AI startup admits they were a hammer looking for a nail
“And I think that's the point where, you know, as we started Polya just with technology, we're much like a classic, like, university spin out, a hammer looking for a nail.”
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you know, on the one hand, we had this, like, revolution in deep learning. And to this date, like, AI models are outpacing what we see in the real world. Right? And I think that's the point where, you know, as we started Polya just with technology, we're much like a classic, like, university spin out, a hammer looking for a nail. Right? We're like, okay. Like, 2% of the British population works in contact centers, 2% of American population. That's just, like, in country. There's a lot of offshoring, probably as much. So you look at all that and select attrition in contact centers is huge. And then people were fantasizing about how, like, website chatbots were gonna automate all that, and young people don't wanna call. They're all squirming in their basements too afraid to pick up the phone. Now we didn't really believe in us. We're like, okay. The only way you're gonna meet this demand is
About this clip
Poly AI's founder explains how they started as a classic university spinout with impressive AI technology but no clear problem to solve. He discusses identifying the massive contact center market opportunity, where 2% of the population works but traditional chatbot solutions have failed to deliver.
Why this clip
Raw honesty about the classic tech startup problem of having great technology but struggling to find the right market application.
What they said next
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