The Secret to Building Billion-Dollar Teams—Revealed by Steve Woods

Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future

To find out more about today’s sponsor, Assembly AI, follow the link: https://www.assemblyai.com/?utm_source=superhuman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=link

In this episode of Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future, Zain and Hassan are joined by Steve Woods, Partner and CTO of iNovia Capital. Steve shares his unique path from academia to founding startups and scaling Google Canada from a small team of 10 to 2,000 employees. Steve reflects on his early work with Quack.com in the late 90s, and shares the importance of adding a human touch to technology.

Steve also discusses his years at Google, where he focused on nurturing internal talent over external hires, fostering a team-oriented culture and identifying key drivers within the organization, which he believes was essential for scalable growth and innovation, underscoring the value of team investment in building strong company foundations.

We also learn about Steve’s venture capital work and his investments in foundational AI models like Cohere and applications like Spellbook. Plus, Steve offers his advice to founders, encouraging openness, adaptability, and focus on team dynamics.

What we talk about:

• (1:28) – What’s it like working with Nobel Prize winner, Geoff Hinton?
• (3:20) – What made Steve swap academia for entrepreneurship?
• (5:22) – How did Steve develop the idea for Quack.com?
• (9:12) – What have been some similarities between the dot com, cloud and AI waves?
• (11:44) – Why Steve hired a Hollywood director.
• (14:08) – The importance of intensity.
• (17:55) – Why did Steve swap working on startups for working at Google?
• (21:18) – What are some tips Steve has for founders looking to scale aggressively?
• (24:48) – How does Steve manage working with different founders with different approaches?
• (27:46) – Can the app layer retain value, or will model builders dominate instead?
• (30:26) – Has product lost value to brand and distribution in app growth?
• (32:12) – What advice does Steve have for new founders and what industries is he excited by?