Co-founder mode

September began with Paul Graham's essay on running a company in "founder mode," and ended with a string of high-profile departures at OpenAI, leaving Sam Altman as one of the few co-founders in a leadership position at the company. So as I was writing this newsletter, I began reflecting on my own experience at Synthesia, running the company in "co-founder mode" alongside our COO Steffen Tjerrild and growing Synthesia to become the world’s largest generative AI video platform, with over one million users. 

Co-founder mode used to be a common sight in Silicon Valley a few decades ago: Microsoft began with Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Apple with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and, more recently, Google with Larry Page and Sergey Brin. 

But the era of co-founder-led tech companies is quickly disappearing in the age of generative AI. AI allows smaller teams or even solo founders to achieve what once required multiple co-founders' diverse skills. The pace of innovation has also accelerated, making long-term co-founder relationships less practical as pivots and strategic shifts become more frequent. We’re seeing startup co-founders quickly leave to start new companies as they notice new opportunities emerging or because they can’t agree on how to run the company they have. And even if they stay, they are often forced to step into non-executive or technical roles and bring in what Paul Graham calls “a professional manager” to scale their business. 

However, there are advantages to staying in co-founder mode for as long as possible. The old guard of Big Tech offers valuable lessons on what can be achieved when people have a shared vision and complementary skills. Those co-founders had a deep attachment to the company's mission, building resilience and consistency and developing a long-term strategy that could endure after they were long gone. 

So how can co-founder mode work today? For me and Steffen, it is like having a dual brain, where each of us operates in their area of strength but with a shared vision. I oversee product, engineering and marketing, focusing on creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Meanwhile, Steffen leads our go-to-market, finance, operations, HR, and other processes that keep the company running smoothly. His attention to detail and organizational skills are the perfect counterbalance to my creativity.

This separation of responsibilities allows us to cover more ground. It also prevents one of the most common pitfalls in startups, especially as they transition to scaleups: spreading yourself too thin. When you're not constantly switching between creative and operational tasks, you can dive deeper into your domain, which is critical for innovation and efficiency.

But don’t be fooled: running a company in co-founder mode is not without its challenges. One of the key difficulties is ensuring alignment. Misalignment can lead to conflicting priorities, mixed messages to teams, and strategic drift. To prevent this, Steffen and I maintain constant communication and even co-manage some direct reports like our chief of staff. We sit across from each other in the office, have regular check-ins and attend strategy meetings together so we can align on our goals and priorities. This unity is crucial for maintaining the trust of our team and ensuring that the company moves forward cohesively.

Another challenge is making sure that our distinct areas of focus do not become silos. We actively work to share ideas between our domains. For example, insights from my engineering and product teams often influence operational strategies, while his understanding of operational efficiency often shapes how we approach product development. This cross-functional collaboration is what has kept our company agile: we changed our business model and we nearly went bankrupt several times but we always came back stronger and more determined than ever.

In the end, what makes co-founder mode so effective is that it leverages the natural human inclination towards specialization while maintaining the unity and agility of a founder-led company. It offers a way to scale without losing the essence of what made the startup innovative in the first place. It's about ensuring that, as co-founders, we are more than the sum of our parts, steering the ship together towards our shared vision. We’re not perfect and we’re always learning more about how to refine this mode of operation, but I hope other startups will find co-founder mode as valuable and empowering as we have.

Other Synthesia news and updates

This month, Synthesia became the first AI video company to achieve ISO 42001 compliance. This certification sets a new benchmark for AI governance in our industry, demonstrating our dedication to compliance and building a secure platform.

We also launched our AI video localization solution which gives companies the ability to translate any video on our platform, whether it was made in Synthesia or not. You can check out my webinar presentation here and read more about our localization solution on our blog.

We’ve partnered with the Ministry of Social Policy in Ukraine so they can create instructional videos for their social workers. Forbes has a nice write-up of our partnership, if you want to learn more.

Our head of security Martin Tschammer spoke to the MIT Technology Review about a new concept introduced by researchers at OpenAI, Microsoft, Harvard and MIT called personhood credentials that allows internet users to demonstrate that they are real people to online services, without disclosing their personal information. It’s an interesting idea but one that requires more thought if it’s to be put in practice. 

I was honored to be included in the TIME100 list of AI innovators and more than anything it's a testament to all the amazing work my fellow Synthesians have been doing the last couple of years. You rock!

Finally, we took the viral podcasts generated with NotebookLM and gave them to our Expressive Avatars to act out - check out one of the videos where the hosts realize they’re made with AI! 

My read/watchlist

Now that you know how Synthesia got started and what we’ll be working on, here is what caught my eye in September: 

• Evening Standard: AI is exciting for artists, the possibilities are limitless

• New York Times: OpenAI Unveils New ChatGPT That Can Reason Through Math and Science

• The Verge: Adobe previews its upcoming text-to-video generative AI tools

• New York Times: A.I. Can Now Create Lifelike Videos. Can You Tell What’s Real?

• Semafor: A radical idea - a special economic zone without copyright law - would make the UAE an AI innovation hub

• VentureBeat: Electronic Arts goes deep into artificial intelligence for game development

• Business Insider: YouTube's product chief explains its approach to AI as the tech becomes a bigger part of content creation

• The Verge: Meta is working on recreating influencers with AI

• DW: Europe's AI bosses sound warning on soaring compliance costs

• FT: AI start-ups generate money faster than past hyped tech companies

• Bloomberg: Canva Bets Big on AI to Fight Adobe and Supercharge Growth

• WSJ: Puma Wants to Improve Its Brand. AI Might Help.

• Fortune: Cloudflare is arming content creators with free weapons in the battle against AI bot crawlers

Drop me a comment or question about generative AI or Synthesia below, and I’ll spotlight the best one in next month’s update!