Congrats to @ConveoAI (S24) on their $50M Series A! Their AI interviewer holds in-depth video conversations with thousands of real consumers, so brands learn in days what used to take months. Consumer research has always forced a choice: surveys reach lots of people but stay shallow, while focus groups go deep but are slow and expensive. Conveo removes that tradeoff, and more than 400 enterprises now use it, including 50+ Fortune 500 brands like Google, Unilever, and Canva.

Outset (YC W23) is building an AI customer research platform used by companies like Google, Microsoft, and Nestlé. Its AI interviewers have now conducted millions of conversations, giving companies the scale and speed of a survey with the depth of a one-on-one interview. In this founder fireside, @OutsetAI co-founder and CEO @AaronLCannon sits down with YC's @harjtaggar to talk about building a product before the market was ready for it, how they helped create the category of AI-moderated research, and what comes next. Aaron shares how they're expanding beyond interviews with Outset's new Simulations Lab and Digital Twins, which let companies simulate their customers and get feedback on everything from messaging and pricing to new products. 00:24 — What Outset Does 01:18 — Building a Category Before the Market Was Ready 06:31 — Landing the First Enterprise Customer 08:14 — How Better AI Models Changed the Product 12:57 — When the Market Finally Caught Up 14:45 — From AI Interviews to Customer Simulations 19:40 — Aaron’s Path to Becoming a Founder