From Salesforce co-CEO to Sierra: Bret Taylor’s journey in tech innovation | TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Bret Taylor's Journey and Departure from Salesforce

• Bret Taylor's journey in tech innovation includes his early days with FriendFeed, which he sold to Facebook, and later becoming the CTO at Facebook, building Quip, and selling it to Salesforce, where he became co-CEO before leaving to start Sierra (14s).
• Taylor left Salesforce due to a combination of personal, intellectual, and professional factors, including a desire to return to being an entrepreneur and take advantage of the current wave of AI technology (1m4s).
• He believes that in times of technological disruption, it's more beneficial to have a first-principles view and the agility of a startup, citing companies like Amazon, Google, and Salesforce that were started during the birth of the browser and the internet (1m49s).
• Taylor thinks that the current wave of large language models will shuffle the cards of the tech industry, making it a fun time to be an entrepreneur, but also acknowledges that his decision to leave Salesforce was personal and felt like the right time in his life (3m11s).
• If he had become the sole CEO of Salesforce, Taylor believes he would still have been all-in and committed to the company, but he still roots for the company and feels a strong connection to it (3m17s).
• Taylor considers Mark Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, one of his closest mentors and a father figure in business, and has a lot of love for the company (3m25s).
• Bret Taylor is grateful for his experiences at Google, Facebook, and Salesforce, and feels that he learned from his bosses, including Marissa Mayer, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Benioff, which helped shape him into the person he is today (3m56s).

Sandberg's Advice and Transformation at Facebook and Salesforce

• Taylor credits his success at larger firms to advice he received from Cheryl Sandberg early in his career, which helped him become a better leader (5m6s).
• Sandberg's advice was to expect more from his leaders and stop trying to do all the work himself, which made Taylor realize he needed to change his perception of his own identity to be a better leader (6m29s).
• Taylor started waking up every day and asking himself what the highest impact thing he could do to make Facebook a more successful place, which led to him having a greater impact and being happier (6m50s).
• By the time Taylor got to Salesforce, he had already gone through this transformation thanks to Sandberg's advice, and he showed up every day looking for ways to have an impact (7m29s).
• Taylor was grateful to have been acquired by Salesforce and to have had the opportunity to work with Marc Benioff, and he made a point to say yes to anything Benioff asked of him (7m38s).
• It's essential to be open to change and not be too attached to one's identity, especially for entrepreneurs, as companies go through different stages and require adaptability (7m59s).

Founding Sierra and the Current AI Wave

• After leaving Salesforce, the decision to found a new company was driven by excitement about the current wave of artificial intelligence, which has the potential to transform the way we think about software (8m32s).
• The current AI wave has made things that were previously impossible, such as summarizing and synthesizing large amounts of text, almost comically easy (9m5s).
• AI can now understand nuance, sarcasm, multiple languages, and be instantly responsive, and has reached a point where it can do some basic reasoning (9m31s).
• The company Sierra helps companies build conversational AI that can directly engage with their customers, making it possible for customers to chat with AI agents powered by a platform (9m51s).
• This technology has the potential to change the way we engage with computers and provide instant solutions to problems, eliminating the need to wait on hold (10m15s).
• The drive to innovate and be part of new technological waves is motivated by a desire to have an impact on the world and not sit on the sidelines when new technologies emerge (11m13s).
• The quote "the easiest way to predict the future is to invent it" by Alan Kay, resonates with the idea of being proactive and driving innovation (11m23s).

Joining the Board of OpenAI

• Bret Taylor joined the board of Open AI during a difficult time, after Sam Altman was fired by the board in late November last year, and he decided to step in and join the board to help mediate the situation and potentially save the organization (11m56s).
• Taylor's decision to join the board was personal, and he spent a lot of time reflecting on the amount of time it would take to help, but he realized he wouldn't be doing what he's doing now if not for Open AI (12m59s).
• Taylor believes that Open AI had a meaningful part in his story and why he was doing what he was doing, and he was in a unique position to be able to help the organization, which was potentially about to disintegrate (13m33s).
• Taylor doesn't know if Open AI would have disintegrated if he hadn't joined the board, but he made the decision with the information he had, and he doesn't regret it (13m59s).
• Since joining the board, Taylor has seen amazing new technologies come out of Open AI, and he's helped build an exceptional board for the organization (14m24s).
• The board of Open AI is quite different now from the makeup it had before, but Taylor can't say how the company has changed inside because he only knows it from when he started (14m38s).

The Nature and Mission of OpenAI

• Open AI can be thought of as a mission-driven nonprofit, a research lab, and one of the fastest-growing startups of all time, and it's probably all of those things (15m9s).
• The rapid pace of change in companies, especially during the hypergrowth stage of startups, presents both challenges and opportunities, as the company can evolve faster than individuals within it. (15m24s)
• OpenAI's mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits humanity, which involves intellectually challenging research and managing the complexities of being one of the fastest-growing companies. (15m48s)
• OpenAI operates with a nonprofit and for-profit structure, and there are ongoing discussions about the best way to pursue its mission, considering the significant compute and capital expenditures required. (16m16s)

Sierra's Funding, Focus, and Differentiation

• Sierra recently announced a $175 million funding round, achieving a $4.5 billion valuation, driven by the real value it provides to customers through AI agents that engage directly with consumers. (17m22s)
• Sierra helps consumer brands and large enterprises deploy AI agents for customer engagement, such as assisting with purchases or technical support, and works with companies like ADT to implement AI solutions. (17m51s)
• Sierra focuses on delivering tangible results for complex customers, differentiating itself in the market by not just making demonstrations but driving real outcomes. (18m52s)
• There is potential to transform how enterprise companies deploy AI to their customers, although the current number of customers is not disclosed. (19m20s)

The Future of Conversational AI and Customer Engagement

• The mission of Sierra is not to build traditional chatbots, which are often associated with limited capabilities and poor customer experiences. (19m45s)
• There is a distinction between traditional chatbots and advanced AI like ChatGPT, which is more effective and has become integrated into daily life. (20m26s)
• In the future, digital interactions are expected to be conversational, with companies investing as much in AI agents as they do in websites or mobile apps. (21m17s)
• AI can significantly reduce the cost of customer service interactions, making it more affordable for companies to engage in conversations with customers. (22m40s)
• The concept of self-service in customer interactions is evolving, with conversational AI making it cost-effective to offer phone calls and push-to-talk features, aiming to transform customer service experiences globally. (23m0s)
• The long-term vision is for companies to build branded AI agents that represent their entire customer experience across various platforms like AirPods, smart speakers, and WhatsApp. (23m30s)

The Evolving AI Market and Competitive Landscape

• The AI market is expected to develop similarly to the cloud market, with infrastructure providers like Amazon Web Services, Azure, and Google Cloud being analogous to foundational AI models. (24m9s)
• Significant capital expenditure is necessary for AI infrastructure, similar to building data centers, and companies like Scale provide tools and services for AI, akin to Snowflake and Databricks in the cloud space. (24m31s)
• There will be companies offering out-of-the-box AI solutions, similar to how Salesforce, Shopify, and Adobe provided cloud solutions, with Sierra focusing on customer experience, Cursor on software development, and Harvey on legal services. (25m2s)
• Most companies prefer buying solutions rather than technology, as the total cost of ownership for developing in-house software is higher than using software as a service, and maintaining internal software requires scarce resources like software developers. (25m47s)
• The emergence of software as a service has highlighted the benefits of buying solutions, and despite AI being a new technology, companies still seek solutions to their problems. (25m50s)
• The competitive landscape in the AI industry is likened to the software as a service market, where success depends on better products, packaging, go-to-market execution, and technology. (26m39s)
• The market is intensely competitive, with excitement around AI reminiscent of the dot-com bubble, where companies like AltaVista and Google, and buy.com and Amazon, were in competition. (26m52s)
• Success in this market involves building a strong business moat and focusing on driving success for customers. (27m8s)

Bret Taylor's Entrepreneurial History and Sierra's Future

• Bret Taylor has a history of selling companies, including FriendFeed to Facebook and Quip to Salesforce. (27m23s)
• Sierra, another company associated with Bret Taylor, will remain independent. (27m30s)