The first step is to spend time with the industry, understanding their priorities and incentives. This can be tricky; sometimes you might even be starstruck. We had the honor of working with Jared on his incredible work, learning what's important and where AI can be effectively used in the production process, and where it's best to maintain human involvement. This is a crucial thesis for all partnerships in this space. In our case, we focused on the voice space, considering how voice acting will evolve with technology. To cater to diverse use cases, you need a vast array of voices, languages, accents, and styles. We launched Voice Marketplace, allowing users to create and share their voices, earning money in return. Today, we have almost 10,000 voices and have paid $10 million back to our community.

Larry Page, engrossed in his BlackBerry, didn't even look up. He simply asked, "But what did Chris say that wasn't true?" It was clear my departure was already decided. He pressed, "I'm serious, tell me what Chris said that wasn't true." After a silence, he continued, "They are inserting themselves between us and our users. We've never stood for that. Everything we do is to prevent Internet Explorer from resetting your search default, ensuring a direct relationship with our users. Similarly, with Firefox, we ensure users have a choice and can always come to us, winning on the merits of our product. That's everything we do." He concluded, "So tell me what's wrong with what he said? It may upset people because it's true."

Somebody asked, so what do all your most successful founders have in common? And I was trying to find a thread. It wasn't how they grew up. There's no doubt that immigrant kids, just the things they overcome to get here and build stuff, their hustle, their desire, their focus is insurmountable. People who grew up with single parents have that same fire, that same adaptability and resilience. They've taken on responsibility in such an early age. Like, it's some. You can't deny that they're disproportionate representation within successful entrepreneurial roles or at these companies. But I kept looking, I'm like, are they scientists? Are they computer scientists? Did they have a hustle? A lot of them did, but not all of them. But the single thing I found among every one of our most successful founders is not only did they not prepare for the downside case, it just wasn't one of the options in the math.