Join us as we train our neural nets on the theme of the century: AI. Sonya Huang, Pat Grady and more Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to ask critical questions and develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies—and their implications for technology, business and society.
The content of this podcast does not constitute investment advice, an offer to provide investment advisory services, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund.
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Join us as we train our neural nets on the theme of the century: AI. Sonya Huang, Pat Grady and more Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to ask critical questions and develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies—and their implications for technology, business and society.
The content of this podcast does not constitute investment advice, an offer to provide investment advisory services, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund.
Why Businesses Are Rejecting the AI They’ve Asked For: Agency CEO Elias Torres
Training Data
44 minutes
1 week ago
Why Businesses Are Rejecting the AI They’ve Asked For: Agency CEO Elias Torres
Elias Torres has been building AI systems since 1999, from chatbots at IBM to co-founding Drift and now Agency. He believes businesses are caught in an expectation mismatch—demanding AI while rejecting it due to imperfection anxiety. Drawing from his experience scaling HubSpot, Elias explains why human-led customer experience doesn’t scale and how Agency is building AI-first solutions that work autonomously. His contrarian approach focuses on the back-end customer experience rather than front-end AI SDRs, aiming to “deprogram the entire business world” from inefficient human-dependent processes.
Hosted by: Sonya Huang and Pat Grady, Sequoia Capital
Mentioned in the episode:
Lookery: David Cancel’s first startup that Elias joined after IBM; shut down in 2009
Performable: Elias and David’s second startup, acquired by HubSpot in 2011
Drift: Elias and David Cancel’s third startup, merged with Salesloft in 2024
Klaviyo: B2C CRM company started by Andrew Bialecki after working with Elias at HubSpot
Secret: Short-lived anonymous messaging app that inspired one of Drift’s early iterations
Tatajuba: Kitesurfing destination in Jericoacoara, Brazil where Elias (briefly) considered retirement
00:00 Introduction
01:50 AI and Customer Expectations
03:36 Managing Emails with AI
07:21 Elias' Personal Journey
11:27 Early Career
14:28 Joining HubSpot and Scaling Challenges
16:31 Hiring Exceptional Talent
18:53 Founding Drift
20:27 Pivoting to Success with Drift
21:41 Drift's Chatbot Innovation
22:09 Challenges and Limitations of Drift
22:37 The Struggle with Customer Knowledge
23:09 Scaling Challenges and Lessons Learned
25:58 Rediscovering Purpose Post-Drift
28:55 The Birth of Agency
29:42 AI's Role in Customer Experience
35:13 Building a Sustainable Business Model
37:06 The Vision for Agency
38:22 Challenges and Opportunities with AI
41:22 Deprogramming and Embracing Change
43:23 Optimism for the AI Future
44:15 Closing Thoughts
Training Data
Join us as we train our neural nets on the theme of the century: AI. Sonya Huang, Pat Grady and more Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to ask critical questions and develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies—and their implications for technology, business and society.
The content of this podcast does not constitute investment advice, an offer to provide investment advisory services, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund.
