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Aaron Lee

Co-Founder and CEO, Smith.ai · 1 appearance on the record.

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

founderexecutiveengineerinvestor@aaron08544 ↗LinkedIn ↗smith.ai ↗

Holding a Ph.D. in computer science from Princeton University, Lee was a founding engineer for Google Video who led YouTube monetization before co-founding Redbeacon. In 2015, he co-founded Smith.ai, an AI- and human-assisted customer engagement platform.

16statements → 9claims → 1claims resolved → 3.69/5average certainty → 1.38/5average debate potential →

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 8 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 8 assertions · 2 opinions · 5 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 8 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 Aaron 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

Assertion Supported
Aaron Lee: Google grew from 2,000 to 20,000 employees between 2004 and 2008
“When I joined, like Google had 2000 employees. When I left, it was 20,000, like 10 X.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 2:04 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Aaron Lee on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Aaron Lee said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Lee: Private Business Calls Create A Data Moat Against Public LLMs
“ChatGPT, they're using all the public data, public information, but there's so much information that is not public, like all the claws in the chest for the company and for the businesses, they're not. So we have all the advantage.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 15:20 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Opinion
Lee: Today's AI startups are unproven UI wrappers lacking revenue
“If you look at all the AI companies today, they have a nice, I call the UI wrapper on top of AI or chat GPT, but the revenue is very lacking. It's unproven.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 17:17 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lee: Smith.ai crossed $20M ARR run rate
“We are doing, I think like a few months ago, we crossed twenty million dollar annual rate.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 11:58 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Aaron Lee: All 600 Smith.ai employees and agents are in North America
“They're all in North America.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 14:10 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Disclosure
Lee: Smith.ai raised on a SAFE cap near $100M
“Oh, it's much higher than that. I think it's higher than that. It was like close to more like a hundred.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 16:41 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lee: Red Beacon Surpassed $10M Revenue Before Home Depot Acquisition
“Yeah, I think it was some, somewhere like 10 plus around time, but”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 3:46 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Disclosure
Aaron Lee: Smith.ai founders invested hundreds of thousands of personal capital
“Oh, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah. Yeah. It's not, not small amount. It's significant.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 9:08 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lee: Average Smith.ai customer pays close to $1,000 per month
“So it's around like I would say close to a thousand dollars. Like, of course we have like a smaller business that pay a few hundred dollars. We have bigger businesses that pay like close to 10,000 dollars per month.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 10:18 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lee: Smith.ai has gross margins above 60%
“So I would say our gross margin is 60% plus.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 11:16 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lee: Smith.ai currently serves 3,000 customers
“Three, 3000.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 11:37 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lee: Smith.ai could reach 5,000 to 6,000 customers by year-end
“Oh, I think we can actually get to about like, if we are lucky, we probably can get a five to 6000.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 11:43 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Aaron Lee: Smith.ai employs over 600 people across headquarters and agents
“So the team that we have about total, I would say their headquarter plus agents about more than 600 people.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 13:33 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Disclosure
Lee: Smith.ai has raised close to $13M total
“I think together, like we raised, like with us, angel investors and the safe note, I think I was close to 13, one, three.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 16:21 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Disclosure
Lee: Smith.ai burns a few hundred thousand dollars per month
“Just a few 100,000 dollars.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 19:31 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Assertion Supported
Aaron Lee: Google grew from 2,000 to 20,000 employees between 2004 and 2008
“When I joined, like Google had 2000 employees. When I left, it was 20,000, like 10 X.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 2:04 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month
Disclosure
Aaron Lee: Smith.ai founders took no salary for first few years
“We bootstrapped the company. So in the first few years, we actually didn't take any salaries, like all the entrepreneurs out there.”
Aaron Lee Aug 28, 2023 ▶ 8:46 Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning Aug 28, 2023 13m
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