Latest news with #PhilLibin
Fast Company
a day ago
- Business
- Fast Company
The startup that wants to fix everything you hate about video calls
In summer 2020, former Evernote CEO Phil Libin launched Mmhmm, a software tool designed to make video presentations look polished, even if the presenter was calling in from a COVID-era makeshift home office. It was one of many products and startups launched during that time, aimed at making the sudden wave of remote meetings more productive—or at least more bearable. While many of those ideas faded as businesses reopened—you probably haven't joined a meeting as a cartoon avatar or signed on to a Zoom happy hour lately—Libin's startup is still going strong. The company, rebranded as Airtime in April, has raised more than $140 million from investors including Sequoia Capital and the SoftBank Vision Fund. It recently announced a second product called Airtime Camera, which gives users a more professional appearance on video calls. More ideas are also in development to enhance the still-ubiquitous videoconferencing experience. 'We want to make the essential tools for people who spend a lot of time on video at work,' Libin says.
TechCrunch
04-06-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
It's layoff ‘season' at Phil Libin's Airtime
Airtime, the video startup from Evernote's founder Phil Libin, has laid off dozens of employees, TechCrunch has learned, and Airtime confirmed. According to the company, 25 people were let go from the 58-person team — a change Airtime described as 'bigger than usual.' While Airtime characterizes the departures as part of its typical seasonal approach to employment, sources inside the company said staff were surprised by the announcement. Many were under the impression the startup intended to raise funds this year and were previously told no cuts were planned, they said. Formerly known as mmhmm, Airtime was launched in 2020 by Libin, whose Evernote, a note-taking startup, was valued at nearly a billion at its height before being sidelined by newer competitors like Notion. (The company later sold to Bending Spoons in 2022 for a decidedly smaller figure.) First launched amid the COVID pandemic, when all office work had suddenly shifted to video, Airtime today offers two key tools for online meetings. Its 'AirTime Creator' lets users present a deck while appearing on screen at the same time, while its 'AirTime Camera' allows users to create custom looks to stand out in meetings. Image Credits:Airtime The startup introduced a 'seasons'-focused employment structure in late 2022, following a layoff of around 10%-15% of the staff, which had capped the company's headcount at 100 while it searched for product-market fit. The idea was introduced so staff wouldn't face any surprise firings or layoffs. Instead, the company would decide roughly every six months who would be invited back for the next 'season.' This plan allowed Airtime to give staff a longer heads-up if they weren't going to return, so they had time to seek other employment. And ideally, employees would work throughout a full season before choosing to quit. Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Such a structure, as you can imagine, was controversial. But until now, the deal had been honored on both ends. The recent layoffs have frustrated staff because, typically, their 'season' would have ended on the last day of June, according to what their managers told them. But impacted employees have been given an end date of Friday, June 6. That means their severance covers at least some of what would have normally been offered if they were employed through the period they were promised under the 'seasons' arrangement. Airtime declined to respond to questions about severance. The layoffs themselves were hashed out by leadership over two 8-hour sessions at Nobu in Palo Alto, sources claim. Staff were told on Tuesday, June 3, while their managers were told the night prior. An unknown number of independent contractors were also let go, they said. As to what necessitated the cuts, company insiders said Airtime's product never really took off and experienced quite a bit of churn. User acquisition ad spend also cost Airtime high tens of thousands of dollars per month, and employees report that Libin was often absent from day-to-day decisions as he focused his attention on his restaurant in Arkansas. Airtime, meanwhile, said the larger cuts had to do with the company's changing focus. In an emailed statement attributed to Libin, Airtime said the following: 'Since 2022, Airtime has operated on a 'seasonal' structure: two five-and-a-half-month work seasons per year, with a shared two-week break in between. Near the end of each season, we decide who comes back based on plans for the following season. The company invites some people back, and they decide whether they want to return. There's a mutual commitment that people who return will not leave mid-season and that the company won't terminate anyone mid-season other than for serious misbehavior. We treat everyone who departs at the end of a season equally, whether or not they were invited back. Product releases, hiring, departures, promotions, and other events are also timed around the seasons to provide people with a predictable cadence. We're currently in our sixth seasonal transition, and we've made changes to the team every time. This change is bigger than usual because our focus changed more than usual. Of 58 employees, we've asked 33 to come back next season to work on our new products and partnerships.' To date, Airtime has raised nearly $235 million in venture funding across multiple early-stage rounds. Some of those funds were used for M&A, as with the deal to acquire filter-maker Mexmix in 2020, then acquire Macro, a maker of filters and reactions for online meetings, in 2021. The latter deal was focused on bringing in founders with product chops, Ankith Harathi and John Keck. (The pair has since left Airtime, according to their LinkedIn profiles.) Airtime parent All Turtles also brought in Alexander Pashintsev, who previously worked on AI at Evernote, but Airtime itself has not yet made a significant AI push. Sarah Perez can be reached at sarahp@ and @sarahperez.01 on Signal. TechCrunch also offers secure tip lines here.
Axios
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
"AI slop" is in the eye of the beholder
Social media users complain that there's way too much "AI slop" in their feeds today, but one person's slop is another's cool new meme or funny post. Why it matters: Blanket disdain for AI content is less and less useful in a world where AI is part of every digital tool and system. Instead, some experts say, we need to learn to separate useful or creative AI output from potentially harmful and annoying spam that's clogging the internet. State of play: Some people want to throw everything that's AI-generated into the AI slop bucket, while others reserve the term for anything they think is overwhelming human signal in AI-generated noise. A viral video of an AI baby interviewing an AI dog on a podcast could be slop to some and simply something fun to forward for others. Yes, but: Soon, nearly all online content will involve AI in some way. While there are pure AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, developers are also building AI capabilities into all manner of software and even the underlying operating systems of phones and PCs. In Photoshop, you can use AI to expand a scene or change the background, while Apple, Microsoft, Google and others have added options to get AI assistance for writing. What they're saying: Some see the dividing line not in the tool, but in the intention behind its use. For former Evernote CEO Phil Libin, it comes down to whether the human directing the AI is looking to make something better or to make it cheaper. "When AI is used to produce mediocre things with less effort than it would have taken without AI, it's slop," said Libin, who these days runs Airtime (formerly mmhmm), a service designed to make humans look better on video. "When it's used to make something better than it could have been made without AI, it's a positive augmentation." The intrigue: For all the criticism of AI-made content, it's clear a lot of people appreciate being able to easily hop on the latest meme bandwagon. Zoom in: The rapid adoption of OpenAI's image generator highlights the potential and the downsides of the ability to create whatever picture one can describe in a prompt. The first wave of users turned themselves into Studio Ghibli animations. Then came Muppets, "Simpsons" characters and those from other fictional worlds, followed by AI-generated action figures from photos, complete with accessories. And now that image generator will be even more places, with OpenAI announcing yesterday that developers can integrate it into their apps using an API. Zoom out: In addition to the unsettled intellectual property issues around copying an artist or studio's style, the ability to create memes at scale also could overload content moderation systems. AI memes are already playing a role in politics, including elections, as well as in the spread of misinformation. This innovation comes at a significant (though yet to be fully quantified) environmental cost, given the massive amount of compute capacity needed each time one of these memes takes off. Our thought bubble: While AI content is starting to flood our feeds, it will flourish or fail largely for the same reasons as other types of content — because we engage with it, or don't. Meta is among the companies betting big on AI-generated content. The social giant is putting its assistant everywhere and experimenting with all manner of synthetic content, from suggested images and prompts to AI-created comments and posts. It's hard to say exactly how this future plays out. Memes always have a short shelf life. And the shelf life of AI memes might be even shorter than that of human-created viral content, given the ease with which new content can be created and the fatigue of audiences who see everyone and their mother doing the same thing. But by the time that fatigue sets in, it may be too late. AI content — through its sheer volume — could end up flooding the internet and crowding out human creations.
