VC firm Index Ventures took a flier on Jordan Taylor’s Vizcom in a $20 million round, knowing the former Nvidia industrial designer and art school grad had little business experience. But Index bet he had the grit to make it happen. He had developed an AI-powered tool that could turn simple sketches into 3D designs, enabling designers to speed through product iterations. Investing his life savings and eating many a Costco hot dog to stay on budget, he and cofounder Kaelan Richards, 29, launched Vizcom in 2021, joined startup accelerator AI Grant, and lined up Ford and New Balance as customers before approaching Index earlier this year. Today, Vizcom has some 65 customers: Enterprises pay up to $1 million a year for its software, while smaller users pay $49 per person per month. “I’m an artist and designer. I’m trying to solve a problem for myself,” says Taylor, whose startup is currently valued at $100 million. “What does it mean for the economy or the world when anyone can make their own products?”
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Right now, I'm really focused on understanding, I guess, the people side of this.
00:04How do you actually find and recruit people that are not only passionate,
00:09but genuinely are aligned with how you see the future?
00:15Jordan, thanks for joining us today.
00:17Explain to everybody, 30 seconds.
00:19What do you do?
00:20Yeah, so we essentially accelerate the process for industrial desirers
00:24to bring their ideas into the physical world.
00:26A lot of things in the physical world start as drawings,
00:28and we make those into 3D objects for them really fast.
00:31Very cool.
00:32Well, give me an example.
00:33Let's say I design chairs.
00:36Yes.
00:36What are you going to do for me?
00:38So if you design chairs, every great chair starts out as a sketch.
00:41We help you first visualize that drawing,
00:43and then make that 3D drawing into a 3D object that you can actually manufacture.
00:48And this is known as the paper-to-production process.
00:50So instead of actually automating that,
00:52we're actually helping people accelerate that process
00:54so they can actually keep the sense of authorship
00:56when they're creating their artistic pieces.
00:58So we build tools that essentially help you do that much faster.
01:02Very cool.
01:03What is your secret to make this happen?
01:05Why are people choosing you?
01:06I'm sure it's a very competitive landscape.
01:08Yeah.
01:08What do you guys offer?
01:09Yeah, I think a lot of it is because we honor the craft
01:12of how artists and designers already work, right?
01:15Drawing is something we've done as humans since the caveman times.
01:18We'd use drawings to tell stories and to communicate ideas.
01:21And we really leverage that as a way for artists
01:23to keep that sense of authorship when they're developing things
01:27so that in the final product, it still feels like it's theirs.
01:31So that's kind of a key differentiator, I would say,
01:33about us versus other traditional, let's say,
01:35text-to-image or text-to-this type models.
01:38We're really leveraging different inputs
01:40that artists and designers are naturally already doing,
01:43which is quite different, I would say.
01:45And what's the trick to make that happen?
01:48I would say a trick is not, well, I'm an artist myself.
01:50I went to art school.
01:51So one is kind of having that natural intuition
01:54for how artists would want something to be.
01:56Another trick of that is just, I would say,
01:58having a deep understanding of the workflows, right?
02:00This is not just a one-stop shop.
02:03There's kind of these multifaceted processes
02:05that have to happen for something to come to life.
02:07And I feel like really understanding that
02:09and how these things come together to produce the product
02:12is, I would say, the trick.
02:13There's really no technical magic behind this, I would say.
02:16There's a lot of things. Everything's out there.
02:18So it's really more so understanding how to orchestrate technology
02:21to get the results.
02:22Where did you study art?
02:24So I went to CCS.
02:25And then I studied in an academy, actually,
02:28in Korea as well for a few years.
02:30And then came back and finished my degree out
02:32in Detroit studying car design, actually.
02:34Oh, very cool.
02:35Yeah.
02:36That's a good way to do it.
02:37Yeah.
02:37I love Detroit at Forbes.
02:39So you're an artist and designer by training.
02:42Yeah.
02:42But you're deep into the tech world.
02:44Yeah.
02:44What kind of viewpoint, what mindset have you gained
02:49as an artist that has helped you succeed in the world of tech?
02:52Yeah.
02:53So I would say, one, being an artist.
02:56But then being at NVIDIA for a few years, I'd say three to four years,
03:00at a time where AI was just starting to make a lot of sense,
03:04it allowed me to have a different lens of a lot of the science projects
03:07that people were working on there that might have just
03:09seemed as simple research.
03:10But I really saw it as an application that accelerated my own workflow,
03:14which was just car design at first, which are just drawings
03:17that have to become physical cars.
03:19So I think just having that unique perspective as an artist
03:22for something that's usually fundamentally very technological
03:26allowed me to kind of derive to relatively novel ideas
03:30that normally most people wouldn't have saw, I think, at first sight.
03:34Yeah.
03:34Now, obviously, NVIDIA, one of the hottest companies around.
03:38When I think of NVIDIA, I'm thinking super deep tech.
03:41I'm thinking chip design, the highest end manufacturing.
03:45What did you do with your artist background, design background there?
03:47Give me a day in the life.
03:48Yeah.
03:49So I was part of the industrial design research team,
03:52essentially just drawing products, doing a lot of blue skies thinking.
03:56We were kind of basically like a think tank.
03:58We would basically kind of get these different briefs
04:00around computer vision, the future of AI,
04:02and figuring out how we could make physical products out of those.
04:05And then, of course, you're designing GPUs,
04:07figuring out the best way to cool them and things like that.
04:10But a lot of it was really blue skies thinking around
04:13how can we actually apply a lot of this research
04:16into whether consumer products or enterprise solutions for manufacturing.
04:20Yeah.
04:21So it sounds like you had a really creative, freewheeling,
04:24you said blue sky role at NVIDIA, one of the hottest companies around,
04:28if not the hottest company.
04:29Obviously, it's ups and downs.
04:31Why did you leave?
04:32And kind of what sparked that idea and motivated you to go out on your own?
04:36Yeah.
04:36So this is 2019.
04:38It was something called GANs.
04:40People that are watching will know.
04:41These were like the most popular generative architecture at the time.
04:45And when I saw this, I really saw this as the first-
04:49Tell me more about that because that went way over my head.
04:52So basically, right now, you've seen things
04:54where you can type something and get an image, right?
04:56OK.
04:56That never existed before.
04:58Before, you had to really look at a large bank of images of a particular subject,
05:03and then you could generate just that.
05:05And this was a very huge feat at the time.
05:08And people saw this as just maybe a one-stop shop thing.
05:13But I really saw it as a way that was going to change
05:16the way that artists and designers worked.
05:17Because if you can just create an image in a few seconds,
05:21that can enable a lot of different things.
05:22So I really saw it as a way to enable, as a way like, OK,
05:25well, if we can generate images, why can't we generate images from drawings?
05:29And actually, rendering drawings is a big part of the process
05:35that's very time-consuming.
05:37So me seeing how fast we're able to generate these images,
05:39I thought, OK, well, I should just maybe pitch this
05:42to Jensen or somehow do this internally.
05:44But COVID was happening.
05:46We're all getting sent home.
05:47So I thought that was maybe a good time to maybe just leave
05:49and kind of try doing this on my own, applying
05:52these different GAN architectures.
05:54So yeah, that's when my co-founder Kalen, we both grew up in the same,
05:59we've known each other since sixth grade back in Michigan.
06:02And I was like, yo, man, whatever you're doing over in Michigan, forget that.
06:05Move out in Mountain View with me in my living room.
06:07There's a Costco across the street.
06:09We'll live off these hot dogs for a second.
06:10They're $1.50.
06:11And we just had a few savings.
06:13We had like eight months of savings.
06:14And that's what really kind of built the conviction for, OK,
06:17let's try figuring this out.
06:19And some really popular artists and designers within the industry,
06:22like Scott Robertson, spotted us super early,
06:24started sharing our works.
06:26And that's kind of how we got the momentum.
06:27And then investors started picking it up in Silicon Valley.
06:30Yeah, you've raised $20 million so far.
06:32Today, around $25, yeah, $25 million.
06:35Yeah, close enough.
06:36You've raised $25 million so far.
06:38What's your advice for anyone looking to raise money?
06:41And how did that process work for you?
06:44Honestly, the number one thing is just picking something
06:46that you're genuinely passionate about.
06:49Since I'm genuinely an artist and designer,
06:52I just care a lot about this problem enough to where
06:54it doesn't really feel like I'm building a company.
06:57It's like I'm just trying to solve a problem for myself.
07:00And other people just happen to also have that problem.
07:02So I think as long as you can get across that,
07:05one, the problem that you're solving is extremely big
07:07and can be really, really big.
07:08But two, that you're the person to do it.
07:13It just makes a lot more sense.
07:15And I think a lot of investors and things,
07:16when they see that, they can kind of see the longevity
07:18of the founder really being subscribed to that problem
07:21because they have a very close connection to it personally.
07:24So that would be my two cents or advice
07:26is finding something you're just naturally passionate about.
07:29You shouldn't ever feel like you're trying to do something.
07:31This just very much feels like I'm just,
07:33I love video games.
07:34This just feels like that.
07:36What's your favorite video game?
07:36Right now it's Deadlock.
07:38It's like this game that's invaded by Valve.
07:40I love Gabe Newell over at Valve.
07:42It's the future.
07:44I think that's gonna be like the future
07:45of all video games and e-sports.
07:47Yeah, that's it.
07:48So in a few short years, you went from COVID lockdown,
07:51living next to Costco,
07:53so you could have your $1.50 hot dogs.
07:55They never change in inflation.
07:56They keep it going.
07:57I love that.
07:58So you go from eating your $1.50 hot dogs
08:00to having $25 million in your coffers.
08:04How has that changed what you do?
08:06Um, honestly, nothing really.
08:09Like it's, my life's like, my life's-
08:11I'm sure you have some more employees.
08:12Yeah, now we have employees and stuff.
08:13We've got like an office and things like that.
08:15I am no longer like struggling to make ends meet
08:18and things like that.
08:18But I would say my mindset and like the hunger
08:22to still want to solve the problem is like,
08:24if not almost amplified, right?
08:25Because your sense of responsibility has increased.
08:28So nothing as far as like my drive
08:30and what I'm trying to do has necessarily changed.
08:32But I would say the efficiency in which I can do that
08:35and the tools around me to make it possible
08:38has definitely helped a ton.
08:41But fundamentally things are relatively the same,
08:43I would say.
08:44Yeah.
08:44So far, what's the biggest bet you've had to make
08:47as the founder of this company?
08:49I would say it's the idea of just implementing AI
08:57and creative workflows.
08:58Like AI is a very polarizing subject.
09:01And our approach of having the drawing
09:04being the driving force of the application
09:06has allowed us to kind of stand out
09:08in the sense where we're not in a position
09:10where artists and designers feel like we're replacing them
09:13or kind of automating them away.
09:15So taking this bet that this vision of drawings
09:20being the kind of core value of the application
09:25has been, I would say, the bet there.
09:26We really didn't understand if people would actually
09:29perceive that correctly
09:30or if it would actually be accepted at all.
09:32But it's been quite frankly, yeah, the opposite
09:35where people kind of understand what we're trying to do here.
09:38And we're very much in the acceleration camp
09:40versus automation.
09:41Yeah.
09:41Those are two different things.
09:42That's great.
09:43You read my mind.
09:43Speaking of AI, obviously the spectrum goes
09:45from everyone saying AI is overhyped, overinvested
09:50on one side and the other spectrum says
09:52this is going to be Terminator
09:53and they're going to take over the world.
09:54Yeah.
09:54What is in your mind the current state of AI
09:58and where do you think we're landing on that spectrum?
10:01Yeah, I love this question.
10:01That's a great question.
10:02So I really think right now vertical integration,
10:06meaning like specific subject matters
10:09that people know a lot about
10:11is where you're going to see the most value extracted.
10:14So for example, someone who's maybe focused purely
10:16on like patent lawyers, we're focused purely
10:19on like industrial design.
10:20And I think right now we're more so in this,
10:23you know, a lot of people describe our tool
10:25as it's very much an intern currently
10:26as far as like you're still having to correct it,
10:28maybe still have a lot of human touch in there.
10:31But we're slowly going to work towards it
10:33being more so a colleague
10:34where it's kind of a co-pilot in a lot of ways.
10:36So with that being said, I really see AI
10:39as more so of an accelerant to workflows and processes
10:42rather than a full automatic automated
10:45zero to 100 kind of process, right?
10:47Where people are talking about now these like agents
10:49and things that are kind of like
10:50go out and do their own thing.
10:52I think we're still a little bit of ways from that.
10:54So we're very much focused more so on the idea of,
10:56okay, AI is this thing that you work alongside of
10:59rather than it replacing you.
11:00And I think we're going to be there for a second.
11:02Yeah, at least a few years.
11:03What do you as the founder and CEO,
11:06what do you focus on right now?
11:07Like what is the, what's your goal?
11:09What's the main project?
11:10Like what is, what are you drilling down on every day now?
11:14Um, right now, you know, there's this phase that happens
11:17where you're, as for most founders go through,
11:19where you're kind of, you're building a product
11:20and the next thing you know,
11:21you're building a company, right?
11:22So those are kind of like two different things.
11:24It's more of a mindset shift, I would say.
11:25So right now I'm really focused on understanding,
11:28I guess the people side of this.
11:30How do you actually find and recruit people
11:32that are not only passionate,
11:35but genuinely are aligned with what you're,
11:37how you see the future.
11:38And that's just a difference.
11:40You can't like learn this.
11:41You can read as many books as you want.
11:42A lot of it's just, you got to just do it
11:44and get your hands wet and make mistakes
11:45and learn from that.
11:46So I have to say my main focus right now
11:48is truly building a team and trying to understand,
11:50okay, how big can this really get and be?
11:52Yeah.
11:52Cool. Fast forward a year from now,
11:54what are we talking about?
11:55Oh man.
11:56With you, with you and your company,
11:57what are you working on?
11:58Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:58What's the products?
11:59What do we got?
12:00Yeah.
12:00So I think a year from now,
12:01we're going to really achieve the concept
12:03of paper to production quite literally,
12:05where a drawing is all you need
12:07to create the physical product.
12:08So paper, 3D printer starts going off
12:11and that's just going to fundamentally change
12:13what it means and to build products, right?
12:15Products are these things that take
12:17multiple years to create it, right?
12:19So, you know, when you start to make design
12:22so accessible like that,
12:24what does it mean for the economy or the world
12:26where anyone can make their own products?
12:27Do people still want to go buy silverware
12:29or let's say go buy their favorite shoe?
12:31They can just like create it themselves.
12:34So that's the question.
12:36And I think a year from now,
12:37we're going to have really big strides
12:39on going from paper to 3D
12:41in a lot of those regards.
12:43We're talking about, you know,
12:45how AI is changing everything.
12:46We're talking about your vision
12:47of turning a sketch on a cocktail napkin
12:50into a product in your own house.
12:52What are your big predictions right now
12:54with the industrial design manufacturing world?
12:57Yeah, yeah.
12:58I think what you're going to see is
13:01a explosion as far as
13:04almost these micro teams
13:05that are able to achieve these, right?
13:06You're already starting to see smaller studios
13:08be able to output a lot more.
13:10So when less people can output more things,
13:14you're going to see just, I think,
13:16not less people,
13:17but more so microcosms of creative groups
13:21of people being able to do this, right?
13:23Like now a sixth grader or a high schooler
13:25can do what normally would have taken
13:27hundreds of people,
13:28similar to what happened with programming.
13:30You know, programming used to be
13:31just this thing that
13:32very specialized people could do,
13:33but now things like Cursor
13:35or these kind of AI assistants,
13:37you see eight-year-olds
13:38building applications in video games
13:39and Roblox and things like that.
13:41So I think now we're just going to see that
13:43in the physical world.
13:44I think the last 10, 20, 30 years
13:45have been more so in the worlds of bits,
13:48but now the next generation
13:49is in the world of atoms, the physical world.
13:50We haven't really seen
13:51a lot of innovation there just yet.
13:54So I think that bridge
13:54between digital and physical
13:56is where we're going to see
13:57a lot of huge advancements
13:58and kind of changing the perception
14:00of what it means to be a designer.
14:01Wow. And for people interested
14:03in getting into design,
14:04and maybe they're going to school for it,
14:06maybe they're doing a career change.
14:07If you can go back in time
14:08and you're like 18 years old,
14:10about to go into art school, design school,
14:14what would you tell that person right now
14:15with all this change?
14:16Like what skills do you need to get?
14:18What experience do you need?
14:20Like what expertise
14:21did you really focus on?
14:22Yeah. No, I would almost...
14:25That's a great question.
14:26And I would almost reframe it
14:27in the sense of like,
14:28what's not going to change, right?
14:30Because that's almost more important
14:31than what's going to change,
14:32especially in art and design.
14:33Tools always change.
14:35The way people do things always change.
14:37But there's always these core
14:38fundamentals that don't.
14:39For example, taste.
14:40Having good taste is relevant
14:42in any context or understanding
14:44these basic things like proportion
14:46or the fundamentals, right?
14:47These things, I think,
14:48are what's always going to be relevant.
14:50So I would really tell
14:52this 18 year old or myself back then
14:54just to kind of really double down
14:55on these things that you know
14:57aren't going to change
14:58because whatever context you're in
14:59is almost irrelevant.
15:00That's why I was able to be a car designer
15:02and then go work at NVIDIA,
15:03but they make very different products.
15:05And it's because some of these
15:06like fundamental design characteristics
15:09were relevant in both spaces.
15:11So I think that's the kind of knowledge
15:13I would pass on to the younger generation
15:15or the past, I would say, yeah.
15:17You mentioned taste.
15:18Yeah.
15:18Can somebody learn taste
15:20or are you just born with good taste or not?
15:22I don't think you can be born with it,
15:23to be honest.
15:24Like maybe, like you could kind of learn it
15:29to a degree.
15:29You could understand,
15:30you could learn the science behind of it.
15:32But I'm a huge fan of like Rick Rubin, right?
15:34Like those kind of people.
15:34And I truly think it's like feels
15:36like you can't really calculate it.
15:37It's something that's more,
15:40it's like how you feel about it, right?
15:42How you make people feel,
15:43like how do you feel when you open your iPhone
15:45and turn it off?
15:45And like that's not something
15:48you can like put on paper
15:49and try to calculate.
15:51It's truly like something
15:52that just comes with it.
15:54I don't know.
15:54It's really hard to teach it, I would say.
15:57My last question, you're an artist.
15:59You did car design.
16:00What is your ultimate dream car?
16:02Oh, I like dream car.
16:06Oh man, oh man.
16:07911 GT3 RS.
16:08It's gotta be the Porsche 911 GT3 RS in particular
16:13or the McLaren P1, those two.
16:15But GT3 RS, I think would still be the one.
16:18That's my favorite car.
16:19That was right top of mind.
16:20Decisive answer.
16:21Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:21That was great.
16:22Jordan Taylor, thanks so much for joining us.
16:24Thanks for having me.
16:24Awesome.
16:24Awesome.
16:25Cool.