A self-proclaimed sci-fi enthusiast, Victor Riparbelli is drawn to the exciting frontiers of #technology. His work began with website development and evolved into a passion for company building. Eventually, he found his place in the European startup ecosystem as Synthesia's Co-Founder and CEO, where he has had a lasting impact.

After a year of exploring VR, AR, and #AI startup ideas, he crossed paths with Professor Matthias Niessner. Niessner’s influential research on AI video generation at Stanford captivated Victor. When he saw the research paper for the first time, he knew he wanted to focus on exploring its concepts.

“I just felt like I saw magic. It's rare you get those moments in life. A lot of people had that with #chatgpt when you try it, you're mind blown. I had that moment. I saw the technology and realized this is going to change everything we know about media production.” - Victor Riparbelli

The company they went on to build, Synthesia, is now the leading #AI text-to-video platform for the enterprise. We first met Victor Riparbelli and the Synthesia team in 2021, and our team at Accel has watched them push the boundaries of what’s achievable with generative AI.

Even when they launched in 2018, when the term #generativeai was relatively unused, Synthesia had embraced the technology, referring to it as synthetic media. Despite their progress, Victor feels they’re only 5% into the roadmap of what’s coming at Synthesia, let alone the AI video ecosystem. There are entire scenes, interactive avatars, and enhanced movement, all to come.

The visionary nature of Victor and his co-founders is clear. They've come remarkably close to predicting precise developments across the AI industry, including the fact that text-to-video would materialize around 2023, and full Hollywood-style filmmaking would be done with AI by 2028 – both of which are well underway.

In conversation with Accel’s Philippe Botteri, Victor explores Synthesia’s journey and breaks down his predictions for the future of artificial intelligence. The discussion extends to offer guidance for founders on product development, fundraising, AI research, and navigating regulatory shifts. Listeners will hear why, unlike many other founders, Victor remains unsurprised by the swift transformations taking place in the landscape.

#vc #venturecapital #founder #entrepreneurs #tech #CEO #technology #AI #chatgpt #generativeai

Access the episode on Spotlight On: https://www.accel.com/spotlighton/syn...

Season 1:
Season 1 focuses on AI. In this season, we’re bringing together a range of company leaders across different industries and stages to discuss how they’re navigating the current AI revolution. Learn from 12 leaders applying AI in all parts of the ecosystem. They have enabled new industries and profoundly influenced productivity, creativity, and the global economy. Several founders of AI-native companies we spoke to, such as  @AssemblyAI ,  @ironcladapp ,  @Scale_AI , and  @synthesia-io  embarked on their AI journey years before the current cycle. They were the crazy ones, the early visionaries, the risk-takers, who patiently built early AI products.

Spotlight On:
Spotlight On examines the technology shaping our world. Highlighting a new topic each season, company builders at all stages of company growth will share their learnings, challenges, and breakthroughs.

Accel:
Accel is a global venture capital firm that is the first partner to exceptional teams everywhere, from inception through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Bumble, CrowdStrike, Fiverr, Flipkart, Freshworks, Qualtrics, Scale, Segment, Slack, Spotify, Squarespace, Tenable, and UiPath are among the companies Accel has backed over the past 40+ years. We help ambitious entrepreneurs build iconic global businesses.

Host: Philippe Botteri, Partner at Accel
Guest: Victor Riparbelli, Co-Founder and CEO of Synthesia

Conversation Highlights:
00:00 - Synthesia’s founding story and Victor’s belief in the radical impact of #artificialintelligence on video
05:00 - The hard work that went into building a founding team and raising initial funding from #markcuban
13:00 - Org structures of powerful AI companies; balancing science, research, and development
19:40 - Victor’s predictions for the future of #videoavatars and #multimodal intelligence
34:00 - How Synthesia’s team built a great #gotomarket engine through virality
39:00 - How founders and creators can harness #AI’s benefits and reduce its harms
42:00 - The challenges and implications of AI regulation and legislation

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Synthesia’s Victor Riparbelli | Gain AI Benefits & Reduce Harms | Spotlight On: AI | S1E7 | AccelVC
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