Alexander Kovalov

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7/ "AI’s energy consumption is a challenge, but it’s also a tool for greater efficiency."

Lisa acknowledged that AI systems require massive energy inputs, but she believes their potential to solve problems outweighs this (for example, speed of drug development in medicine).

6/ "Competition is healthy, but collaboration drives progress."

Lisa stressed that the semiconductor industry is a space where no single company can do everything alone.

AMD collaborates with companies (ex. Intel), on shared challenges while pushing their own boundaries to lead in innovation.

5/ "Technology evolves in waves; when you reach a plateau, the next big breakthrough follows."

Lisa rejected the idea that AI is "plateauing."

She explained that innovation happens in cycles: new technologies take off, hit limitations, and inspire the next big leap.

4/ "In the next 3-5 years, we’ll see advanced chips being manufactured in the U.S."

Lisa shared that investments in U.S. chip manufacturing are 📈 , and Arizona has become a hub for some of the most advanced chip manufacturing.

AMD already seeing promising results from local production facilities.

3/ "Chips are now a matter of national security."

While there are restrictions on exporting advanced chips to China, she emphasized the importance of maintaining balance and dialogue to protect both national security and global trade opportunities.

2/ "Chips power everything you do, from your car to your smartphone and beyond."

Chips now sit at the backbone of economic systems, powering everything from home electronics to complex infrastructures.

This importance has made semiconductor supply chains a top political priority.

1/ "AI is the most transformational technology I’ve seen in my career."

Lisa Su emphasized that we’re at the very beginning of AI’s journey, describing it as a 5-10 year cycle.

Current AI systems may not always be perfect, but their ability to revolutionize industries is undeniable.

Meet Lisa Su - TIME’s CEO of the Year.

She leads AMD, the American chip-making company she brought to a $123 billion valuation.

Here are her 7 thoughts on the future of AI and the semiconductor industry🧵:

If someone calls us “just a ChatGPT wrapper,” I might smash their face🙂

But honestly, I’m confident we’ll hear that less now. The market has spoken.

I know because we’ve spent countless hours fine-tuning the model and teaching it the intricacies of marketing metrics and dimensions.

I once told my co-founder:

which is using multiple foundation models for different tasks to improve input/output, speed, and quality.

This isn’t just about wrapping ChatGPT - it’s about innovation and solving specific problems.

I built Ranalyze AI - the tool that helps to analyze your marketing data.

It’s hard work. Why?

The ChatGPT store turned out to be a nothingburger.

Meanwhile, AI tools and applications like Glean, CaseText, Harvey, Photoroom, and OpusClip crushed the market, generating tens of millions in revenue.

A trend YC now sees in its latest YC batches is multi-model orchestration, which is...

In 2024, the ChatGPT wrapper myth was officially debunked.

It’s now validated by Y Combinator.

The conventional wisdom was that anything built on top of ChatGPT was just a "GPT wrapper," and that the ChatGPT app store would obliterate startups creating their own applications.

But guess what?

That was a Zapier’s playbook for scaling that you can repeat.

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9/ Do Not Afraid To Stand Out

Wade Foster emphasized embracing their quirks and avoiding the temptation to conform.

Using playful plan names like "Amps, Volts, and Ohms" reflected their distinct personality and captured user attention and helped them stand out in a competitive SaaS market.

8/ Focus on Repeatable Growth

To ensure scalable growth, the team built mechanisms like programmatic SEO and app directories.

Their search-driven approach allowed them to capture customers searching for integrations like "PayPal to Salesforce."

7/ Experiment with Pricing

They experimented with pricing models to balance affordability and value.

For example, the initial pricing model was based on the Fibonacci sequence ($1, $23, $58), which was unconventional but attention-grabbing.

6/ Scale Customer Acquisition

Zapier invested in content marketing, creating an app directory and educational resources to improve SEO and attract users searching for integrations.

Partnerships with SaaS vendors also provided exposure and drive traffic to their website.

5/ Start Lean and Agile

In the early days, the founders managed all aspects of the business, including customer support, marketing, and product development.

Their first hire was a customer support representative to free up time for product improvements.

4/ Engage with Communities

The team actively participated in online forums where potential users were discussing integration needs.

By engaging with these communities, they found early customers who were eager for solutions.

3/ Focus on Product-Led Growth (PLG)

Zapier leveraged a self-serve model, allowing users to sign up and use the product without interacting with a salesperson.

This approach resonated with their target audience - users of SaaS tools like MailChimp and Dropbox.

2/ Launch Early and Iterate

The team embraced a "launch early and often" approach, valuing real-world feedback over perfection.

Early iterations of Zapier were far from polished but functional enough to solve customer problems.

1/ Obsess Over the Customer Experience

Zapier's success heavily relied on its commitment to improving the user experience for non-technical users.

Wade Foster personally onboarded dozens of customers, noting their struggles and relaying the issues back to the engineering team for improvements.

Wade Foster scaled Zapier to a $5 billion valuation in just 3 years.

His approach? Obsess over customers, launch early, and keep things weird.

Here are 9 lessons from Zapier’s journey that every startup founder needs to know:🧵👇

Hi @skpodila.bsky.social
Can you please add me to your list?

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These 5 principles rule my team meetings:

✅ Never Have a Meeting Without an Agenda
✅ Send Me Your Numbers Upfront
✅ Cut the BS - Get Straight to the Issues
✅ Appoint a Meeting Host
✅ Follow Up with a Meeting Summary and To-Do List

Time is money - stop wasting both with unproductive meetings.

Additionally, the Host can assign tasks in Asana to ensure accountability and follow-through.

This ensures that nothing discussed in the meeting is lost and everyone knows their responsibilities moving forward.

The Host is responsible for sending all participants a summary of the meeting’s main points and a clear next-steps or to-do list.

This Meeting Memo is documented in Google Docs, saved, and accessible to the entire team.

5/ Follow Up with a Meeting Summary and To-Do List

The minute a meeting ends, people move on and forget half of what was discussed.

Not on my team.