Siqi Chen is the founder and CEO of Runway, an a16z and Initialized funded startup enabling operators to know their enterprise without having a level in finance. As an operator and founder, he served because the CEO of Sandbox VR (a16z), VP of Product and Progress at Postmates (later acquired by Uber), CEO of Hey, Inc (Google-funded, acquired by Postmates), Head of Product at Zynga (IPO 2011) and CEO of Severe Enterprise (funded by Lightspeed, acquired by Zynga).
Along with his operational roles, Siqi is an investor in practically 100 corporations, together with notable names like ElevenLabs, Amplitude, Pipe, and Proprietor.com. Previous to his entrepreneurial ventures, Siqi made important contributions at NASA JPL, the place he achieved the excellence of being the only recipient of a Congressional Area Act award whereas nonetheless in class. This recognition was a results of his contributions to machine imaginative and prescient know-how on the Mars Exploration Rovers.
Are you able to clarify the idea of ‘ambient intelligence’ and the way it differentiates Runway from different AI-driven monetary platforms?
Ambient Intelligence is a very new expression of how AI can be utilized in merchandise.
Most merchandise deal with AI as a separate creature proper now—it’s both an agent working by itself, or a chat interface you must discuss to. These are the default experiences, however there’s one other technique to do it: by making the AI invisible.
In case you have a look at how folks really use AI at work, GitHub Copilot might be probably the most extensively used instrument. It isn’t a separate chatbot or agent. It’s extra refined, and so deeply embedded in GitHub’s platform that it simply makes what you’re doing sooner and extra environment friendly. With the present capabilities of AI fashions, that type of seamless integration is a significantly better expression of AI.
Apple did the identical factor with its newest iOS announcement at WWDC. They didn’t add separate brokers or chatbots. They simply constructed AI into their workflows, so it will possibly clear up math equations as you sort them or summarize textual content in real-time.
That’s how AI ought to be expressed: as a instrument for thought, working quietly within the background. At Runway, we name it Ambient Intelligence.
We agree with Joel Spolsky, who labored on Microsoft Excel, and as soon as stated: “Google makes use of Bayesian filtering the best way Microsoft makes use of the IF assertion.” That’s how deeply ingrained know-how ought to be in a workflow.
It’s the identical with AI. 4 years in the past, we considered calling ourselves “CFO.ai.” We had been suggested in opposition to it as a result of calling our product “AI-powered” would quickly sound as dated as labeling it “powered by AJAX” or “powered by AWS.” All know-how ultimately turns into outdated, so the main target ought to be on enhancing consumer expertise as an alternative.
In Runway, AI is deeply embedded in workflows and doesn’t must be prompted. It routinely explains what your mannequin does or why your actuals are totally different out of your forecast. That’s what we imply by Ambient Intelligence—an expression of AI that’s a local a part of your workflow, so it enhances all the things you do and makes you go sooner.
What impressed you to create Runway, and what key challenges in monetary planning are you aiming to handle with this platform?
In 2020, once I was the CEO of Sandbox VR, our income dropped to zero after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. No person knew how lengthy the pandemic would final, so we would have liked to create a number of contingency plans for emergency funding—starting from 3 months to 2 years.
We needed to create these situations manually in Google Sheets, utilizing e mail and Slack to collaborate. It was such a clunky and error-prone course of, that I requested my CFO if there was a greater instrument for this process. He stated: “No, that is it.” I couldn’t consider it. We had instruments like Notion, Figma, and Airtable, however nothing constructed particularly for finance.
Everybody discovered finance—and by extension, enterprise—obscure. However nobody had solved that downside. So I requested myself a easy query: what if everybody may perceive how their enterprise really works? That’s why I began Runway.
Our objective is to make enterprise accessible and comprehensible to everybody. Runway reveals how all capabilities, from gross sales and advertising to product and engineering, match collectively. It offers groups a transparent, shared understanding of the enterprise, to allow them to align on strategic selections and create extra influence.
Ambient Intelligence goes additional. As a result of it’s deeply embedded in Runway, it makes your work clearer, higher, and sooner. It routinely offers useful context, and surfaces deep insights that will help you make higher selections effortlessly.
How does Runway’s Ambient Intelligence proactively assist finance groups with out being intrusive?
The brief reply: by not turning AI right into a separate creature—like an agent or a chatbot—that you must work together with.
Ambient Intelligence is invisible; it’s a part of your on a regular basis expertise with Runway. It really works quietly within the background, with out interrupting. It’s constructed into the platform, so it will possibly anticipate intent and enable you with out being prompted. In the identical means the GitHub Copilot autocompletes your code, or Apple Intelligence solves formulation as you write them, Runway’s Ambient Intelligence makes your work clearer, sooner, and extra environment friendly.
What meaning is you don’t must hint a driver by way of your total mannequin to know the way it connects with all the things else—we simply let you know that, in plain English. You don’t must test in case your actuals match your forecast—we spotlight deviations and enable you perceive what occurred. All of that occurs routinely—Ambient Intelligence doesn’t make any adjustments to your mannequin or situations, and doesn’t must be instructed which context or perception is most related to you within the second. It simply does the job.
May you elaborate on the ‘Driver Explanations’ characteristic and the way it enhances understanding throughout the group?
In any enterprise mannequin, the drivers are interconnected and type a fancy community. Meaning you must hint a driver by way of the complete mannequin to know the way it’s calculated and what it impacts.
The best way folks try this in the present day is by digging by way of spreadsheets and tracing all the things manually. Understanding a single method shouldn’t be sufficient; you must understand how one driver impacts others, and the way the complete community is structured. That’s the way you construct deep instinct in regards to the enterprise and determine the levers you may pull.
Runway makes that simpler. Once you hover over a driver, we present you a transparent, concise, automatically-generated clarification that helps you perceive the way it works. You don’t must ask a chatbot what ‘Gross Margin’ is and the way it suits into your mannequin—we clarify all the things in plain English. That’s how ‘Driver Explanations’ work—seamlessly, invisibly, and routinely, so everybody at your organization can perceive your mannequin.
Runway claims to show hours-long duties into seconds. Are you able to share particular examples or metrics that spotlight this enchancment
This was a quote from one among our prospects Andrew Maher, Head of Finance at Superhuman. Learn the complete story right here.
“With Runway, we noticed our effectivity skyrocket with a 50X to 100X enchancment, turning hours-long duties into seconds,” stated Andrew Maher, Head of Finance, Superhuman. “Advanced monetary fashions had been distilled into clear, actionable insights, making it simpler to reply rapidly to key executives. Runway was like including a contact of magic to our monetary technique, turning knowledge into actionable intelligence—think about having a co-pilot in finance that brings vital insights alongside quantity crunching.”
How does Runway’s integration with present enterprise instruments like accounting software program and CRM methods improve its performance?
We offer you a holistic understanding of what you are promoting by pulling in each knowledge and context.
Runway integrates with over 650 of the commonest instruments, and we transcend standard integrations like common ledgers and HR methods. We join with CRMs, databases, spreadsheets, and even venture administration software program like Jira.
We consider that finance is not nearly finance; it is about understanding how all the things within the firm suits and works collectively. By integrating with venture administration instruments and databases, for instance, we join vital context to what you are promoting mannequin. This manner, totally different departments work with a single supply of fact, and get a shared understanding of what you are promoting.
How does Runway place itself in opposition to opponents like conventional monetary planning instruments and different fashionable AI-driven platforms?
Our core perception locations us in a completely totally different class from different monetary options.
The primary problem of contemporary finance is collaboration. However the concept that finance ought to be collaborative isn’t new; it’s been round eternally. And but, nobody has really constructed a product that allows actual collaboration. Why is that?
As a result of conventional instruments solely enable you save time or offer you extra management. That’s the place they cease. Our core perception is that this stuff are desk stakes. What fashionable finance wants is one thing that helps everybody instantly and intuitively perceive how the enterprise works. Actual collaboration can solely occur as soon as everybody has that shared context.
It’s understanding that lies on the heart of this downside. That’s what Runway solves for finance, product, gross sales, advertising, and each different crew.
To make enterprise comprehensible, we begin by connecting your knowledge to vital enterprise context and your roadmap. We use abstractions that truly map to how folks assume. And other people don’t consider plans when it comes to numbers on a spreadsheet—they consider selections and timelines. So we present plans in a means that’s intuitive, and that everybody can simply play with. Anybody in your crew can modify these plans, and see how totally different selections would influence your mannequin. That’s how we ship a shared understanding of how what you are promoting works.
Our deep concentrate on creating readability units us aside. Our prospects, like Superhuman, AngelList and ConvertKit (quickly to be Package), are already seeing the distinction with Runway.
What methods are you using to take care of Runway’s aggressive edge and proceed its speedy progress out there?
We don’t compete with those that construct monetary merchandise for finance groups.
We have now prospects in finance, however the core worth we ship is that this: actual collaboration throughout the complete group, pushed by true understanding.
We’re uniquely targeted on creating deep, intuitive understanding. Our design and engineering efforts are targeted on this single objective. Nobody else out there shares our degree of concentrate on fixing this particular downside.
I don’t assume we now have any competitors in any respect. We’re enjoying a completely totally different sport.
How do you envision the position of AI and ambient intelligence evolving within the finance trade over the following 5 years?
As AI capabilities evolve, I feel we’ll see a significant shift in how work basically will get achieved. Whereas I don’t assume fashions are fairly there but, it’ll occur in a short time. When it does, we’ll see a major improve within the quantity of leverage folks have—one individual will do the work of ten, 100, or perhaps a thousand folks.
Enterprises will leverage AI to get extra output with the identical headcount, and planning will develop into exponentially extra complicated. However folks will nonetheless must make strategic selections and perceive how the enterprise works—solely a lot sooner, and far more effectively than ever earlier than.
We’ll want radically higher instruments for thought simply to maintain up. Ambient Intelligence can allow that by enhancing human functionality effortlessly, with out getting in the best way.
As a CEO and AI influencer, what are your ideas on the broader implications of AI in enterprise planning and decision-making?
Let’s put aside AGI, ASI, and the concept of technological singularity for a second—as a result of in that world, the place AI does all the things and we’re all lounging by a pool, it’s a very totally different story.
Earlier than we attain that time, although, I feel we’ll see an exponential enhance in human functionality—the place one individual can do the work of a whole lot. Human output will attain unprecedented ranges, making companies and methods way more complicated. We’ll want AI to assist us perceive what’s taking place and to make smarter selections.
It’ll all go hand-in-hand—AI will drive elevated leverage, which in flip will add to the complexity of methods. To handle elevated complexity, we’ll want much more superior instruments to additional improve human functionality.
Thanks for the good interview, readers who want to study extra ought to go to Runway.
