Laura Modiano, Head of Founder Experience @ OpenAI on Building in the AI Era, and Why Anyone Can Now Create a Company

Laura Modiano leads Founder Experience at OpenAI, a newly created function designed to help startups build, grow, and scale on the world's leading AI platform.Having previously worked with startups at AWS and now at OpenAI, Laura sits at the intersection of founders, technology, and the future of company building.In this episode, Laura shares how AI is fundamentally changing the startup journey, why founders can now build companies faster than ever before, and what OpenAI is doing to support the next generation of builders from day one.We discuss:• Why OpenAI created the Founder Experience team• How startup building is changing in the AI era• What founders need from AI platforms beyond infrastructure• The difference between building a feature and building a company• Why AI-native founders are moving faster than ever before• How OpenAI gathers feedback directly from founders• The rise of non-technical founders building technical products• Why anyone can now learn, build and create with AI tools• How Laura uses Codex to automate workflows and increase productivity• The future relationship between startups and AI platforms• Lessons from AWS, healthcare, startups and OpenAI• What makes great founders stand out in a rapidly changing marketLaura also shares her thoughts on the future of AI applications, the opportunities for founders building on top of foundation models, and why curiosity, speed and continuous learning are becoming the most valuable skills in technology.This is a conversation about the future of entrepreneurship, the democratisation of software creation, and what happens when anyone with an idea can build a company.