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Dennis Mortensen

Founder & CEO, LaunchBrightly · 3 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveauthoracademic@DennisMortensen ↗LinkedIn ↗evcrp.com ↗

Dennis Mortensen is a serial entrepreneur who founded x.ai, an AI meeting scheduling assistant acquired by Bizzabo, as well as Visual Revenue and IndexTools. He currently leads LaunchBrightly, an automated product screenshot platform, and authored Yahoo! Web Analytics.

33statements → 19claims → 9claims resolved → 56%fully supported → 3.82/5average certainty → 2.21/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 4said about them ↓

5 supported 0 partly supported 4 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 9 not checkable as stated how the 19 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

13 predictions · 6 assertions · 2 opinions · 9 insights · 1 disclosure · 2 what ifs · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 19 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 9 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 9 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Dennis argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Prediction Held up
Mortensen: Enterprises will buy third-party AI agents rather than build them
“And I think it's going to be equally silly to go, as an enterprise, say, I want to engineer ERP. A meeting scheduling agent like Amy, an invoicing agent like Tommy, a some agent like this. I think they'll have to go into the market and figure out which of thes…”
Dennis Mortensen Jun 24, 2016 ▶ 13:21 20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intelligence

Their most notable contradicted claim

Prediction Didn’t hold up
Mortensen: AI agents will not cause unemployment among human assistants
“This is not about making sure that any human personal assistant becomes unemployed in the future. I think all of them will continue to be employed, and I think they'll thrive and do proper work, not email ping pong.”
Dennis Mortensen Jun 24, 2016 ▶ 15:21 20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intelligence

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
25% certainty 3
75% certainty 4
67% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: speaking style how? →

219 words/min while actually speaking · 1.3 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Dennis Mortensen: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 28 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 12,616 words across 3 episodes, but every recording we have of Dennis Mortensen is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 3 rated episodes:

host pushback ▾ 2/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 3/10
setup questions received 58%

Everything Dennis Mortensen said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Mortensen: Tech incumbents have zero usable data for training AI scheduling agents
“There you have no data set, as in zero, nothing, because there is no agent-human negotiation under a given dialogue model that exists in that data set, and you can't label it in the past, as in, what if the agent said this, what would the human then say?”
Dennis Mortensen Jun 24, 2016 ▶ 9:35 20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intelligence
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Mortensen: I Will Never Start a Venture Without Owning the Underlying Data
“I would never, and I'm underlining this, never start any venture for where I didn't own the underlying data on which my venture operated.”
Dennis Mortensen Oct 19, 2018 ▶ 12:55 20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Without Owning The Underlying Data & Why We Have Over-Estimated The Ability of Automation with Dennis Mortensen, Founder & CEO @ X.ai
Insight
Mortensen: Startups Should Accept Dying Over Pivoting From Their Core Vision
“Dying is ok. Change the direction is not ok. Like, pivot, or what have you.”
Dennis Mortensen Oct 19, 2018 ▶ 28:14 20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Without Owning The Underlying Data & Why We Have Over-Estimated The Ability of Automation with Dennis Mortensen, Founder & CEO @ X.ai
Prediction Held up
Mortensen: Enterprises will buy third-party AI agents rather than build them
“And I think it's going to be equally silly to go, as an enterprise, say, I want to engineer ERP. A meeting scheduling agent like Amy, an invoicing agent like Tommy, a some agent like this. I think they'll have to go into the market and figure out which of thes…”
Dennis Mortensen Jun 24, 2016 ▶ 13:21 20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intelligence
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Mortensen: AI agents will not cause unemployment among human assistants
“This is not about making sure that any human personal assistant becomes unemployed in the future. I think all of them will continue to be employed, and I think they'll thrive and do proper work, not email ping pong.”
Dennis Mortensen Jun 24, 2016 ▶ 15:21 20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intelligence
Opinion
Mortensen: Human-in-the-loop assistant services top out as $30M businesses
“Sell them between two to 500 dollars, which is what they charge, which is not necessarily expensive compared to having a full-time human assistant in your office, but it's still an outsourcing play of sorts, and I'm not saying that to dismiss them, it's just a…”
Dennis Mortensen Jun 24, 2016 ▶ 22:37 20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intelligence
Insight
Mortensen: Founders Should Err on Giving Up Too Late, Not Too Early
“I'd certainly much rather err on the side of giving up a little bit too late than giving up a little bit too early, because the whole most likely outcome of any startup is that we will die. But the only way you're going to figure out that you will not die is t…”
Dennis Mortensen Oct 19, 2018 ▶ 8:07 20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Without Owning The Underlying Data & Why We Have Over-Estimated The Ability of Automation with Dennis Mortensen, Founder & CEO @ X.ai
Insight
Mortensen: Focus on Customer Pain Rather Than AI-First Hype
“You shouldn't try to be mobile first, or AI first, or cloud first, or big data, or whatever the term might be of the particular era. You should just really let onto that customer pain, because that is the truest thing that you can let onto.”
Dennis Mortensen Oct 19, 2018 ▶ 10:36 20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Without Owning The Underlying Data & Why We Have Over-Estimated The Ability of Automation with Dennis Mortensen, Founder & CEO @ X.ai
Insight
Mortensen: Conversational UIs Shift Computing From Executing Tasks to Setting Objectives
“All of the prior UI paradigms had one thing in common, that they assisted you in doing a task, doing that task a little bit faster, a little bit more accurate, doing the task in such a way that you couldn't really do it by yourself to begin with, as in, you're…”
Dennis Mortensen Oct 19, 2018 ▶ 18:59 20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Without Owning The Underlying Data & Why We Have Over-Estimated The Ability of Automation with Dennis Mortensen, Founder & CEO @ X.ai
What-if
Mortensen: x.ai Should Have Prioritized Data Labeling and Hybrid UIs Earlier
“I would spend less time on building the first models, as in, none of them survived anyway, and I would spend more time In trying to define what data to collect and how to label it. Two, I would have leaned into a mix of UIs quicker, not have spent three years …”
Dennis Mortensen Oct 19, 2018 ▶ 30:57 20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Without Owning The Underlying Data & Why We Have Over-Estimated The Ability of Automation with Dennis Mortensen, Founder & CEO @ X.ai
Opinion
Multiplying per-seat pricing for teams reflects a lack of product imagination.
“Our team edition is just you pay more, as in you've got more seats, and then if it's 17 seats, I multiply the price by 17. If it's a thousand, I multiply by a thousand. I'm not so sure that you've exhausted your imagination if that's what you get to.”
Dennis Mortensen Mar 3, 2017 ▶ 7:16 20VC: Why Product Market Fit Is Like Porn, How The Entrance of Facebook and Google Into Enterprise Software Effects Traditional Enterprise Companies & The Future Pricing Model For The Enterprise with Dennis Mortensen, Founder @ X.ai
Insight
Mortensen: A startup without competitors isn't solving an interesting problem
“And that competitor can be a weak one, or it can be a strong one, but they always arrive. If they do not arrive, I'm not so sure you're doing anything interesting.”
Dennis Mortensen Mar 3, 2017 ▶ 10:31 20VC: Why Product Market Fit Is Like Porn, How The Entrance of Facebook and Google Into Enterprise Software Effects Traditional Enterprise Companies & The Future Pricing Model For The Enterprise with Dennis Mortensen, Founder @ X.ai
Prediction Held up
x.ai will sell its enterprise edition at $59 per active seat.
“So we're going to be selling the business edition at 59 bucks per seat, but under a fair billing policy, meaning that whoever uses it will pay for it. Those that do not use it within the month, they do not pay for it.”
Dennis Mortensen Mar 3, 2017 ▶ 15:11 20VC: Why Product Market Fit Is Like Porn, How The Entrance of Facebook and Google Into Enterprise Software Effects Traditional Enterprise Companies & The Future Pricing Model For The Enterprise with Dennis Mortensen, Founder @ X.ai
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Frontline workers will become most valuable as AI automates enterprise answers.
“Because the answer will become easy when we have AIs. Then I think there'll be a whole new bunch of employees. Actually, those at the bottom of the organization, those that are closest to the customer, they'll become the most valuable because they have very in…”
Dennis Mortensen Mar 3, 2017 ▶ 21:02 20VC: Why Product Market Fit Is Like Porn, How The Entrance of Facebook and Google Into Enterprise Software Effects Traditional Enterprise Companies & The Future Pricing Model For The Enterprise with Dennis Mortensen, Founder @ X.ai
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Mortensen: AI scheduling assistant market will be winner-takes-all
“Whoever solves the software challenge will have this opportunity to take the market. It's a potential winner takes all, or certainly winner takes most, given the positive outcome of Amy speaking to Amy.”
Dennis Mortensen Jun 24, 2016 ▶ 23:32 20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intelligence
Prediction Held up
Mortensen: I will never move my ventures to Silicon Valley
“I am very long New York. I am never moving out to the valley. And if I'm doing anything in the future, it's going to be in Manhattan.”
Dennis Mortensen Jun 24, 2016 ▶ 25:36 20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intelligence
Insight
Mortensen: Define Startup Shutdown Criteria Upfront While Sober and Sane
“I think the best way to do it is to do it up front while you're still sober and sane, not while you're fighting the good fight.”
Dennis Mortensen Oct 19, 2018 ▶ 9:10 20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Without Owning The Underlying Data & Why We Have Over-Estimated The Ability of Automation with Dennis Mortensen, Founder & CEO @ X.ai
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Mortensen: Conversational UI Will Dominate Alongside Existing Interfaces, Not Replace Them
“Though I am very bullish on this being a very dominant UI of the future, not the one for where every prior app that we have had up until this point will move over to this newer UI, I don't think that's the case. I think we'll still have a mix of UIs, just like…”
Dennis Mortensen Oct 19, 2018 ▶ 18:23 20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Without Owning The Underlying Data & Why We Have Over-Estimated The Ability of Automation with Dennis Mortensen, Founder & CEO @ X.ai
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mortensen: x.ai Reached Record High Retention, Meetings Scheduled, and NPS
“I said, we've never had better retention than this week. We've never had more meetings per host set up. Than this week. We've never had a higher NPS than we've had this month.”
Dennis Mortensen Oct 19, 2018 ▶ 25:18 20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Without Owning The Underlying Data & Why We Have Over-Estimated The Ability of Automation with Dennis Mortensen, Founder & CEO @ X.ai
Insight
Product-market fit means inbound demand outpaces sales hiring capacity.
“I do think, though, that upon product market fit, the market will arrive, but that is that moment for where you would almost know that you reached it, that you can't build up Your sales team quick enough. The incoming leads are faster than what you can train n…”
Dennis Mortensen Mar 3, 2017 ▶ 5:16 20VC: Why Product Market Fit Is Like Porn, How The Entrance of Facebook and Google Into Enterprise Software Effects Traditional Enterprise Companies & The Future Pricing Model For The Enterprise with Dennis Mortensen, Founder @ X.ai
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Mortensen: Enterprise software vendors will broadly adopt Slack-style fair billing
“So, I think you'll see a whole bunch of other people outside of us starting to pick that up.”
Dennis Mortensen Mar 3, 2017 ▶ 16:03 20VC: Why Product Market Fit Is Like Porn, How The Entrance of Facebook and Google Into Enterprise Software Effects Traditional Enterprise Companies & The Future Pricing Model For The Enterprise with Dennis Mortensen, Founder @ X.ai
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Mortensen: Future AI agents will operate on existing enterprise protocols
“These agents, and I'm so bullish on this future of agents, will be so lightweight that they would probably exist on existing protocols.”
Dennis Mortensen Mar 3, 2017 ▶ 16:56 20VC: Why Product Market Fit Is Like Porn, How The Entrance of Facebook and Google Into Enterprise Software Effects Traditional Enterprise Companies & The Future Pricing Model For The Enterprise with Dennis Mortensen, Founder @ X.ai
Disclosure
Netflix and Amazon employees adopted x.ai without any sales contact.
“On the thousands and thousands of people that have adopted the single-use case version of Amy, I never talked to the New York Times, or Netflix, or Amazon, or Salesforce, but those companies, they just have employees in pain, and since there's no integration, …”
Dennis Mortensen Mar 3, 2017 ▶ 17:50 20VC: Why Product Market Fit Is Like Porn, How The Entrance of Facebook and Google Into Enterprise Software Effects Traditional Enterprise Companies & The Future Pricing Model For The Enterprise with Dennis Mortensen, Founder @ X.ai
Insight
Mortensen: AI agents require massive data grunt work, not quick TensorFlow hacks
“Anybody who believes that it's about getting five good engineers into the basement and we can start hacking away on TensorFlow come Sunday is probably going to be quite surprised.”
Dennis Mortensen Jun 24, 2016 ▶ 7:54 20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intelligence

Show 9statements(9 left)

The other half of the tape: Dennis Mortensen's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 4 times in 4 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 4

Every mention by year

Appearances (3)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Withou Oct 19, 2018 23m
20VC: Why Product Market Fit Is Like Porn, How The Entrance of Facebook and Google Into En Mar 3, 2017 18m
20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intell Jun 24, 2016 21m
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