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Mental models for building products people love ft. Stewart Butterfield

Mental models for building products people love ft. Stewart Butterfield

Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Slack and Flickr, shares the product frameworks and leadership principles that guided his success. He delves into concepts like "utility curves" for feature investment, the "owner's delusion" in product design, and why focusing on "comprehension" is often more important than reducing friction. He also introduces powerful mental models for organizational effectiveness, such as combating "hyper-realistic work-like activities" and applying Parkinson's Law to team growth.

Sim: The Visual, End-to-End Agent Builder

Sim: The Visual, End-to-End Agent Builder

Emir Karabeg, co-founder of Sim, shares the journey of building a visual, end-to-end platform for AI agents. He discusses their pivot from a failed idea, their explosive open-source growth strategy, the philosophy of building an AI-native workflow tool, and the operational culture that took them from a YC batch to 60,000 developers.

Giga: The AI Platform for Enterprise Support

Giga: The AI Platform for Enterprise Support

Giga co-founders Varun and Esha discuss their product-first approach to enterprise AI, detailing their innovative 'AI Forward-Deployed Engineer' model that enables rapid, scalable customer support automation. They break down how they solve complex, multi-party use cases for clients like DoorDash and share their vision for expanding beyond support to become a comprehensive ops automation platform.

The woman behind Canva shares how she built a $42B company from nothing | Melanie Perkins

The woman behind Canva shares how she built a $42B company from nothing | Melanie Perkins

Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva, shares the core philosophies that propelled the company to a $42 billion valuation. She details her 'Column B' thinking—building towards a dream future rather than from existing constraints—and explains how setting 'crazy big goals' and systematically learning from over 100 investor rejections were crucial. Perkins also discusses surviving a two-year technical rewrite without shipping features and Canva's foundational 'two-step plan' to build a valuable company and use its wealth to do the most good possible.

Good News For Startups: Enterprise Is Bad At AI

Good News For Startups: Enterprise Is Bad At AI

A viral MIT report claimed 95% of enterprise AI projects fail. This isn't because AI doesn't work, but because large companies are ill-equipped to build it. This creates a massive opportunity for startups that can deliver functional, integrated AI solutions where enterprises and established vendors fall short.

From Idea to $650M Exit: Lessons in Building AI Startups

From Idea to $650M Exit: Lessons in Building AI Startups

In a talk at AI Startup School, Casetext co-founder Jake Heller breaks down how he built and sold his AI legal assistant, CoCounsel, for $650 million. He provides a practical framework for founders on identifying valuable AI business ideas, building reliable products that go beyond simple demos, and creating a go-to-market strategy centered on trust and product quality.

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