The Ads Business Model Will Die & Lessons from Working with Elon at Twitter | Parag Agrawal

20VC with Harry Stebbings · · 1 hr 9 min

Parag Agrawal, founder of Parallel, tells Harry Stebbings why agents will use the web 1,000x more than humans, why ads break in that world, and what he learned working with Elon at Twitter.

Watch the episode 1 hr 9 min · YouTube

The gist

  1. Agrawal says voice agents need Turbo, his fastest search mode, while background agents use Advanced; coding triggers web search in only 5% of prompts.
  2. Agrawal says ads don't work when agents read pages, so Parallel pays content owners based on how much their data improves an agent's answer.

What they recommend · 3 picks

Instinct Strong yes AI tools

"I buy everything through Instinct now — other than holidays I am — I'm literally just everything through Instinct. Do you want to hear something I do on Instinct, which is absol..."

Harry Stebbings ·20 creators recommend it·Harry's AI tools →
Community Notes Software & apps

"I always liked what we called Birdwatch, which is now Community Notes rebranded. And I think that's a good idea and I'm glad people have continued working on it."

Parag Agrawal ·3 creators recommend it·Parag's software & apps →
Instinct AI tools

"You're using Instinct to make purchases for you and you're in the 0.01 percentile of humanity that is comfortable."

Parag Agrawal ·20 creators recommend it·Parag's AI tools →

Also mentioned

1:24 Parallel · "Parallel is the Google for agents. Agents need to search the web to do anything they do for you, whether..."
21:53 PitchBook · "In your job, since I'm sitting with a VC, you probably have access to a Pitchbook or like a product like..."
27:14 Uber · "If I order my delivery and my Uber Door Dash for our dear American counterparts through Instinct, that Uber..."
27:14 DoorDash · "If I order my delivery and my Uber DoorDash for our dear American counterparts through Instinct, that Uber..."
27:25 Amazon · "Amazon, their advertising business is bigger than their ecom business now. Of course, they're shutting it..."
28:13 Google AdSense · "We're effectively building an AdSense for agents showing up to read your content. So we like to pay content..."

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