The rise of generative AI will allow startups to do more with less. But the downside for entrepreneurs in the years ahead will be a more intense talent war for the best technical human employees.
That's according to George Arison, a serial entrepreneur and the CEO of Grindr, the $2 billion dating company that caters to LGBTQ communities.
In the near future, it won't be unheard-of for startups to scale to $100 million in revenue with just a couple of dozen employees, Arison said in an onstage conversation at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference in Park City, Utah, on Tuesday. The rise of generative AI will mean that "synthetic employees," as Arison referred to them, can handle a lot of the work that humans used to be hired to do. That's the good news for tech founders.
But that will make it more important than ever for ambitious startups to hire A+ talent from the beginning alongside the AI companions. Core founding teams, Arison argued, will need to be "exceptionally good," with little room for mediocre performers. As a result, a new wave of competition for top talent is on the horizon.
Arison's comments at Brainstorm Tech came as the dating company is trying to evolve its product to provide more services to its users. Arison said the company will seek to productize other use cases that will help Grindr subscribers in areas from travel to health and wellness.
"Loneliness and depression is really big in our community, he said.
Arison said his company is also working on ways to appeal more to its cohort of users over the age of 40, who tend to drift away from the app over time. "People do age out," he said.
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