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Kustomer is on a mission to #EndBadService!

I recently sat down with DeepL CEO Jaroslaw (Jarek) Kutylowski on Unsupervised Learning. DeepL is an AI translation platform that most recently raised at a $2B valuation and supports over 100,000 businesses worldwide. Jarek shared a ton of insights on the past, present, and future of AI translation. Here were some standout moments: 🤖 Large Models vs. Specialized Models Jarek emphasized that while large language models grab attention, DeepL's focus on specialized, high-quality translation for business use cases has allowed them to thrive. "Smarter models with better architecture" are key, not just brute force scaling. 🗣️ The Promise of Synchronous Speech Translation One area Jarek is particularly excited about is the potential for real-time, seamless speech translation to revolutionize global communication. Though significant technical challenges remain, this could someday be like Star Trek’s Universal Translator -- always on and ready to work. 🌍 Preserving Linguistic Diversity in the AI Era "I think the world, through the fact that we're getting better and better translation capabilities, might actually go more and more into a mode where local languages are going to become more and more important." Ubiquitous translation, in other words, could paradoxically increase the value of local languages, as people seek to maintain cultural identity and connections in a globalized world. 💻 Building an AI-Powered Data Center As a pioneer in the space, DeepL has had to construct much of their infrastructure in-house. Jarek shared insights on the trade-offs of operating their own data centers versus leveraging cloud providers - a dilemma many AI companies face. 📊 The Art and Science of Data Labeling A key part of DeepL's high-quality data labeling is their ability to closely monitor and manage the individual annotators working on their tasks. By keeping a tight feedback loop with their annotators, DeepL can quickly identify and address any dips in quality, ensuring the data they use to train their models meets the high bar required for their specialized translation use cases. 🏆 How DeepL Beat the Giants "Competition is good. It really creates the best outcome for the user." Jarek explained how DeepL's rivalry with industry leaders like Google Translate drove them to be "fast to the market" with innovative solutions, leveraging deep in-house expertise and a relentless sense of urgency. Check out the full episode if you're interested in the cutting edge of AI and language tech, and the future of translation. YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dvGwviSF Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3NJrs3u Apple: https://apple.co/4f3reju

🚀 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿 - 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗴𝗮𝗶 𝗩𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗿 No need for specialized tools or vector databases—pgai Vectorizer lets you create, sync, and manage embeddings with just one SQL command. 🔹 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀: Build, store, and sync embeddings alongside your relational data—no extra infrastructure needed. 🔹 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗰, 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: Keep embeddings fresh as your data changes. Test models instantly. 🔹 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀: Everything you need—embeddings, model access, and AI workflows—all with the SQL you already know. #Postgres #pgaiVectorizer #Postgres #Data #AI #SQL #DevTools #AIDevelopment #PostgresExtensions #AIinSQL

Evan Goldberg has been leading NetSuite for 26 years and counting. In my latest conversation, Evan reflects on the journey of building NetSuite—from launching it with Larry Ellison’s support to scaling through its IPO, and eventually being acquired by Oracle for $9.3B. He shares his leadership philosophies around humor and empathy, lessons learned from Larry Ellison and Marc Benioff, and why he still feels passionate about the business after all these years. A few takeaways for maintaining motivation and durability for the long haul… → Evan’s #1 factor for management success Evan believes empathy is the #1 factor in both effective management and building products that genuinely serve customers. It can only come from truly listening, so leaders need to ask open-ended questions and give people space to share natural thoughts. In his 1:1 meetings, Evan often surprises people by asking how they’re feeling about life in general and their role at work. These unexpected conversations help uncover potential issues early and keep him connected to how his team feels about their work and the company. → Change comes during a crisis When business is booming, there’s little time for reflection. But when things slow down due to challenges like economic downturns, that’s when real opportunities for change arise. The saying "never let a crisis go to waste" applies here—smart adjustments made in tough times often lead to lasting improvements. Looking back, many of the changes NetSuite made during crises became essential to their long-term success. For example, during the 2008-09 financial crisis, Evan had a lightbulb moment about the value of focusing on existing customers. While it always feels tempting to chase new customers, partnering closely with existing customers can be just as, if not more, valuable (even for startups). NetSuite customers were looking for ways to cut costs during the crisis, and NetSuite adapted by creating an entire organization focused on account management to maximize value for existing customers. The team continues to be important today. → Humor as a management tool To Evan, humor is a huge part of NetSuite’s culture, and he believes in having fun, humorous experiences, no matter how hard you're working. He focuses on hiring people you'd genuinely enjoy spending time with and can laugh alongside. At NetSuite, they've embraced quirky details like their mascot, Sweet Stanley, and fun office decor like "Sweeties" cereal boxes. For Evan, if there's no room for humor, work becomes soul-sucking. Injecting fun into the workplace has helped maintain energy in hard work, and it repels those who don’t want to have a good time. Full episode: https://lnkd.in/ecnbvyNb

Great vibes at our ClickHouse & Omni Data Leader Happy Hour! 🎉 Thanks to everyone who joined us and made it a fantastic evening!

On the latest Vital Signs, Nikhil Krishnan and I sat down with Parth Mehrotra, CEO of Privia Health. Privia is a physician enablement platform and >$2B public company partnering with 4500+ providers on practice improvement and value-based care. We talk about the most important ways to manage risk, building effective physician enablement solutions, the future of value-based care programs & contracts, and more. Some highlights: 🏥 Capabilities practices need to participate in risk-based contracts Parth highlights 3 sets of capabilities:  1. Diversification of risk. This can range from pooling the risk with other providers to hedging risk across multiple programs.  2. Audit, compliance, controls and documentation 3. A tech stack and data that allows the provider to understand their patient population and care for them throughout the entire care workflow (e.g., identifying the patient’s relevant conditions, closing care gaps, caring for the patient after the visit). 🏥 The types of providers partnering with Privia Parth explains that physicians have 4 general settings in which to practice medicine: 1. Being employed by a hospital or a clinic. 2. Starting their own practice or joining another independent practice. 3. An independent practice that partners with another entity to help with business operations. 4. Selling the practice and having the new owner transform it. He notes that practices that join Privia are self-selecting: these physicians want to stay independent but need another player to help throughout the entirety of the practice. 🏥 How physician enablement companies influence practices Parth is a strong believer that physician enablement companies don’t need to buy practices in order to influence outcomes. Rather, companies can achieve better outcomes by giving physicians more autonomy. Improved performance is driven by the combination of 1) giving physicians the tools to manage everything outside of direct patient care and 2) maintaining incentives for physicians to want the practice to succeed. A must-listen for anyone looking to understand the physician enablement landscape and how providers can take on risk. Check out the full episode below: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Ulb7FL Apple: https://apple.co/4dQwS7i

On the latest Vital Signs, Nikhil Krishnan and I sat down with Parth Mehrotra, CEO of Privia Health. Privia is a physician enablement platform and >$2B public company partnering with 4500+ providers on practice improvement and value-based care. We talk about the most important ways to manage risk, building effective physician enablement solutions, the future of value-based care programs & contracts, and more. Some highlights: 🏥 Capabilities practices need to participate in risk-based contracts Parth highlights 3 sets of capabilities:  1. Diversification of risk. This can range from pooling the risk with other providers to hedging risk across multiple programs.  2. Audit, compliance, controls and documentation 3. A tech stack and data that allows the provider to understand their patient population and care for them throughout the entire care workflow (e.g., identifying the patient’s relevant conditions, closing care gaps, caring for the patient after the visit). 🏥 The types of providers partnering with Privia Parth explains that physicians have 4 general settings in which to practice medicine: 1. Being employed by a hospital or a clinic. 2. Starting their own practice or joining another independent practice. 3. An independent practice that partners with another entity to help with business operations. 4. Selling the practice and having the new owner transform it. He notes that practices that join Privia are self-selecting: these physicians want to stay independent but need another player to help throughout the entirety of the practice. 🏥 How physician enablement companies influence practices Parth is a strong believer that physician enablement companies don’t need to buy practices in order to influence outcomes. Rather, companies can achieve better outcomes by giving physicians more autonomy. Improved performance is driven by the combination of 1) giving physicians the tools to manage everything outside of direct patient care and 2) maintaining incentives for physicians to want the practice to succeed. A must-listen for anyone looking to understand the physician enablement landscape and how providers can take on risk. Check out the full episode below: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Ulb7FL Apple: https://apple.co/4dQwS7i

A super interesting prediction from HeyGen CEO Joshua Xu about how AI-generated content presents a dilemma to social platforms like TikTok and Snap:

We had Joshua X., co-founder and CEO of HeyGen on Unsupervised Learning. HeyGen is the fast-growing AI video creation platform that serves over 40,000 customers and is generating $35M+ in revenue. Here are some of my favorite highlights from our conversation: 👬 Video orchestra Joshua shared a compelling vision for the future of AI-powered video creation. He believes a key difference between HeyGen and text-to-video platforms is that HeyGen aims to reinvent the entire video creation workflow -- from scripting to editing to final output. He says HeyGen can eventually serve as an engine orchestrating the full video production process using generative AI. 🤳 Tiktok and Snap’s Dilemma A really insightful moment was asking Joshua about the dilemma platforms like TikTok and Snap will face as AI-generated video content explodes. Their recommendation algorithms are optimized for creators using smartphone cameras, but Joshua says HeyGen “wants to make the camera obsolete.” These platforms are going to have to decide how to balance an explosion in AI content with their creator-driven business models, and very soon. 🔮 Creative director in your pocket Joshua also discussed the potential for brand personalization, envisioning a future where everyone has their own "video agency in their pocket" to create customized content. He thinks that customers will be able to feed a website URL or past brand video into HeyGen, and the AI “will learn the color, tone, style. . .and it can bake all this into the final product.” 🔏 Trust & Safety is critical Joshua knows that working with avatars and videos of real people could be an avenue for abuse. HeyGen has robust measures in place around avatar creation and voice generation. For example, real people have to upload a consent video before HeyGen will use their likeness, and their system uses rapidly expiring passcodes to be sure the person uploading the consent is the one in the video. “Every time we roll out a new AI capability, we always have a chat about trust and safety. And we ask, ‘How would we design the product differently if we want to make sure this capability is being used in the right way?’” 🥸 Making a Great Avatar Ultimately, Joshua believes the key to compelling AI avatars is “capturing human expression,” from facial movements to body language. This level of realism is crucial for viewers to really engage with a video -- but getting the AI to capture all those details like eyebrow movement, head tilts, mouth shape, and other motions, is really hard. For anyone who is interested in the future of video, creative tools, and AI-first companies, this podcast is a must-listen: YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eFQbx2cK Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4eIDDJx Apple: https://apple.co/4eKQJG8

On this week’s Vital Signs, Nikhil Krishnan and I sat down with Bryony Winn, President at Carelon Health. Carelon Health is the diversified services business within Elevance Health, serving 1 in 3 Americans through advanced primary care, behavioral health, specialty enablement, and whole health solutions. We discuss what's top of mind for payers today, making value-based care work, creating effective provider partnerships, and more. Some highlights: ⚡ What startups stand out to her Bryony outlines 4 things that she pays attention to with startups: 1) Founders with clinical/scientific expertise who are using that to drive results. 2) Solutions that can practically plug in to existing operations. 3) Founders who are honest about their competitors. 4) Founders who show humility and understand there’s a lot to learn from the payers they partner with. ⚡ Succeeding in Value Based Care Bryony is a firm believer that downside risk is crucial to VBC. Elevance’s approach to VBC has 3 components: contract, collaborate, and connect. Beyond the details around attribution and benchmarks, they think a lot about better sharing of lessons learned on best practices as well as connecting the dots on trends that are out of providers’ control. Lastly, Bryony emphasizes that focus yields results – players for whom VBC is only a small part of their business won’t appropriately focus on it. ⚡ What’s happening with commercial payers Bryony makes 5 key points: 1) It’s a shame that employers have had to become experts on healthcare. 2) The day of point solutions is now over, and integration is the new name of the game. 3) Employers are excited about value-based care, but they don’t want to be responsible for the specific details of it. 4) Employers work to support their employee base, so many of their worries are fundamentally human worries, such as mental health, caring for aging parents, and caring for young children. 5) While much innovation has been driven by commercial in the past, there’s currently a pivot where more innovation is starting in Medicaid and expanding from there. ⚡ Payor focus areas and provider collaboration Bryony explains how payers want to be both better business and clinical partners to providers. She highlights how bi-directional data sharing with providers results in greater alignment in care decisions and thus fewer denials and overturns. On the clinical side, payers have a more longitudinal and broader view of patients’ social needs as a result of their large datasets, which should complement the proximal view of patients that individual clinicians have. Lots of great learnings from the payer perspective in this one! Listen to our full episode below: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4gT4oN7 Apple: https://apple.co/3YgcpnV