In the 63rd episode of Glasp Talk, we sit down with Chris Yeh, entrepreneur, investor, and co-author of the bestselling book Blitzscaling with Reid Hoffman. Chris is a founding partner at Blitzscaling Ventures, teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford University, and shares key lessons from his 15-year collaboration with Reid Hoffman.
Watch the full episode on YouTube
Watch now on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
We talked:
(1:39) - How does the AI wave compare to past tech revolutions like the internet or mobile?
(5:36) - How has AI changed blitzscaling and startup growth economics?
(12:10) - If everyone uses similar AI agents, what becomes a startup’s moat?
(18:30) - As an investor, what signals suggest a breakout company?
(21:22) - What is the difference between buying AI and adopting AI?
(26:44) - What patterns are emerging in AI product UX?
(31:29) - How can people develop an infinite learning mindset in the AI era?
(40:15) - If starting today, how would you learn AI and plan your career?
(45:21) - What did you learn from working with Reid Hoffman?
(51:04) - What legacy or impact do you want to leave?
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Highlights
AI as the Largest Technological Shift and Capability Amplifier
Chris Yeh describes AI as the most powerful technological wave of his lifetime, exceeding the internet in impact. While the internet connected people and moved activities online, AI fundamentally expands what humans and organizations are capable of doing. From creative work to industrial processes, AI enables entirely new forms of productivity, and we are still only at the very beginning of this transformation.
Blitzscaling Reimagined Through AI and Smaller Teams
AI reshapes the foundations of blitzscaling by dramatically increasing individual productivity. With AI agents supporting each person, companies can grow further with far fewer employees, reducing organizational friction and allowing them to stay nimble longer. While the idea of a single person running a billion-dollar company may be overstated, the shift toward much smaller high-impact teams is already happening.
Context, Adoption, and the Human Edge in the AI Era
Chris argues that AI models will not provide lasting differentiation as technical advantages erode quickly. Instead, enduring moats come from context understanding customers’ workflows, unstructured data, and real-world decision-making. He warns that many enterprises mistake buying AI for adopting it, falling into pilot purgatory where tools are never truly used. Success requires staying close to real usage while cultivating an infinite learning mindset where creativity, judgment, and human connection grow more valuable.
Key questions & insights
Q: Why does Chris Yeh believe AI is a bigger wave than the internet?
Chris sees AI as transformative, not because it digitizes existing tasks but because it enables actions that were previously impossible. By expanding human capability itself, AI affects nearly every industry and daily activity at a deeper level than prior technologies.
Q: How does AI fundamentally change the idea of blitzscaling?
AI reduces the need for large teams by allowing individuals to accomplish far more. This alleviates traditional hiring and coordination bottlenecks, enabling faster growth while maintaining flexibility and speed for longer periods.
Q: What does Chris consider the most important moat and differentiation strategy for AI startups?
He believes sustainable advantage comes from context rather than models. Companies that deeply understand their customers’ environments and continuously build contextual knowledge combined with network effects can create value that competitors cannot easily replicate.
Q: What is the difference between buying AI and truly adopting it?
Many enterprises purchase AI tools without integrating them into daily workflows, leading to pilot projects that never scale. True adoption requires close attention to user behavior, engagement, and retention rather than surface-level deployment.
Q: What mindset does Chris recommend for individuals navigating the AI era?
He emphasizes becoming an infinite learner by continuously absorbing new information, noticing weak signals, and being willing to let go of past success formulas. At the same time, he believes human qualities like creativity, judgment, and kindness will grow even more valuable in an AI-driven world.
Transcripts of YouTube
It’s really the biggest wave that I’ve seen in my lifetime. And I think that’s because of the way it has so much impact on almost every possible business and almost every possible life. The potential for AI to just dramatically change the way we do everything is enormous. And we’re still at the very beginning of it. We barely even scratched the surface… Read More
Book: Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies
What entrepreneur or founder doesn’t aspire to build the next Amazon, Facebook, or Airbnb? Yet those who actually manage to do so are exceedingly rare. So what separates the startups that get disrupted and disappear from the ones who grow to become global giants?
The secret is blitzscaling: a set of techniques for scaling up at a dizzying pace that blows competitors out of the water. The objective of Blitzscaling is not to go from zero to one, but from one to one billion as quickly as possible.
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