TNAI: LangChain's Harrison Chase share lessons from building in open-source

Jan 20, 2024

In this captivating discussion, we are privileged to host Chroma's Anton Troynikov, Unstructured.io's Brian Raymond, and Langchain's Harrison Chase.

They talked about each company's north star metric, the importance of growth versus revenue when building a company around an open-source project, working weekends, the best advice they've ever gotten, the worst advice they've ever gotten, whether we need government regulation in AI, how similar founder life is to life on Silicon Valley the TV show, the future of open-source, each founder's role models, and more. Here are some of our takeaways:

This event is brought to you by @OutsetCap and @imbue_ai. Special thanks to WndrCo for sponsoring our event series!

On value creation over revenue generation:

Brian: "We want to build something that would deliver success...the only moat that we're going to build is product Market fit."

Harrison: "We're really in it to provide value... to be able to generate some real revenue, you've got to provide something of real value to people."

Anton: "I think the question of Revenue...the real question here is about value creation...to validate whether the thing you're building has value or not."

On the nature of AI development:

Brian: "There's been a lot of experimentation...a lot of failure and a lot of learning...how we can get these things into production."

Harrison: "You need to think creatively... There's a lot of shortcomings of LLMs but they're also good so if you can communicate that well...then maybe it's acceptable."

Anton: "The responsibility...is to get as much stuff out of your way as developers...enabling experimentation is really the number one thing that we can do."

On the attributes of great founders:

Brian: "Great founders don't just chase tech; they hunt for market gaps. It's a tightrope act between customer needs and real-world know-how. Leading a startup isn't just hard work; it's about sparking innovation in the face of competition."

Harrison: "Having a good sense of product, storytelling, and design is crucial. It's what I enjoy doing and essential for understanding and empathizing with users."

Anton: "Truly exceptional founders are driven by a unique vision that transcends ordinary ambitions. Their unwavering dedication to their vision sets them apart, fueled by a passion that surpasses conventional limits. It's this unparalleled commitment that propels them to greatness in a sea of mediocrity."

Brian Raymond: @_Brian_Raymond
Harrison Chase: @hwchase17
Anton Troynikov: @atroyn
Ali Rohde: @RohdeAli