WEBVTT

NOTE Sentence-level transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr15lGAGKpo

NOTE One cue per sentence. Cue ids are the line anchors on /transcripts/Qr15lGAGKpo.html. A cue ends where the next begins, or 2 s after its last word.

s1
00:00:01.309 --> 00:00:03.309
[music]

s2
00:00:12.840 --> 00:00:13.440
Hello everybody.

s3
00:00:13.440 --> 00:00:15.280
I'm Ben from Zoho Computer.

s4
00:00:15.280 --> 00:00:18.280
I just posted on X from my Zoho.

s5
00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:23.480
You know, I'll be giving away $100 in AI credits and I do all sorts of stuff with my Zoho.

s6
00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:24.760
This is my computer.

s7
00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:26.440
My Zoho is my computer.

s8
00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:31.520
And before I get started, I made the site just now while I was waiting to get started presenting.

s9
00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:35.480
This is a kind of overview of all the speakers in today's claw session.

s10
00:00:35.480 --> 00:00:37.880
You can scan this QR code and check it out.

s11
00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:49.840
I've got some useful links in here, but also I've got like some deep research on everybody presenting including their recent thoughts, links to their profiles and websites, blogs, etc. So, scan this.

s12
00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:50.760
It's super useful.

s13
00:00:50.760 --> 00:00:52.320
I just made it just now.

s14
00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:54.600
This is my computer that you see right here, my Zoho computer.

s15
00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:58.960
I'll be talking about it and this talk is about kind of Zoho and a lot of things.

s16
00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:09.040
It's also about kind of personal agents, personal cloud agents in particular, which Zoho is one instance of and kind of the future and where I see all of this going.

s17
00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:13.840
So, a little bit about me.

s18
00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:15.080
I'm the co-founder of Zoho.

s19
00:01:15.080 --> 00:01:16.240
My name is Ben.

s20
00:01:16.240 --> 00:01:25.880
I started my career on the early Venmo team back in 2013 and um I met my co-founder Rob at Venmo and I left Venmo to work at Stripe quite early.

s21
00:01:25.880 --> 00:01:30.720
I was one of the first I was the 80th engineer and my co-founder Rob, he went on to build Substack.

s22
00:01:30.720 --> 00:01:32.560
He was the first engineer there.

s23
00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:36.840
And a final fact about me as you can see is that I really love computers.

s24
00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:39.040
I'm dressed up as a computer.

s25
00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:43.480
And I like to start with this like fun fact about this finder icon.

s26
00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:59.720
So, this icon was designed by Susan Kare, an early graphic designer at Apple Computer and many people don't know the story behind this icon, but it actually represents the human, this white face, and the machine, this blue face, and they're kind of like in happy

s27
00:01:59.720 --> 00:02:00.480
harmony.

s28
00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:05.560
And I think that is what we should aspire to as we build AI tools for people.

s29
00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:11.480
Like humans love tools, humans have always loved machines, and like when we feel at one with our machine, we feel like this.

s30
00:02:11.480 --> 00:02:13.760
We feel happy.

s31
00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:17.959
So, who like me misses the way that computers used to feel?

s32
00:02:17.959 --> 00:02:18.959
Raise your hand, right?

s33
00:02:18.959 --> 00:02:22.600
Like the early internet, like your first website, your first PC.

s34
00:02:22.600 --> 00:02:22.800
Right?

s35
00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:26.200
It used to feel different, right?

s36
00:02:26.200 --> 00:02:30.760
Today, the internet and our computers feels more like this.

s37
00:02:30.760 --> 00:02:38.760
We are swimming in the sea of applications and sites and services and it's not great.

s38
00:02:38.760 --> 00:02:47.959
And on top of all of that, they're jacking up the prices on these things that we use, often because of AI features that we didn't ask for.

s39
00:02:48.040 --> 00:02:57.680
And I think quite reasonably, consumers or I'll just call them regular people are upset or confused or scared of AI.

s40
00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:07.480
So, Computer is based in Brooklyn, we're in Bushwick actually, kind of like the heart of hipsters in New York, and you know, there's a lot of this out there.

s41
00:03:07.480 --> 00:03:12.400
I see a lot of this kind of vandalism over AI ads in the city.

s42
00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:16.600
On top of all of that, this is what our industry looks like.

s43
00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:23.080
But the deeper root of why this is bad is is a structural thing.

s44
00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:26.040
It's what we call techno-feudalism.

s45
00:03:26.040 --> 00:03:36.400
So, basically, feudalism was this like kind of shitty system back in the day, and though it no longer exists, it still is alive and well in our digital lives.

s46
00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:47.160
So, we are still the peasants, we pay rent to the SaaS providers who pay rent to the cloud providers who pay rent to the kings who are, you know, like probably Nvidia these days.

s47
00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:50.280
And because we are peasants, our lives are shitty.

s48
00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:53.080
We are fragmented between all these different tools.

s49
00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:57.920
There are various services that we use that lock us in and and shitify over time.

s50
00:03:57.920 --> 00:04:02.520
Like that PM at that product that you use is not incentivized to make your life better.

s51
00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:10.080
They're incentivized to improve their bottom line, to monetize your attention, to take your data, lock it in, and sell it back to you.

s52
00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:14.600
And because you don't own anything, you are a peasant.

s53
00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:22.760
So Zo, our mission has always been to solve this by giving people a real home on the internet.

s54
00:04:22.919 --> 00:04:30.960
And we believe that most people in the world are kind of living in the Matrix, and we're trying to show people a better way.

s55
00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:33.640
So Zo is alive and well.

s56
00:04:33.640 --> 00:04:37.360
We've been out for about a year, and real people are using it.

s57
00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:42.040
Real regular people like Charlotte, this LA-based private chef and life coach.

s58
00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:46.360
She hosts her websites, she has multiple websites now, on Zo.

s59
00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:52.600
Zo manages her invoices and her accounts and bookkeeping and her scheduling and her notes.

s60
00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:54.400
And it's just like amazing system.

s61
00:04:54.400 --> 00:04:59.080
It makes her feel like clear and calm and on top of the world, and it's fun.

s62
00:04:59.080 --> 00:05:02.280
As you can see this text that she sent me.

s63
00:05:02.640 --> 00:05:03.720
So what is Zo?

s64
00:05:03.720 --> 00:05:06.080
Zo is a personal cloud.

s65
00:05:06.080 --> 00:05:10.000
We've never really had a personal cloud before, but it's quite simple.

s66
00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:11.880
You have your own home in the cloud.

s67
00:05:11.880 --> 00:05:13.919
You're not using other cloud services.

s68
00:05:13.919 --> 00:05:15.280
You have your own thing.

s69
00:05:15.280 --> 00:05:16.640
You put your stuff in it.

s70
00:05:16.640 --> 00:05:17.960
You put your AI in it.

s71
00:05:17.960 --> 00:05:22.040
And because it is a place in the cloud, you can host stuff in it.

s72
00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:27.880
You can host services like websites or APIs, and they're all yours.

s73
00:05:29.200 --> 00:05:35.680
And I think for people in this room, if you're like interested in clouds and personal agents, like your personal cloud might look something more like this.

s74
00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:38.520
You might have like a suite of local devices.

s75
00:05:38.520 --> 00:05:45.800
Um and for me, I have like this like Zo computer, this like cloud computer as well, which has my Zo agent on it.

s76
00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:49.000
It also has a Hermes on it, and it has my services.

s77
00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:59.120
I have many websites and APIs and things that I've built, all hosted in the same place, and it can also talk to my laptop or my Mac mini, or I can use it on my phone.

s78
00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:03.880
And that, collectively, is my personal cloud.

s79
00:06:04.840 --> 00:06:08.480
So, Zoe is a personal server with AI built in.

s80
00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:10.720
It's It's quite simple.

s81
00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:13.920
And it hearkens back to a simpler time.

s82
00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:17.800
So, back in the day, this is actually how we built and hosted websites.

s83
00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:22.760
We just FTP'd our files onto a server, and that updated our website.

s84
00:06:22.760 --> 00:06:24.200
You were just shipping to prod.

s85
00:06:24.200 --> 00:06:26.800
You're like always doing it live.

s86
00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.919
And that's actually, I think, how most people should build.

s87
00:06:29.919 --> 00:06:35.600
I don't think it's necessary for a regular person like Charlotte to think about deployment.

s88
00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:42.440
Unfortunately, for many of us in this room, this is probably what your life looks like, actually.

s89
00:06:42.440 --> 00:06:50.960
You're kind of just navigating between these different AIs and devices and SaaS services, and it's very confusing.

s90
00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:53.400
Zoe is meant to be a simpler way.

s91
00:06:53.400 --> 00:07:02.480
It's one place for all of your stuff and your AI and the stuff you host, all of your personal stuff in the cloud.

s92
00:07:03.400 --> 00:07:05.160
Here's another case study that I'd like to talk about.

s93
00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:06.000
This is Anthia.

s94
00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:07.840
She was one of our early users.

s95
00:07:07.840 --> 00:07:08.960
She's totally non-technical.

s96
00:07:08.960 --> 00:07:14.720
She's a free-diving instructor, and she's already on track to make $100,000 on Zoe.

s97
00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:25.760
She used to use all of these different SaaS services to run her business and her life, like Squarespace, like Calendly, etc. And now she's replaced all of that with Zoe.

s98
00:07:25.760 --> 00:07:28.080
She's canceled all of those SaaS subscriptions.

s99
00:07:28.080 --> 00:07:31.320
She is no longer a peasant.

s100
00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:42.320
Anthia went from this, kind of being very confused and having her data in all of these different SaaS silos, and not really being able to connect them very easily,

s101
00:07:42.320 --> 00:07:43.360
to this.

s102
00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:48.720
So, Anthea not only hosts her retreat website on Zo on a custom domain.

s103
00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:50.320
She has many different websites now.

s104
00:07:50.320 --> 00:07:52.400
She has her personal workspace that looks like this.

s105
00:07:52.400 --> 00:08:06.280
She's really into fairies and like drawing and mushrooms and she's like expressing her whole self and her creativity online in this new way that we kind of really haven't had as regular people for a long time since like the '90s.

s106
00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:11.320
And under the hood, like all of those sites are just the tip of the iceberg.

s107
00:08:11.320 --> 00:08:17.120
So, when Anthea gets somebody who's interested in a retreat, Zo texts her with their number.

s108
00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:21.320
Anthea now immediately calls them at that moment of intent to buy.

s109
00:08:21.320 --> 00:08:23.520
She texts her Zo, "Give me a payment link."

s110
00:08:23.520 --> 00:08:25.560
And she closes the deal right then and there.

s111
00:08:25.560 --> 00:08:30.040
And that is how she is actually booking much more revenue than before with these retreats.

s112
00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:35.000
Like her retreats are now like actually kind of hard to book because there's too much demand.

s113
00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:35.680
And that's amazing.

s114
00:08:35.680 --> 00:08:38.640
And under the hood, she has a database for all of her retreats.

s115
00:08:38.640 --> 00:08:41.240
She doesn't really know what a database is, but she has one.

s116
00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:44.839
She has all of her notes, all of her accounting, and it's all in one place.

s117
00:08:44.839 --> 00:08:50.520
If she has like some images from a retreat and she wants to put those on her website, she just tells her Zo to do it and it's like right there.

s118
00:08:50.520 --> 00:08:54.640
She can like host files directly from her personal server.

s119
00:08:54.640 --> 00:08:58.080
And she is self-hosting everything.

s120
00:08:58.160 --> 00:09:03.800
So, Zo is made to be simple enough for anyone, for people like Anthea, for my parents, for other people's parents.

s121
00:09:03.800 --> 00:09:11.000
People are always telling me on like LinkedIn or X that like they sign up their parent for their parents to Zo and their parents are like five coding up a storm.

s122
00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:11.640
It was awesome to see.

s123
00:09:11.640 --> 00:09:14.000
I just got this message on LinkedIn the other day.

s124
00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:18.680
Our caterer uses Zo um to kind of manage his staff at his restaurant.

s125
00:09:18.680 --> 00:09:20.720
Our recruiter uses Zo as well.

s126
00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:26.839
He's really into it and he's like kind of building a whole He's like rebuilding his his stack for his recruiting agency on Zo.

s127
00:09:26.839 --> 00:09:29.480
Our marketing agency has become Zo-pilled.

s128
00:09:29.480 --> 00:09:31.480
So, it's made for everybody.

s129
00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:35.000
But it's also powerful enough for the audience in this room.

s130
00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.400
It can be the home for your Open Claw or your Hermes.

s131
00:09:37.400 --> 00:09:43.960
You can have a really nicely set up server to host your personal agent in if you use one of those tools.

s132
00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:48.840
You can bring your codex or Gemini or etc. subscriptions and you can build and host anything.

s133
00:09:48.840 --> 00:09:57.920
You have like root access to your own server to this very nicely set up Linux VM where like the networking is also like very well set up and you don't really have to worry about any of it.

s134
00:09:57.920 --> 00:10:02.440
You can SSH in and you can control your Zo via API or MCP.

s135
00:10:02.440 --> 00:10:05.040
So, very flexible.

s136
00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:10.280
So, scan this QR code if you haven't yet uh to get $100 in AI credits.

s137
00:10:10.280 --> 00:10:11.840
Um just try Zo.

s138
00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:13.480
I I think you'll like it.

s139
00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:18.840
And I'm going to do a little demo and then I'll have a little bit more to talk about after that.

s140
00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:19.637
Um

s141
00:10:19.637 --> 00:10:20.080
[snorts]

s142
00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:22.240
So, really quick demo of Zo.

s143
00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:26.040
You already saw it in the beginning, but Zo is this like nice kind of cloud workspace.

s144
00:10:26.040 --> 00:10:27.320
I made this website just now.

s145
00:10:27.320 --> 00:10:29.800
I make all sorts of websites on the fly.

s146
00:10:29.800 --> 00:10:32.960
Um you can chat with really any model as I mentioned.

s147
00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:34.000
You can bring your own API key.

s148
00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.012
You can even talk to Claude code in here.

s149
00:10:36.012 --> 00:10:36.200
[snorts]

s150
00:10:36.200 --> 00:10:39.880
You've got this nice file system, built-in cloud storage because it's your server.

s151
00:10:39.880 --> 00:10:41.880
You can just like use it as a Dropbox.

s152
00:10:41.880 --> 00:10:47.120
Um and you know, you can obviously like work agentically in the chat with any of your files.

s153
00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:48.400
You've got automations.

s154
00:10:48.400 --> 00:10:51.732
So, you can kind of run tasks on a schedule with AI.

s155
00:10:51.732 --> 00:10:52.320
[snorts]

s156
00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:54.680
You've got tons of built-in integrations.

s157
00:10:54.680 --> 00:10:56.800
You don't have to set any of this up.

s158
00:10:56.800 --> 00:10:56.972
We have

s159
00:10:56.972 --> 00:10:57.000
[snorts]

s160
00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:59.400
lots of skills, a large skill library.

s161
00:10:59.400 --> 00:11:05.680
There's a built-in browser, so you can log in to sites and let your Zo like buy things for you or do whatever.

s162
00:11:05.680 --> 00:11:08.400
Actually, I always text my Zo these days to buy stuff on Amazon.

s163
00:11:08.400 --> 00:11:10.120
It's like really dangerous for impulse purchasing.

s164
00:11:10.120 --> 00:11:12.037
I like see something I'm like, let's buy it.

s165
00:11:12.037 --> 00:11:12.160
[snorts]

s166
00:11:12.160 --> 00:11:15.040
Um and as I mentioned, you can host stuff.

s167
00:11:15.040 --> 00:11:20.080
So, you can really host anything, any arbitrary service, HTTP or TCP.

s168
00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:22.800
And we also give you a really nice built-in personal website.

s169
00:11:22.800 --> 00:11:29.360
This is my Zo space and this is all set up nicely and it's got like, you know, nice kind of like live coding features.

s170
00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:31.160
Um and you just chat with it to edit it.

s171
00:11:31.160 --> 00:11:34.160
And I've built all sorts of cool things inside of here.

s172
00:11:34.160 --> 00:11:37.760
Um this for example is like my Calendly replacement.

s173
00:11:37.760 --> 00:11:41.280
People can book time with me and it has just like this custom setup that I like.

s174
00:11:41.280 --> 00:11:43.920
Um and my Zo can like review the people that are interested.

s175
00:11:43.920 --> 00:11:46.440
I don't want anybody like booking time with me directly.

s176
00:11:46.440 --> 00:11:53.280
Um and so that's kind of like what Zo is and I want to conclude by just talking a little bit about the future.

s177
00:11:53.280 --> 00:12:01.818
So the reason we're building Zo is to build a future and better internet, one that looks more like this where everybody,

s178
00:12:01.818 --> 00:12:02.680
[snorts]

s179
00:12:02.680 --> 00:12:06.240
every individual has a real home, a presence on the internet.

s180
00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:06.403
And

s181
00:12:06.403 --> 00:12:06.920
[snorts]

s182
00:12:06.920 --> 00:12:12.520
companies already have this, but like we should interact directly with other people on the internet without middlemen.

s183
00:12:12.520 --> 00:12:16.080
And we should also interact with like the various companies and their AIs.

s184
00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:19.200
Um and it should be like more direct.

s185
00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:31.520
Another way to look at this is that like in the future we will probably just be interacting mostly with agents and the agents will kind of interact with the cloud, like these like software 1.0

s186
00:12:31.520 --> 00:12:35.800
things like websites and APIs.

s187
00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:35.878
But

s188
00:12:35.878 --> 00:12:35.880
[snorts]

s189
00:12:35.880 --> 00:12:42.760
if you dig a little deeper into here, what's probably actually going to happen is that most of these agents that we interact with will also be in the cloud.

s190
00:12:42.760 --> 00:12:45.240
Some of them will be local, but many of them will be in the cloud.

s191
00:12:45.240 --> 00:12:51.598
And when those agents are in the cloud, the question again is like whose cloud is it?

s192
00:12:51.598 --> 00:12:52.080
[snorts]

s193
00:12:52.080 --> 00:13:00.240
So Claud tag is newly out and and Claud tag is actually, if you think about it, a cloud agent.

s194
00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:02.400
It's this like cloud Claud.

s195
00:13:02.400 --> 00:13:06.009
It's like a company level Claud that has like all the company's context and

s196
00:13:06.009 --> 00:13:06.080
[snorts]

s197
00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:07.640
anybody can interact with it.

s198
00:13:07.640 --> 00:13:10.760
And you know, it's it's an interesting and very like ergonomic model.

s199
00:13:10.760 --> 00:13:14.524
Town and Victor are also kind of similar instances of this.

s200
00:13:14.524 --> 00:13:15.640
[snorts]

s201
00:13:15.640 --> 00:13:19.640
But the problem with Claud tag is this.

s202
00:13:19.640 --> 00:13:20.600
Whose cloud is it?

s203
00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:21.640
Whose Claud is it?

s204
00:13:21.640 --> 00:13:23.760
It's not really your company's Claud.

s205
00:13:23.760 --> 00:13:30.760
And as you kind of improve your Claud tag setup, like what really improves is Anthropic, right?

s206
00:13:30.760 --> 00:13:35.040
Like the the arrow is pointing the wrong way.

s207
00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:35.500
And

s208
00:13:35.500 --> 00:13:35.640
[snorts]

s209
00:13:35.640 --> 00:13:38.640
this is intelligence feudalism.

s210
00:13:38.640 --> 00:13:42.640
The intelligence now is bubbling up the wrong way.

s211
00:13:42.640 --> 00:13:49.239
And you are still a peasant again, or your company is still kind of a peasant in a way.

s212
00:13:49.239 --> 00:13:50.080
[snorts]

s213
00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:59.064
And at Zoe believe really strongly in changing the way that things work and giving people and companies more

s214
00:13:59.064 --> 00:13:59.080
[snorts]

s215
00:13:59.080 --> 00:14:02.920
ownership over their cloud and over their intelligence.

s216
00:14:02.920 --> 00:14:05.620
So, we believe that the future should actually look more

s217
00:14:05.620 --> 00:14:05.920
[snorts]

s218
00:14:05.920 --> 00:14:07.600
like this.

s219
00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:18.640
Anybody, a company or an individual should be able to publish agents and own them and have end users and like have the end usage of their agent improve, like self-improve

s220
00:14:18.640 --> 00:14:20.720
their own kind of published agent.

s221
00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:23.000
And that is the future that we're building.

s222
00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:23.299
We have

s223
00:14:23.299 --> 00:14:23.400
[snorts]

s224
00:14:23.400 --> 00:14:24.960
a kind of beta version of this.

s225
00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:37.800
So, um I'm going to go back to to this Zoe space uh and scan this QR code finally if you want to talk to me, get AI credits, sign up for the beta of this kind of new agent publishing

s226
00:14:37.800 --> 00:14:39.020
platform.

s227
00:14:39.020 --> 00:14:39.200
[snorts]

s228
00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:44.760
And uh yeah, also you can check out all of the speakers that are presenting on this Zoe space page.

s229
00:14:44.760 --> 00:14:47.080
Um I'm Ben from Zoe computer.

s230
00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:48.845
Thank you.

s231
00:14:48.845 --> 00:14:50.845
[applause]