a consumer AI app with social DNA

24:10 The kind of founders Sarah invests in

28:33 How to know if your startup's network effects are real

35:40 What's catching Sarah's eye beyond AI

40:41 How AI will change the way top venture capitalists invest

Links to resources mentioned in the episode:

Sarah Tavel on X: https://x.com/sarahtavel

Benchmark: https://benchmark.com

Agentio (marketplace for YouTube creators and brands): https://agentio.com/

Chainalysis: https://chainalysis.com

The Five Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007BZBRB8

Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HBBW23PM