Mati Staniszewski

CEO and co-founder of ElevenLabs, a voice AI research and product company.

Claims

As speaker

Mentioned in

Key positions and views

The most defensible moat against larger AI labs is built at the application layer through platform features, integrations, and a focus on business outcomes, not just by having a superior foundational model.

A flat, decentralized organizational structure with small, autonomous teams is critical for maintaining high velocity and out-innovating more bureaucratic competitors.

Voice is the next major human-computer interface, and winning the market requires providing a full-stack, end-to-end platform for creating and deploying conversational agents.

Achieving true emotional intelligence in AI—the ability to understand and respond to a user's emotional state—is the next major frontier and a key to crossing the 'uncanny valley' in complex interactions.

By specializing in the audio domain, a focused company like ElevenLabs can create superior models for tasks like text-to-speech and speech-to-text compared to generalist foundational model providers.

Podcast consensus on Staniszewski

Points of consensus

▶Staniszewski consistently describes ElevenLabs' organizational structure as flat, decentralized, and built for speed, utilizing small, autonomous teams of 5-10 people and embedding engineers within non-technical departments to drive automation and efficiency.May 2026

▶Across all appearances, he emphasizes that ElevenLabs' strategy is to build a full-stack voice interface, moving beyond simple text-to-speech to include orchestration, speech-to-text, music generation, and enterprise-focused application features.May 2026

▶He repeatedly highlights the company's rapid growth trajectory, citing significant increases in revenue (over $400M), valuation ($11B), headcount (growing from 330 to over 400), and enterprise ARR ($100M added in a recent quarter).

▶A core part of his competitive thesis is that ElevenLabs can outperform larger, generalist AI labs like OpenAI and Google by focusing specifically on the audio domain and competing on the application layer with features tied to business outcomes.May 2026

Points of debate

▶The reported number of user-created voices on the ElevenLabs platform is inconsistent across claims, with one source stating there are 'over 20,000' [7] and another citing 'almost 10,000' [75].May 2026

▶Staniszewski's statements on company headcount vary across different podcast recordings, with figures cited as 330 [24], 350 [83], and 'over 400' [14], reflecting rapid growth rather than a direct contradiction, but showing a quickly evolving metric.

▶His position on the 'uncanny valley' is nuanced and context-dependent. He claims the technology has surpassed it for narration and call centers [61, 69] but has not yet for complex, interactive settings like gaming [61], creating a picture of partial success rather than a complete breakthrough.

Key themes

▶Organizational Design for VelocityMay 2026

Staniszewski details a unique corporate structure designed for maximum speed and innovation. This includes a 'no titles' policy, small and independent product teams of 5-10 people, and the practice of embedding engineers into non-technical departments like legal and HR to automate workflows.

This operational model suggests a strategy to outmaneuver larger, more bureaucratic competitors by prioritizing autonomy and rapid, decentralized execution, making the company's culture a key component of its competitive moat.

▶Building the Full-Stack Voice InterfaceMay 2026

Staniszewski's vision extends far beyond text-to-speech. He consistently describes ElevenLabs as building the entire infrastructure for audio AI, including real-time streaming, agent orchestration, speech-to-text, and licensed music generation, aiming to be the definitive platform for any voice-based interaction.

By aiming to own the entire value chain, ElevenLabs is positioning itself as an indispensable infrastructure layer, potentially capturing more value and creating higher switching costs for enterprise customers compared to being a simple model provider.

▶Pragmatic Path to Market DominanceMay 2026

He outlines a business strategy focused on early monetization to fund R&D, a strong enterprise sales motion that now drives over half the business, and a competitive focus on the application layer. This involves building platform features like CRM integrations and focusing on business outcomes rather than competing solely on foundational model performance.

This revenue-centric approach contrasts with the research-heavy, cash-burning models of some AI labs, indicating a focus on building a sustainable, defensible business that solves immediate customer problems while funding long-term ambitions.

▶The Conquest of Emotional Intelligence in AI

A recurring theme is the push to solve for emotional intelligence in voice AI. Staniszewski discusses developing 'expressive mode' to detect and respond to user emotion and believes his team has an internal path to solving this challenge, which he sees as a critical step to crossing the uncanny valley in complex conversations.

Achieving true emotional intelligence in AI agents would be a significant differentiator, unlocking more sophisticated and valuable use cases in customer support, companionship, and immersive entertainment, and could become the company's most defensible technological asset.

Source episodes

Timeline

Founding

Staniszewski co-founded ElevenLabs, inspired by the poor quality of single-narrator voice-over dubbing for foreign films in his native Poland [11, 91].

2022

The company achieved key technological breakthroughs in creating human-like text-to-speech and encoding specific voice characteristics like accent and style [25]. Staniszewski notes that starting before the major AI hype provided a hiring advantage [89].

Approx. 1 Year Ago

Staniszewski states that the breakthrough for real-time, production-ready AI voice models occurred around this time [33]. The company also implemented its 'no titles' policy to foster a flatter organization [78].

Recent Quarter

The company experienced significant enterprise growth, adding $100 million in net new Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in a single quarter [48].

Recently

ElevenLabs announced a $500 million funding round at an $11 billion valuation [49] and facilitated a $100 million secondary-only transaction to provide liquidity for employees and early stakeholders [64].

Suggested prompts

How does ElevenLabs' strategy of embedding engineers in non-technical departments impact operational efficiency and product development velocity? &nearr;What are the primary risks to Staniszewski's prediction that conversational AI will pass the 'voice Turing test' within a year, and how is ElevenLabs mitigating them? &nearr;Analyze the competitive moat of ElevenLabs' application-layer focus versus the foundational model approach of larger competitors like OpenAI and Google. &nearr;How does the dual B2C (creative) and B2B (enterprise) revenue model influence ElevenLabs' product roadmap and long-term strategic decisions? &nearr;

Key concepts

Company Culture & Structure 4 ep Voice Agents & Conversational AI 4 ep Technology & Model Architecture 4 ep Business Growth & Financials 4 ep Enterprise Use Cases 4 ep Future Predictions & AI Vision 3 ep Product Development Process 2 ep Music Generation 2 ep Competitive Strategy 1 ep Data Annotation 1 ep

Notable quotes

“we are just over 400 people, over 400 million in revenue”

Mati Staniszewski · ElevenLabs' Mati Staniszewski: How Voice Becomes the Interface for AI

“we need to create models that are better than open ai gemini models and and i think we can we did it on text to speech then we repeated this on speech to text”

Mati Staniszewski · ElevenLabs’ Vision for Voice Interfaces | CEO Mati Staniszewski

“audio general intelligence, where you can combine audio models together in one stream... And that's something that would be possible, I think, very soon.”

Mati Staniszewski · ElevenLabs' Mati Staniszewski: How Voice Becomes the Interface for AI

“this quarter was kind of one of the best for enterprise growth where we had the first quarter hit 100 million in an additional ARR growth”

Mati Staniszewski · The world of voice AI, with Mati Staniszewski of ElevenLabs

Report last updated: May 10, 2026

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