Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:00:00 · May Habib, Alexa von Tobel
[00:00:00] S0: The LLMs of the future is going to create a system of intelligence and memory and our ability to be proactive as a product. Hey, May, you didn't ask me this week about x, y, z. Right? The LLM should really be able to understand what your routine should be. [00:00:16] S1: They're gonna start to guide us. [00:00:17] S0: Yes, that's exactly right. They will prompt us, yes. And execution's going from scarce and expensive to abundant and on demand, which means human value is going to accrue to those who can orchestrate execution versus those who literally execute.
00:00:33 · Alexa von Tobel, May Habib
[00:00:33] S1: Welcome to Inspired. I'm Alexa von Tobel. What if your company has thousands of employees who never slept, never forgot a policy, and could instantly access every piece of institutional knowledge you've ever created. That's not science fiction, that's agentic AI. I'm joined by May Habib, founder and CEO of Writer. May has built Writer into a $1,900,000,000 company, raised 369,000,000, and created one of the most trusted names in enterprise AI. Uber, American Eagle, Pinterest, Vanguard. These aren't just customers. They're betting their most critical workflows on Writer's AI agents. While others chase hype, Writer has become the gold standard for AI that's built to scale with absolute governance and trust. In this conversation, you'll learn all about her unique childhood in Lebanon, the journey of building Writer from the ground up, and May's prediction for how AI will transform work and society over the next decade. This is a front row seat to the future of AI. Let's dive in. If you're running a startup, we know things like managing equity and communicating with investors are always top of mind. Carta has built a connected suite of tools that over 40,000 companies use to do just that. Their platform of software and services helps you lay the groundwork so you can focus on building. To learn more or get started, visit carta.com. Welcome, May, a friend, somebody I really, really have enjoyed getting to know. May, first of all, congratulations on everything you've built. [00:01:57] S0: Wanna Thank start
00:01:57 · May Habib, Alexa von Tobel
[00:01:57] S0: Wanna Thank start [00:01:58] S1: at the beginning, the origin story. And one of the things I loved getting to know more about you was actually just the fact that you were born in Lebanon. You immigrated Canada when you were young, moving between many different languages, cultures, and value systems. I mean, really, somebody seeing a lot of the different ways the world can work from an early life. Can you talk a little bit about your childhood and what you think really stands out when you think about what shaped you the most? Let's start there. [00:02:27] S0: Yeah. I was the oldest of eight in a family that is very extended and very close. So it's funny raising two kids with my husband now who did not grow up this way. You know, chaos was kind of the norm. And I think being able to, you know, hold your own voice and your own thread really amongst, you know, a... Not just a lot of action, but a lot of conflicting advice and value systems, as you said. You know, I think I learned to, you know, stick to my guns and just have conviction and and follow the beat of my own drum, as they say, from an early age, right, because there were so many influences. There were so many people, all with a lot of ideas about how I should spend my life, and you know, what being a good girl was and meant. I really love that you were one of eight. I was one of three, and
00:02:27 · May Habib, Alexa von Tobel
[00:02:27] S0: Yeah. I was the oldest of eight in a family that is very extended and very close. So it's funny raising two kids with my husband now who did not grow up this way. You know, chaos was kind of the norm. And I think being able to, you know, hold your own voice and your own thread really amongst, you know, a... Not just a lot of action, but a lot of conflicting advice and value systems, as you said. You know, I think I learned to, you know, stick to my guns and just have conviction and and follow the beat of my own drum, as they say, from an early age, right, because there were so many influences. There were so many people, all with a lot of ideas about how I should spend my life, and you know, what being a good girl was and meant. I really love that you were one of eight. I was one of three, and [00:03:29] S1: I would often joke that chaos, I was raised in utter chaos, truly. It does prepare you in some ways, but one of eight, May. That's wild. Can you think of a story or something that happened in your childhood that if you had to think about, like, a straight line to you being comfortable with just taking so much risk as you have taken a lot of risk on as an entrepreneur, anything come to mind?
00:03:56 · May Habib
[00:03:56] S0: You know, not one thing, but really how I think about and remember the ways me and my brothers would literally spend every single day after school for years. Like, we would come home, drop off our stuff, and then leave. Like, literally from six years old. Right? And like, we were kind of the pack in that early years. Like, it was three of us born in three years. And we would literally go to the park and like run shit at the park. You know? And like organized games and Olympics. And there were like multi day events where like people were on teams and people had points and like people had to kinda do what we said. I mean, we weren't bullies at all. Like, this was fun. People were excited to, like, come and, like, hang out with us and play our games. And then, you know, we had to come home when the street lights came on. That was, like, our cue. That's what our mom wanted us to do. And, yeah, I just like spent years with really a lot of freedom and, you know, growing up in a Lebanese village. I mean, literally like from the time I could walk, would just leave the house and roam, you know? And it's it's funny now raising kids and like, you know, we both have young children. Like, you know, these kids are like air tagged to the hilt. I don't let them go to the bathroom, you know? And it's just so funny that like, we're entrepreneurs and take so much risk in our life, and, you know, I bet a lot of it has to do with just how much freedom we had.
00:05:25 · Alexa von Tobel
[00:05:25] S1: They are air tagged to the tilt. Their air tags are air tagged. You and I were were fortunate both to, you know, spend time at Harvard, and you actually worked on the Crimson. You've always been somebody so interested in in languages. You literally combined economics and near Eastern languages and civilizations as what you focused on, and then you spent time at the Crimson. Talk a little bit about your love of language. I mean, it it sort of feels obvious that you build Writer when you know so many facts about your childhood.