One of the amazing speakers we’ve had for Columbia Business School’s Digital Business Leadership Program was Dan Siroker. Dan co-founded Optimizely, a company I’ve been teaching about for years, as they have helped so many businesses become more data- and experimentation-driven.

Dan spoke to us about his new startup, Scribe AI, whose mission is to use technology to improve human memory. As an experienced entrepreneur, Dan knows the importance of tying a grand vision to a focused product that can ship soon and iterate quickly.

As we talked, Dan demonstrated in real-time Scribe’s first product: a transcription tool that plugs into Zoom and MS Teams (Google Meet soon), and allows you to create a searchable transcript-plus-video of your meeting. Scribe frees you up to engage with your fellow humans and not have to take notes (unless you really want to).

Thank you to Dan for sharing his keen insights on:

• Focusing your team on solving problems, not building products
• Why customer empathy trumps cool technology
• The danger of waiting years to build your first MVP
• Why voice recognition is no longer a tech race
• Hiring for culture fit
• “The main thing is the main thing” (focus!)
• Why data should inform your decisions, not make them for you