Brief Summary: Mati Staniszewski, co-founder and CEO of ElevenLabs, shares the firsthand story of growing the company into Europe's fastest-growing AI startup since its founding in 2022 -- reaching $100 million in annual revenue in 20 months, and $200 million just 10 months later. The video vividly covers key insights from his days in Poland to the founding journey, the technology's origin story, early struggles, fundraising strategy, team culture, revenue model, and global competitiveness. For anyone interested in AI and startups, this is a fascinating conversation offering everything from growth strategies and unicorn company challenges to an inspiring founder's mindset.
1. The Beginning of ElevenLabs: From Poland to the World
The video opens with CEO Mati Staniszewski sharing the news that ElevenLabs has surpassed $200 million in annual revenue. He states, "We've now crossed $200 million. $100 million in 20 months, and then $200 million in 10 months," directly addressing the company's steep growth trajectory.
When asked about the roots of the founding, Mati shares that growing up in a small Polish town and then moving to Warsaw for school formed the basis of his global mindset.
"Growing up in Poland means starting from a very small world. Attending high school in Warsaw, I realized the possibilities of a much bigger world."
He was stimulated by competition with peers and talented colleagues, which led him to dream big. His subsequent experiences at Google, Palantir, and other companies laid the groundwork for starting his own company.
The initial startup idea actually originated from "the frustrating experience of watching movies with terrible dubbing."
"Polish movie dubbing was like an audiobook where one person reads everything, with no distinction between male and female voices. No emotion at all -- it was truly the worst experience. I thought this problem needed to change."
The two co-founders tried various voice-related projects through hack weekends, and they recall that one particular project in 2021 revealed the future of text-to-speech models.
2. Product Development, Market Validation, and Early Trial and Error
In the early stages of fleshing out the idea, they immediately jumped into market validation. Mati personally emailed thousands of YouTube creators to ask if they would use a dubbing product, but the response rate was a lukewarm 15%.
"Everyone just said, 'Is it really possible? Send me a sample.' YouTube didn't even support it, and there wasn't a compelling enough reason for people to actually use it."
Then came a key insight by chance -- what creators actually needed was 'post-production' and 'simple voice edits,' not an urgent need for multilingual dubbing -- and this shifted the product direction entirely.
Meanwhile, co-founder P (Petra) discovered through research the possibility of a new speech synthesis model that was more "emotional and natural," and they ultimately decided to build their own proprietary model.
The critical point here was that "existing commercial models weren't natural enough, making the need to build one themselves crystal clear."
"The models available at the time were too clumsy. You could immediately feel the 'Uncanny Valley.' So we had no choice but to build it ourselves."
3. The Rough Road to Fundraising and the Early Self-Reliance Story
In January 2023, ElevenLabs approached about 30-50 investors to raise pre-seed funding. It was a difficult process, and the biggest questions revolved around market size limitations, defensibility, and skeptical views like "why do you think Big Tech can't do this?"
"The pre-seed was really tough. Most of the 30-50 investors we approached rejected us."
They ultimately succeeded in raising $2 million at a $9 million valuation, but the founding team also took the risk of declining accelerator offers and choosing an independent path.
The raised funds were invested in building a small data center, hiring essential talent, and continuous R&D.
During both product development and the beta launch, the focus was on "publicizing the company in conjunction with product releases" rather than just fundraising.
"We always tied the announcement of fundraising rounds to product launches and real growth signals. It couldn't just be about 'we raised money' -- there had to be something truly meaningful."
4. Beta, the Growth Inflection Point, and Full Speed Ahead
After the early 2023 beta launch, the initial response was weak, but everything changed after they shared "the first audio sample of AI that could laugh" on targeted communities like blogs, newsletters, and Discord.
"When we posted a sample of AI laughing on the blog, the next day a thousand people flooded the waitlist."
Users grew rapidly, centered around creator and audiobook author communities, and as real content using text-to-speech became natural enough to be "mistaken for a human voice," product-market fit became unmistakably clear.
Subsequent fundraising rounds strictly adhered to the strategy of "only when needed, only with the right partners." In particular, partnerships with prominent US investors (e.g., A16z, Sequoia Capital) prioritized network, brand, and tangible help.
"A16z provided practical help for two weeks before even investing, including connecting us with celebrity voice licensing deals."
The CEO identifies speed as the competitive advantage for innovation. "Execution speed makes all the difference in both investing and product," he emphasizes, stressing that fast decision-making is more important than long roadshows for both founders and investors.
5. Global Competition, Team Building, and Company Culture Growth
To the skepticism about whether existing Big Tech (especially OpenAI) could do what ElevenLabs does, Mati responds:
"Of course OpenAI could do it too, but there are only 50-100 people in the world who are exceptionally talented in the voice domain, and we've recruited a significant number of them to our team. We also advance research and product together at speed. In some benchmarks, our voice model actually outperforms OpenAI and Gemini."
ElevenLabs insists on "small but strong teams." At 250 people, the company actually operates as "20 teams of 5-10 people," each with high autonomy and accountability -- the secret to dynamic and rapid innovation.
"Adding more team members doesn't automatically make things better. Small, autonomous teams grow much faster and have a stronger sense of ownership."
He honestly acknowledges that building a global AI company from Europe is considered 'Hard Mode,' but maintains that "there is plenty of outstanding talent in Europe, and any team that dreams on a global scale can make it happen."
"There are truly ambitious talented people in Europe too. It's just that there aren't enough challenging companies for them to unleash their abilities. Thinking Europe is inferior to the US is nothing but a bias."
He repeatedly emphasizes that company growth stems from talent acquisition and 'team culture and ownership.'
6. Revenue Structure, Business Model, and Future Strategy
ElevenLabs recently surpassed $200 million ARR (annual recurring revenue), with large B2B contracts for cloud-based call centers and customer support being the core revenue driver.
"Our largest client contract is around $2 million per year, and we mainly supply our voice agent platform for call centers, customer support, personal assistants, and similar use cases."
In the early days, they even built their own data center, based on the judgment that "in the long run, using our own data center is advantageous in terms of cost and experimentation speed."
Mati emphasizes the importance of:
- Research investment allocation,
- Profitability (unit economics),
- Harmony among the product-research-ecosystem (distribution/brand) triangle
He predicts that over time, platform-based voice and conversational agents will become the core business of the future.
7. M&A Proposals, Employee Compensation, and Growth Philosophy
As success became visible, the company received multiple M&A proposals from global Big Tech and strategic partners, but they had no interest in selling. They also emphasize that they have conducted 'secondaries' (stock option liquidity events) for employees in nearly every funding round.
"Even when we received large M&A offers, we had no intention of selling right away. Through secondaries, we provide liquidity so employees can take risks with confidence."
This reflects the company's values of "a vision of greater growth and challenge than mere financial motivation," and serves as a practical alternative to the 'liquidity problem' that is one of the reasons European startups sell early.
8. Practical Advice for Entrepreneurs and Memorable Quotes
Throughout the video, Mati generously shares practical advice for founders, researchers, and investors.
- Select investors (especially angels) based on "domain expertise the founding team lacks," "network expansion," and "tangible help."
- When investing, "don't just evaluate valuation -- look at the real chemistry with a true partner."
- For product/company promotion, "leveraging communities where real users are active (Discord, Hacker News, AI newsletters)" is far more powerful than Big Media coverage.
"When we first appeared on TechCrunch, we had high expectations, but in reality we only gained 3 new followers. Word of mouth was much more powerful in places where real users gather, like Discord and Reddit."
And just as noteworthy as the business know-how is the founder's philosophy of prioritizing speed.
"Execution speed is the most decisive factor in both product and investment. Starting 1-2 weeks earlier can put you ahead of everyone."
"The biggest risk is not taking any risk at all." - Peter Thiel
Regarding the principles of life and management, he cites "always making fast decisions and bold execution," repeatedly emphasizing that hesitating too long or 'only making safe choices' is actually the greatest risk.
9. Quick-Fire Round and Closing
At the end of the video, the quick-fire Q&A session is also impressive.
- A firm belief that "you can build a global company from Europe"
- He expresses that "AI will become the interface for all technology" as the next-generation product/technology, with voice at the center
- When asked "Would you invest in OpenAI, Anthropic, or Grok (Twitter AI)?", he answers "I would invest in OpenAI"
- Most important consumer brands: Google Maps, 8 Sleep, Lovable -- all based on actual usage
- Future goal: "Growing into a global-scale AI voice company with the best technology and the best team"
Conclusion
ElevenLabs' success is not so much a glamorous story, but rather the result of relentless execution, fast feedback, unconventional choices, and a tenacity to focus on what truly matters -- as this video demonstrates well. It reaffirms that a world-class AI unicorn can indeed be born in Europe, and that behind it lies the simple yet difficult truth of "people, team, execution, and speed."
"Behind what looks like grand innovation and massive success, there is sharp execution and a solid team culture."
ElevenLabs' journey will continue to be a special source of inspiration for many founders, developers, and investors.