Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold
00:46:05 · Cameron Herold, Victoria Weller
[00:46:05] S1: That's incredible. Did I hear you right, though, that Eleven only started in February? Was that February of this year or February of last year? [00:46:12] S2: February of this year, we launched the product publicly in beta. Okay. And it was incorporated a year earlier. So the the CTO and the CEO started it in 2022 And and we're developing the model until it was released in February of this year, and then launched super successfully and now has over millions of users on the B2C side. And we exited Beta in August of this year. [00:46:41] S1: Yeah. It's a ridiculously fast start. Yes. You've raised money. I think you raised 20,000,000 and a $100,000,000 valuation. When you're when you're raising 20, it doesn't even matter if that's pre or post money valuation. It's still... It's... That's a hell of a raise. What what did the what did the investors see and and why... And how are you using the money? Then how did it change the company?
00:46:41 · Cameron Herold, Victoria Weller
[00:46:41] S1: Yeah. It's a ridiculously fast start. Yes. You've raised money. I think you raised 20,000,000 and a $100,000,000 valuation. When you're when you're raising 20, it doesn't even matter if that's pre or post money valuation. It's still... It's... That's a hell of a raise. What what did the what did the investors see and and why... And how are you using the money? Then how did it change the company? [00:47:03] S2: Yeah. It it it did happen super fast. In fact, there was a pre seed round when they started the company and then skipped the seed round straight to series A of this year. And I think what the investors thought, to put it bluntly, they saw the numbers. They saw how much users were loving this and how much it could uptake in just a few months. Like it was probably the fastest growing company in the world for a while of this year. And so that is already something that's convincing to the investors. But I think there's also an atmosphere shift from when ElevenLabs was first incorporated and it was maybe a little bit harder to raise money in the pre seed round to the world we are in 2023, where the potential upside of AI is so much more prevalent and something that investors are seeking out and realizing as well.
00:47:03 · Victoria Weller, Cameron Herold
[00:47:03] S2: Yeah. It it it did happen super fast. In fact, there was a pre seed round when they started the company and then skipped the seed round straight to series A of this year. And I think what the investors thought, to put it bluntly, they saw the numbers. They saw how much users were loving this and how much it could uptake in just a few months. Like it was probably the fastest growing company in the world for a while of this year. And so that is already something that's convincing to the investors. But I think there's also an atmosphere shift from when ElevenLabs was first incorporated and it was maybe a little bit harder to raise money in the pre seed round to the world we are in 2023, where the potential upside of AI is so much more prevalent and something that investors are seeking out and realizing as well. [00:47:57] S1: All right. This could go on for days because I'm so intrigued with the space with you as a leader. We've got to wrap up. I'll ask you kind of my one standard question. What advice would you give to the 21 or 22 year old Victoria? You know, maybe she's just heading off to do her or just finishing her undergraduate degree. What advice would you give yourself that you know to be true today, but you wish you'd known back then?
00:47:57 · Cameron Herold, Victoria Weller
[00:47:57] S1: All right. This could go on for days because I'm so intrigued with the space with you as a leader. We've got to wrap up. I'll ask you kind of my one standard question. What advice would you give to the 21 or 22 year old Victoria? You know, maybe she's just heading off to do her or just finishing her undergraduate degree. What advice would you give yourself that you know to be true today, but you wish you'd known back then? [00:48:21] S2: I think it would be that no one else knows better. I think often you think that, okay, I'm confronted with this question. I need to find someone that knows the answer to this question. And in the workplace, that's often like escalating to your lead and being like, we need to file our end year report with HMRC. What do we do? As like a recent example, and the answer is so frequently, I don't know. So if you start with the assumption that no one else knows better or knows the answer immediately, allows you to go and seek it out yourself and find a way to get it done yourself. And I think for me, that is one of the pieces that are like core to the way I work now and what has made me valuable to the places I work at as well is because I just go and figure out how to do the thing.
00:48:21 · Victoria Weller, Cameron Herold
[00:48:21] S2: I think it would be that no one else knows better. I think often you think that, okay, I'm confronted with this question. I need to find someone that knows the answer to this question. And in the workplace, that's often like escalating to your lead and being like, we need to file our end year report with HMRC. What do we do? As like a recent example, and the answer is so frequently, I don't know. So if you start with the assumption that no one else knows better or knows the answer immediately, allows you to go and seek it out yourself and find a way to get it done yourself. And I think for me, that is one of the pieces that are like core to the way I work now and what has made me valuable to the places I work at as well is because I just go and figure out how to do the thing. [00:49:15] S1: I love it. This is gonna be a really fun ride to watch. I think you and Eleven are doing... Be doing some incredible stuff. I definitely need you to let me know when you're going public. Please. Please. Please. I've missed out. I've missed out. I told the founder of Uber it was the stupidest idea I've ever heard. I missed out on the founder's round of a couple other companies. I'm not missing out on this one. Victoria Weller, the Chief of Staff for ElevenLabs, thanks so much for sharing with us on the Second in podcast. [00:49:41] S2: Thank you for having me.
00:49:41 · Victoria Weller, S3
[00:49:41] S2: Thank you for having me. [00:49:45] S3: You've been listening to Second in Command, brought to you by COO Alliance founder Cameron Herold. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to like, share, and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and our other podcast streaming platforms. For more best practices from industry leading COOs, visit cooalliance.com.