What is ElevenLabs?
ElevenLabs Inc. is a software company specializing in natural-sounding speech synthesis using deep learning, founded in 2022 by Polish entrepreneurs Piotr Dąbkowski and Mateusz Staniszewski, and based in London with offices in New York City.
Company timeline
- Jul 2026 - Mati Staniszewski said the company hopes to do for voice what it did for other AI applications, making any conversation feel like speaking with another human.
- Jul 2026 - Staniszewski noted that users can now spend an hour reading to create an ElevenLabs voice and then license it out.
- Jul 2026 - Chamath Palihapitiya said that ElevenLabs’ best customers, who were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars quarterly, have moved on to making their own models.
- Aug 2026 - Gabriel Vasquez described ElevenLabs as Poland’s candidate in the “AI Olympics,” noting the Polish government invested in the company.
Where it appears in the record
Every line below is attributed to a named speaker.
David Frankel on the real cost of passing on companies for ownership reasons.
“All of them we turned down purely for ownership. And that is hundreds and hundreds of millions of lost returns for ownership.”David Frankel · 8 Aug 2026
ElevenLabs has become Poland's national AI champion, with the Polish government investing in the company and launching initiatives around it as part of a country-level AI competition dynamic.
“There's a founder that we know that calls this the AI Olympics. So every country wants to wants to have their own candidates winning medals, right? So like for Poland, 11 Labs has become that candidate, right? And I think you know the Polish government just invested in 11 Labs and is going to do a bunch of initiatives with them.”Gabriel Vasquez · 20 Aug 2026
Founders passing on ElevenLabs, Granola, and Fractile at 1-2 percent ownership cost Founders Collective (per Frankel) hundreds of millions in forgone returns.
“All of them we turned down purely for ownership. And that is hundreds and hundreds of millions of lost returns for ownership.”David Frankel · 8 Aug 2026
People disclose more sensitive financial information to AI voice agents than to humans because they feel less shame, removing an emotional block that fintech deployments previously could not solve.
“Frequently people would naturally feel ashamed of telling the real situation with AI people are much more open to share what actually happened.”Mati Staniszewski · 14 Jul 2026
Top frontier AI lab customers, including Lovable and ElevenLabs, have stopped buying API access and are now building their own models, suggesting the API revenue model is eroding at the top end.
“All of their best customers and I talked to them whether it's lovable or 11 labs or the startups that were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars with them every quarter just last you know six months ago they have all moved on making their own models.”Chamath Palihapitiya · 24 Jul 2026
ElevenLabs: pursuing voice parity with humans by end of 2026, and enabling voice actors to create licensable AI voices in about an hour instead of logging hourly studio work.
“Now they can spend an hour reading create an 11 labs voice and then license it out.”Mati Staniszewski · 14 Jul 2026
Mati Staniszewski on Voice AI reaching human parity by end of 2026.
“We hope this year we'll do that same thing for voice where any conversation feels like you are speaking with another human.”Mati Staniszewski · 14 Jul 2026