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ElevenLabs CEO: Why Voice is the Next AI Interface

ElevenLabs CEO and co‑founder Mati Staniszewski joins Jennifer Li to explain how the team ships research‑grade AI at lightning speed—from text‑to‑speech and fully licensed AI music to real‑time voice agents, and why voice is the next interface for human‑computer interaction. He shares the small, autonomous team model, global hiring approach, and how the Voice Marketplace has paid creators over $10M while evolving into an enterprise platform. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:20 Lucky Number Eleven 02:50 Early Research and Product Work with Piotr 03:35 Shipping quickly with small, high ownership independent teams 04:40 Balancing research and product launches 06:50 A Remote-first approach: Meeting talent where they are 10:01 US vs Europe work cultures 10:40 Removing titles and flat leadership layers 13:35 The creative industry’s adoption of AI 15:10 The Voice Marketplace: Empowering creators to earn 16:43 Challenges in licensing and 18-month negotiation process 18:05 Hiring in complex domains 19:10 Finding risk-tolerant talent 20:45 Transitioning from creator-first to enterprise adoption 21:48 Lessons from hiring the first salespeople 23:34 Scaling orchestration, long sales cycles and cultural adjustments 26:22 Customer choice in adopting early features 27:55 Phases of company growth: product, sales, scaling 30:06 Turning down licensing to a competitor Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, please like the video and share it with a friend. And if you want more like this, subscribe to our channel for updates on new releases. Resources: Follow Mati on X: https://x.com/matistanis Follow Jennifer on X: https://x.com/JenniferHli Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

Mati StaniszewskiguestJennifer Lihost
Nov 3, 202531mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

ElevenLabs CEO on voice AI, teams, enterprise, and licensing

  1. ElevenLabs sustains fast, high-quality shipping by running many small, high-ownership product teams alongside a strong research core led by its cofounder.
  2. The company balances research versus product pragmatism by shipping product “gap fixes” when research breakthroughs are unlikely within roughly three months.
  3. A remote-first talent strategy (with regional hubs) helps ElevenLabs hire exceptional and non-traditional candidates globally, while maintaining culture through in-person immersion where needed.
  4. To reduce creative-industry resistance, ElevenLabs built creator-aligned economics via a Voice Marketplace and pursued fully licensed music generation through lengthy label negotiations.
  5. As ElevenLabs moves from creator-first PLG to enterprise adoption, it is building orchestration, integrations, reliability, and governance—while adapting culture and incentives for long sales cycles.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Use small, independent teams to keep shipping speed high.

ElevenLabs runs ~20 product teams of 5–10 people with high autonomy and ownership, accepting some duplication as the cost of moving quickly.

Set a time threshold for when product should patch what research can’t.

They avoided “UI sliders” in favor of solving problems at the model level, but adopted a rule of thumb: if research will take >3 months, ship a product workaround now.

Remote-first can be a competitive advantage if paired with intentional hubs.

They hired globally (including non-traditional backgrounds) and later added hubs (London/Warsaw/SF) to help new or early-career hires absorb context and culture.

Flattening hierarchy works, but requires strong cross-team ‘leads’ and focus control.

ElevenLabs removed titles and kept few leadership layers; to avoid distraction from radical transparency, they limit broad Slack exposure so teams maintain attention.

Creator-aligned monetization can turn AI skepticism into participation.

The Voice Marketplace lets users create/share voices and earn revenue; they report ~10,000 voices and $10M paid back to the community, reframing AI as opportunity.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

So we launched Voice Marketplace, where you, you could create your voice and then, uh, share it. And when the voice is shared, you earn money in the return. Today, we have almost ten thousand voices. We paid ten million dollars back to the people in the community.

— Mati Staniszewski

We don't want to do any sliders, any toggles. We don't want to become same as previous generation of, of the editing suites. So instead, let's solve it on the research level, where it will know based on the voice exactly how it should speak with the speed.

— Mati Staniszewski

I think ElevenLabs wouldn't have existed if we weren't starting from Europe.

— Mati Staniszewski

So we removed titles a year ago, and then, um-- and it's, it's going well. It still works.

— Mati Staniszewski

In some ways, the, the quota, the commissions are a effectively a lagging indicator of strategy.

— Mati Staniszewski

Small autonomous teams and shipping velocityBalancing research roadmaps vs product iterationRemote-first hiring and hub-based cultureFlat org structure and removing titlesCreator adoption and Voice Marketplace payoutsMusic licensing negotiations and legal strategyEnterprise shift: orchestration, integrations, reliability, incentives

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