Des Traynor on reinventing Intercom twice and the “four horsemen” of good AI companies
Des Traynor, cofounder of Intercom, sits down for a Cheeky Pint with John Collison to discuss the growth of Fin (Intercom’s AI customer service agent), why selling AI products is hard, advice for product marketers, and cofounder dynamics.Full transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/des-traynor-on-reinventing-intercomTimestamps: (00:00) Intro(02:58) Reinventing Intercom(06:31) Fin(18:06) 1M resolutions a week(24:22) Selling AI(29:34) Product marketing(37:18) Listening to users(44:14) Usage-based billing(45:14) Advice for startups(52:09) AI pricing(01:07:27) Cofounder dynamics(01:11:04) Predictors of company success(01:15:56) How AI-native is Intercom?
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Ambrook CEO Mackenzie Burnett on American agriculture, rural resilience, and carrying 50lbs of fresh pork on Amtrak
Mackenzie Burnett joins John Collison to talk about American agriculture, labor and immigration challenges, building rural resilience, ERPs, and the principle of money movement. She also shares some feedback for Stripe. Show notes:Where Soil is Holy, and Climate Change Is Seldom MentionedFarming goes digitalThe End of Accounting and the Path Forward for Investors and Managers Full transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/ambrook-ceo-mackenzie-burnett-on Timestamps:(00:00) Introducing Ambrook(05:37) Serving farmers(19:25) Building rural resilience(21:49) The economics of ag(28:03) If Mackenzie ran the USDA(30:53) Vertical SaaS(34:49) The wonders of accounting(38:41) Ambrook-as-fintech(44:00) If Mackenzie ran Stripe(50:53) Joshua Kushner and Dylan Field
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Zipline CEO Keller Cliffton on air-dropping blood to Rwandan hospitals and getting to 50,000 aircraft per year
Keller Cliffton joins John Collison to talk about Zipline’s journey to 115 million miles flown, the lost art of American airplanes, building 50k drones a year in California, getting to 99.9% reliability, and US vs. Chinese manufacturing. Books referenced:The Right Stuff by Tom WolfeSkunk Works by Ben RichApple in China by Patrick McGeeTimestamps(00:00) Intro(00:45) 115 million miles flown(04:10) Why drone delivery took so long(07:38) Getting started in Rwanda(13:31) 51% reduction in maternal mortality(15:33) Access vs. waste(21:45) Scaling globally(24:05) Zipline’s Platform 1 (25:50) The Right Stuff(27:22) Drone design and safety(30:12) Getting to 99.9% reliability(34:39) Multimodal logistics(38:15) Zipline’s Platform 2(44:03) US drone regs and the FAA(48:02) Progress and stagnation in US aviation(51:30) If Keller ran the FAA(54:24) 30% WoW growth in Texas(58:25) Why Texas and not California?(01:00:28) Building 50k drones in California(01:06:18) US vs. Chinese manufacturing(01:11:30) Advice for hardtech founders
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Cognition CEO Scott Wu on acquiring Windsurf, AI replacing engineers, and the Moneyball-ification of everything
Scott Wu joins John Collison to talk about Cognition’s AI software engineer, the Moneyball-ification of everything, math competitions with Alexandr Wang in 6th grade, acquiring Windsurf over a weekend, whether coding tools will be replaced by the labs, and why he thinks we already have AGI.Full transcript on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/cheekypint/p/cognition-ceo-scott-wu-on-acquiringTimestamps(00:00) Intro(01:13) Early life and maths competitions(03:47) Addepar job as a high schooler(05:43) Where are all the young founders?(08:45) Moneyball-ification of everything(11:42) Cognition’s AI software engineer, Devin(15:46) Essential and accidental complexity(17:59) How Devin works with enterprises(19:48) IDE productivity(21:56) Nihilist computer use argument (25:55) Benchmarking Devin (27:15) Market structure (30:32) Agent economy(37:21) Cognition’s team of founders(39:31) Jevons paradox and software (42:00) When will we see AI UIs?(45:52) “I think we have AGI”(47:03) Windsurf deal(52:37) M&A in AI(54:21) Cognition’s culture (55:48) Learning as a CEO(57:12) Scott’s information diet
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57:53
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on bitcoin going to $1 million, electing a pro-crypto Congress, and Jamie Dimon
Brian Armstrong joins John Collison to talk about what’s happening behind the scenes at Coinbase: battling North Korean hackers, war stories from early scaling, confronting people who won’t use AI to code, Coinbase becoming people’s primary financial account, and why banks are now embracing crypto.Full episode transcript on Substackhttps://cheekypint.substack.com/p/coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-on-bitcoinTimestamps(00:00) Intro(01:14) How Coinbase won the exchange market(06:22) Losing money on every bitcoin purchase(10:54) North Korean hackers(14:54) The Everything Exchange(17:39) Crypto will be bigger than gold(19:22) Stablecoin adoption(23:28) Jamie Dimon and big banks on crypto(26:44) Coinbase as your primary financial account(27:53) Neobanks(29:41) Bitcoin going to $1 million(33:16) Crypto in an investment portfolio(34:43) GENIUS Act(37:10) Electing a pro-crypto Congress(45:24) Reforming accredited investor rules(48:33) Squashing scams(50:11) Bitcoin preserving the American experiment(57:09) Balaji Srinivasan(01:01:05) The mission-first company announcement(01:05:50) How does Coinbase focus?(01:07:44) Venture bets and Brian vetoing USDC(01:12:02) Brian’s AI coding mandate(01:15:13) Advice for Stripe
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