Why this VC bet on $3 billion AI firm ElevenLabs after one meeting with the founder

The angel capitalist who backed a billion-dollar AI startup erstwhile it was inactive successful its infancy said helium decided to put successful the institution aft conscionable 30 minutes of gathering 1 of its founders.

Carles Reina archetypal decided to put successful AI dependable startup Eleven Labs successful 2022, erstwhile helium was a task spouse astatine pre-seed money Concept Ventures.

Co-founded successful 2022 by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski, Eleven Labs specializes successful precocious text-to-speech and dependable cloning technology. In its January Series C backing circular earlier this year, the institution raised $180 cardinal astatine a valuation of $3.3 billion.

Then successful September, the institution announced it was letting employees merchantability shares astatine a $6.6 cardinal valuation.

However, earlier Eleven Labs adjacent had a factual product, Reina, who was moving astatine Palantir Technologies astatine the time, decided to instrumentality a accidental connected the steadfast aft gathering Staniszewski.

"I met Mati erstwhile helium was inactive astatine Palantir," Reina told CNBC Make It successful an interview. "We started talking, and wrong 30 minutes of the archetypal conversation, I told him, 'How overmuch wealth bash you want?'"

Reina explained that earlier the motorboat of ChatGPT, dependable AI hadn't garnered overmuch attraction due to the fact that large tech companies similar Google, Amazon, and Microsoft each had text-to-speech products, but they hadn't truly taken off.

"With ElevenLabs nary 1 was looking astatine dependable AI, virtually nary 1 wanted to springiness [them] money. No VCs wanted to really backmost ElevenLabs, backmost successful the aboriginal days connected the pre-seed round. So those are the benignant of industries that I truly like, truthful that I tin get successful earlier everyone else," helium said.

Reina has made 74 angel investments implicit the past 8 years, including Revolut, Volumetric, Elroy Air, and Speckle. He present works for Eleven Labs arsenic a go-to-market manager.

He said helium ever tries to place industries that different investors are not paying attraction to: "I've done [invested in] mostly AI earlier it was sexy. I've done robotics earlier it was sexy arsenic well."

Reina specializes successful investing successful pre-seed companies — those with an idea, but often without a afloat developed product. This means identifying cardinal traits successful founders that bespeak a startup volition succeed.

"If determination is simply a product, fantastic, but if determination is nary product, perfectly good for maine … I emotion founders that are precise technical. They're ace sharp,  very smart, virtually trying to physique a planetary institution from time one," Reina explained.

He said helium "invests based connected thesis," truthful if a laminitis is precise technical, they'll person a deeper knowing of the merchandise and the marketplace they're selling to.

Reina said helium saw these traits successful Staniszewksi, which convinced him to backmost ElevenLabs contempt the dependable AI marketplace being precise tiny astatine the time.

"No 1 wants to speech to AI voices if they dependable robotic. That's fundamentally the biggest occupation that determination was right… truthful erstwhile I spoke with Mati, helium talked astir some elements, and helium had not been successful the market," Reina said.

"It was truly absorbing to spot helium was reasoning astir the problems of the full ecosystem earlier adjacent really having immoderate merchandise oregon earlier adjacent really talking to immoderate existent imaginable customer."

Staniszewski had a inheritance successful mathematics with a first-class honors grade from Imperial College London. His imaginativeness and method expertise sold Reina, and ElevenLabs became 1 of the fewer startups that helium decided to backmost "literally wrong little than an hour."

Now, Eleven Labs is readying a planetary expansion, including gathering caller hubs successful Paris, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico, arsenic good arsenic getting the institution acceptable for IPO wrong the adjacent 5 years, Staniszewski told CNBC successful July.