Generative Now | AI Builders on Creating the Future

Mikey Shulman, Co-Founder and CEO of Suno, comes back on the podcast to answer your questions from X with Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano . Mikey shares about Suno’s growth over the past year, introducing new models, and launching their mobile app. They also address numerous questions from the audience about the potential of AI in creating realistic music, copyright issues, and the future visio...

Enterprise search is a problem that’s plagued companies since the advent of working on computers. Now, AI promises solutions. In this week’s episode, host Michael Mignano from Lightspeed sits down with Arvind Jain, founder and CEO of Glean, to discuss the evolution of AI-assisted enterprise search. Arvind shares what insights helped to start Glean's journey in 2019, how the company leveraged t...

Mike Krieger is known for cofounding Instagram, one of the most beloved pieces of consumer technology, and now he is leading product at Anthropic. This week, host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano talks to the product building legend to discuss the challenges AI product builders face and the evolution of product innovation. They draw parallels between two transformative eras: the social media...

This week on the podcast, we’re looking at how machine learning is optimizing how crypto giant Coinbase operates. Coinbase Head of Machine Learning Rajarshi Gupta joins the Generative San Francisco stage to discuss with Anand Iyer, Lightspeed Venture Partner focused on crypto. (00:00) Introduction (00:26) Rajarshi Gupta’s Career Journey (01:54) Exploring Early Android Malware Detection (04:44) Mac...

In this episode of Generative Now, host Michael Mignano, Partner at Lightspeed, chats with Anu Atluru—a startup founder, operator, angel investor, and co-runner of Slang—a product studio dedicated to social consumer products. Anu shares her insights on the evolving landscape of social products, the difference between social utilities and social networks, and how AI could reshape the healthcare lan...

Inspired by NVIDIA’s announcements at CES, we are looking back at one of our favorite episodes. The explosion of generative AI-powered technologies has forever changed the tech landscape. But the path to the current AI revolution was paved by many breakthroughs. Bill Dally had a hand in quite a few of them. In this week’s episode of Generative Now, we are revisiting a conversation Lightspeed Partn...

Nearly a decade after launching Anchor, cofounders Michael Mignano and Nir Zicherman have a new venture: Oboe. Oboe’s mission is to make humanity smarter through AI-powered tutors. The duo delves deep into their entrepreneurial journey, starting from the early days of Anchor to their latest venture, Oboe, where Nir is the CEO. They discuss the trials and errors of building Anchor, their vision for...

Did 2024 live up to the AI hype? Investor Semil Shah joins Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano for another installment of Generative Quarterly. They cover key tech trends from 2024, including Jensen Huang’s Rockstar CEO status and AI consumer devices. Looking ahead to 2025, the duo delves into venture capital dynamics, IPO and M&A prospects, and the influence of tech in Washington D.C. Plus, Mi...

Dr. Olga Russakovsky, Computer Science at Princeton University, joins Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano to discuss what the next generation of AI talent is learning and where she expects to find the next big innovation in artificial intelligence.  From her research in computer vision and human-computer interaction to her work in fairness, accountability, and transparency in AI, Dr. Russakovsky ha...

What is the future of AI in consumer technology? Marissa Mayer believes this future includes AI that makes the mundane magical. Marissa has been leading consumer technology that affects billions of lives since the dawn of the modern Internet. She was one of the first 20 employees at Google and worked on Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Search. She served as the CEO at Yahoo! where she reinvented the...

This week, Logan Kilpatrick joins Michael Mignano on the Generative NYC Stage to discuss leading the product for Google AI Studio. He and his team built the Google Gemini API into one of the best platforms in the world for developers to build with AI. Logan worked at OpenAI before Google, and he has had a front row seat to the meteoric rise to AI over the past few years. Michael and Logan discuss...

Writer and investor M.G. Siegler joins Host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano from London to discuss the European tech scene and his experiences stepping back from venture capital after a decade with GV. The discussion covers the current 'VC Crisis', including CRV Ventures' decision to return funds, and the complex M&A and IPO landscape. Siegler offers his perspective on investing in peop...

We are back with PART 2 of our conversation with Matthew Hartman, a managing partner at the venture firm, Factorial Capital. Factorial partners with angel operators, with a focus on startups in the AI space. Host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano talks with Matt about the value of premium content, software on demand, and the shifting economics of the Internet. Plus, is this actually the momen...

This week, we are sharing PART ONE with Matthew Hartman, a managing partner at the venture firm Factorial Capital. Factorial partners with angel operators, with a focus on startups in the AI space. Host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano sits down with Matt to discuss how Factorial partners with technical founders to explore opportunities. They discuss OpenAI, Apple Intelligence, WebGPU, Suno,...

Lulu Cheng Meservey puts founders in control of their narrative using one simple principle: Go Direct. Lulu is the Founder and CEO of Rostra, the go-to communications expert for Silicon Valley founders of places like Ramp, SSI, Scale, Andruil, Suno, and The Free Press. Lulu joins Lightspeed Partner and Host Michael Mignano on the podcast to talk about her ​​modern communications playbook for found...

Toshit Panigrahi, CEO and co-founder of TollBit, joins Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano for this week’s episode of Generative Now. TollBit is a platform that enables publishers and content creators to extract revenue from AI companies that use their data. Toshit and Michael discuss how advancements in AI are already reshaping the economics of the internet, TollBit’s innovative “bot payw...

Descript CEO and founder Andrew Mason joins Lightspeed Partner and Host Michael Mignano on the podcast to talk about the future of content creation with AI tools. Michael and Andrew talk about the evolution of Descript as an AI product designed for podcast and video creators, navigating a world of synthetic content, and Descript’s new features including Descript Rooms and Underlord. Andrew talks a...

This week, we are back with part two of Generative Quarterly with Semil Shah and Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano. Semil is a founding General Partner of Haystack and a Venture Partner at Lightspeed. Semil and Mike pick up their conversation on consumer AI technology, starting with innovative consumer tech like Friend AI by Avi Schiffmann. Mike and Semil consider the impact of Artificia...

Semil Shah is back for another episode of Generative Quarterly with Michael Mignano, Lightspeed Partner and host of Generative Now. Semil is a founding General Partner of Haystack and a Venture Partner at Lightspeed. Semil and Mike discuss the seed investing landscape, challenges and opportunities in building consumer tech, and competition between Apple and Google. Episode Chapters (00:00) Welcome...

Johnny Ho, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Perplexity, joins Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano for this week’s episode of Generative Now. Perplexity is the AI powered search engine that is rapidly growing and challenging the industry status quo. Johnny and Michael talk about his background as a competitive programmer, the business model of search, and Perplexity’s Publisher Prog...

Generative AI is making it possible to not only remove the human from the driver seat, but, in the world of trucking and freight, from the vehicle entirely.  This week on Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano speaks with Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora Innovation, a company that makes software for autonomous vehicles with a focus on the trucking industry. Chris sha...

Spotify’s personalized recommendations have set it apart from the pack of music streaming platforms for years. Those curated recommendations have only gotten stronger with the onset of AI, with the ability to power things like your own personal AI DJ. This week on the podcast, we’re revisiting a conversation with Spotify’s Co-President, CPO & CTO, Gustav Söderström. Gustav joins host and Light...

Captions. AI is taking the world of video creation by storm. With features like AI-corrected eye contact and automatic captions in 28 languages, more creators than ever can bring their ideas to life. This week, we’re revisiting a conversation with Captions. AI Co-Founder and CEO Gaurav Misra. Guarav joined Lightspeed Partner and Host Michael Mignano for a conversation spanning from his days as a d...

Most of the hype around AI has revolved around its text capabilities, and the powers of LLMs like ChatGPT. But Suno is focusing on the unsung hero of AI - music. Suno is building a future where anyone can make good music - all you need to do is type in a prompt, and out will come a song that’s never existed before. This week, we’re revisiting a conversation with Mikey Shulman, CEO and Co-Founder o...

For many of us, meetings take up a disproportionate amount of our time at work. But with the advent of AI-powered tools, meetings may become more manageable and even productive, all without the sacrifice of control.  This week on Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano speaks with Chris Pedregal, CEO and co-founder of Granola, an AI-powered notepad and meeting assistant. Chris...