This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Victor Riparbelli, the CEO of AI video platform Synthesia. On Monday, the company announced a $200 million Series E funding round led by Google Ventures. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
I founded Synthesia in 2017, and it’s now a $4 billion unicorn.
The platform allows businesses to leverage generative AI to create videos for a range of corporate use cases, such as reimagining training videos, generating AI avatars of company executives to deliver internal or external messages, or dubbing webinars into dozens of languages.
To keep myself going all day, I rely on a few daily indulgences and productivity hacks.
First and foremost, my bike. Unless the weather is terrible, I prefer to bike to and from the office most days. That’s my most important ritual.
Also, coffee breaks. If I’m tired or in a bad mood, I’ll go for a 15-minute walk and get an extra nice coffee at Blank Street.
My biggest non-negotiable indulgence is music. I love underground music and listen to it whenever I’m not in a meeting.
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I usually wake up between 8 and 8:30 a.m.
I wish I were one of those 5 a.m. people, but I get up at 8 a.m., shower, and head straight to the office.
I try not to check my phone before I leave my apartment, and I’m successful about 75% of the time.
I don’t eat in the morning.
I usually arrive at the office around 9:30 a.m.
Once I sit down at work, I usually go through my phone — messages, emails, and anything that came in overnight. I try to keep my early mornings free of meetings, so I have time to process things. That’s when I feel the most creative, and it’s when I prefer to do deep work. It’s not always possible since we work across US time zones, but I generally try to protect that time. That deep-work window usually runs from around 9:30 a.m. until lunch at noon.
During that time, I’m doing a mix of things: interviews, a lot of product work, and internal thinking. I’m still very involved in product and like to stay close to the details, even though that gets harder as the company grows. I focus on specific areas where I think my input is most valuable and try to go deep there.
A big part of that time is also spent reading Slack. I make a real effort to read almost everything every day. I skim most of it, and I don’t react to everything, but spending half an hour going through Slack is one of the best ways for me to understand what’s actually happening across the company.
All internal communication happens on Slack — it’s not a policy, it’s just how the company operates. No one emails internally. For external communication, I probably split my time between email and WhatsApp, with a strong preference for WhatsApp and instant messaging. It really depends on the relationship.
Lunch is at noon.
I usually have either a Joe & The Juice sandwich — specifically the club sandwich — or a salad. I actually used to work at Joe & The Juice early on, so I’ve been eating it for a long time and still love it.
I don’t really take time for lunch. I usually eat on the go or at my desk, and I’m typically done by around 12:30 p.m.
Afternoons are fairly consistent.
I switch between New York and London, and when I’m based in London, the US starts to wake up in the second half of my day, so my calendar fills up with more international meetings.
The work itself stays fairly consistent: a lot of product, which I’m very involved in, as well as hiring, and external-facing work.
My cofounder, Steffen Tjerrild, now chief operating officer, and I split the business in half. I run product, technology, and marketing, while he oversees finance, operations, and sales. In those areas, I’m typically only involved at the VP level, depending on the situation. On my side of the business, I’m involved at the director level and above, though I’ll sometimes go deeper when it makes sense.
I have an assistant who helps manage my schedule, including some overlap with my personal life. I also try to talk to at least one user or customer every week because staying close to how people actually use the product is important to me. That, along with internal meetings, makes up most of the rest of my day. I still meet with people beyond my direct reports, often through skip-level conversations.
For example, I’ll talk with our video team, who use our product for marketing, or with a sales development representative to understand what’s working and what isn’t. It’s one of the best ways for me to stay connected to what’s really happening across the company.
I usually leave the office around 7 or 8 p.m.
I usually leave the office around 7 or 8 p.m. Three or four nights a week, I go to the gym, then head home and unwind. About half the time, I’ll work another hour or two later in the evening.
Dinner is usually quick. I live alone and mostly order in, though I’ll occasionally cook eggs with bacon and avocado. When I order food, it’s often something simple like chicken and fries. I try to eat fairly healthy and avoid eating too late because it has a big impact on my energy, especially since I’m a bad sleeper.
At night, if I’m not working, I’m usually reading or making music. I don’t watch much TV, but I love serious sci-fi films like “Interstellar” and “Arrival” and Stanley Kubrick movies like “A Clockwork Orange.”
I used to read a lot of business books. “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters, and “The Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb were especially influential. These days, I read a mix of books and online content and spend a lot of time watching videos about technology, psychology, philosophy, and politics.
I usually go to bed around 1 or 2 a.m.
I’m a terrible sleeper. The only hack that I found is that I fall asleep to podcasts or YouTube videos.
I like to find ones that are interesting enough that they catch my attention — topics like physics or philosophy — but not important enough to me that I actually really want to listen to them.
Then I put a sleep timer on for half an hour — and that usually knocks me out.
