How to Use AI to Survive (and Even Enjoy) Meetings | Sam Stephenson

Sam is the co-founder of Granola, the AI meeting notes app now valued at $1.5B. Granola has helped me survive (and even enjoy) countless meetings, so I was excited to learn how Sam uses AI to show up prepared. We also talked about building an AI-native company without the 996 grind and what design means when agents skip your app entirely.

Sam and I talked about:

(00:00) The AI brief Sam now relies on before every new meeting

(01:27) “What did I miss?”: Granola’s most used recipe

(03:45) Why Granola hides the transcript despite user complaints

(09:37) A Granola recipe to get feedback from founders

(13:54) Why Sam feels a pang of sadness when agents skip your UI

(19:30) Why Sam’s Figma use fell to 20% and how Granola stops slop

(26:14) Nacho: The agent every Granola employee asks first

(30:58) Why most people stop improving their product way too early

Thanks to our sponsors:

Linear: The AI agent platform for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craft

Riverside: All-in-one AI studio for podcasts and video https://creators.riverside.com/PeterYang

📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/how-to-use-ai-to-survive-meetings-sam-stephenson

Where to find Sam:

X: https://x.com/samstphenson

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephensonsam/

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