The Secret to Building Sticky AI Products - Ep. 42 with Chris Pedregal
AI and I12 Joulu 2024

The Secret to Building Sticky AI Products - Ep. 42 with Chris Pedregal

Chris Pedregal knows how to build AI products that people love.

Chris is the cofounder and CEO of Granola, an AI notepad for meetings. We use it all the time at Every—Granola listens in on a meeting and, when it ends, generates notes and a shareable transcript for anyone who missed it.

Granola is one of my favorite consumer AI products because it’s equal parts delightful and useful. So my question for Chris was:

How do you do it? How do you make an excellent product in AI?

We spent an hour talking about:

  • How Chris uses intuition while making product decisions

  • The importance of building products with “soul”

  • How to develop your product thinking muscles

  • When Chris trusts his gut over listening to user feedback

  • How fewer users gives startups a leg up over big tech

  • Why Chris is bullish on founders building specialized AI tools for professionals

This is a must-watch for anyone interested in building valuable, sticky AI products that users will love.

If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!

Want even more?

Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.

To hear more from Dan Shipper:


Timestamps for Spotify:

  1. Introduction (00:00:48)
  2. How Chris made early product decisions at Granola (00:09:14)
  3. Chris’s philosophy around product development (00:13:36)
  4. When to follow your intuition v. listen to your users (00:19:24)
  5. How to build a product with “soul” (00:20:40)
  6. Chris’s advice on becoming a better product thinker (00:25:12)
  7. The role travel plays in shaping Chris’s intuition (00:31:17)
  8. Why having fewer users is an advantage for AI startups (00:45:52)
  9. Why Chris is bullish on startups building specialized AI tools (00:52:09)
  10. Where Chris sees Granola in the next year (00:56:52)

  • Links to resources mentioned in the episode:

    • Chris Pedregal: @cjpedregal

  • Jaksot(101)

    I Interviewed New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy about AI - Ep. 52 with Governor Phil Murphy

    I Interviewed New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy about AI - Ep. 52 with Governor Phil Murphy

    I interviewed the Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy.We spent an hour talking about his vision for AI in government, economic development, and the regulatory challenges ahead. His approach is refreshi...

    19 Maalis 202547min

    Prompt Your Way To Personal Growth - Ep. 51 with Steve Schlafman

    Prompt Your Way To Personal Growth - Ep. 51 with Steve Schlafman

    Steve Schlafman is using a $20 ChatGPT subscription to expand his consciousness.He’s doing this through:Advanced dream work—Steve records himself talking about his dreams every morning, uploads the tr...

    12 Maalis 202555min

     How AI Startups Can Win With Better Strategy - Ep. 50 with Mike Maples

    How AI Startups Can Win With Better Strategy - Ep. 50 with Mike Maples

    Our sponsor for this episode is Microsoft. Want seamless collaboration without the cost? Microsoft Teams offers a robust free plan for individuals that delivers unlimited chat, 60-minute video meeting...

    5 Maalis 20251h 2min

    He Built an AI Audience Simulator. It’s the Future of Customer Research. - Ep. 49 with Michael Taylor

    He Built an AI Audience Simulator. It’s the Future of Customer Research. - Ep. 49 with Michael Taylor

    Michael Taylor has perfected the art of getting AI to speak in tongues. He’s taught it to mimic the voices of your customers—so you can see how they would respond before you ship.Michael is the creato...

    26 Helmi 20251h 6min

    How Nat Eliason Made $200,000 in a Week Teaching AI - Ep. 48

    How Nat Eliason Made $200,000 in a Week Teaching AI - Ep. 48

    Nat Eliason’s career arc is borderline absurd—but it works. In the last five years, he ran an SEO agency, got into crypto, made $600,000 from a course on the note-taking toolRoam Research, flipped rea...

    12 Helmi 202559min

    Vercel’s Guillermo Rauch on What Comes After Coding - Ep. 47

    Vercel’s Guillermo Rauch on What Comes After Coding - Ep. 47

    Guillermo Rauch is one of the most prolific coders of this generation.  But he doesn’t think of himself as a coder anymore.  Coding, he says, is a specific skill that AI is becoming great at. Instead,...

    5 Helmi 202556min

    How to Prepare for AGI According to Reid Hoffman - Ep. 46

    How to Prepare for AGI According to Reid Hoffman - Ep. 46

    AGI is coming. Reid Hoffman just wrote the book on how to prepare. According to Reid, every major tech breakthrough (the written word, the printing press, the telephone) triggered mass fear. But, cont...

    29 Tammi 20251h 9min

    The Venture Capitalist Who Finds the Best AI Products—Before They Win - Ep. 45 with Nabeel Hyatt

    The Venture Capitalist Who Finds the Best AI Products—Before They Win - Ep. 45 with Nabeel Hyatt

    Nabeel Hyatt is looking for the “Japanese toilets” of AI—products that delight users in unexpected ways. As a partner at Spark Capital, that investment philosophy has paid off. Despite making only 1-2...

    22 Tammi 20251h 1min