Elis Co-Founder CEO, Pound Ridge
Writing by Gia Miller
Photography by Jonathan Baskin
Born and raised in France, Tristan Jehan earned a bachelor of science in mathematics, electronics and computer science from the Université de Rennes 1 and a master of science in electrical engineering and computer science from the Institut de Formation Supérieure en Informatique et Communication before obtaining a Ph.D. focused on music AI from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Please give us a brief career overview.
I’m an engineer trained as a scientist, and when I graduated from MIT, a classmate and I used our Ph.D. work to co-develop a music intelligence platform and company called The Echo Nest. Our platform was powered by an algorithm that featured two parts: one was analyzing and indexing everything written online about the artist or song—a review, a blog post, a news article—and the other was an algorithmic analysis of the sonic and musical properties of the song. Then, we used that information to recommend music to the listener.
What made your product unique?
A big advantage of our technology was that even small independent artists could be recommended, as long as their music was available to be analyzed or someone had talked about it somewhere. We were not relying solely on listening counts and patterns like other technologies.
What happened next?
Spotify acquired The Echo Nest, and they still use our technology today. I worked there for six years as the director of research. I started a research group focused on AI for music and developed various products. While at Spotify, I scouted startups for potential acquisitions, and I personally invested in several companies, sometimes serving as an advisor or board member.
You co-founded Elis in 2020. Can you please describe it and your first product, HEARD?
Elis is a venture-backed tech company, and HEARD is an AI-based product that helps companies automate the process of learning what customers think about their product or offering. It sets up, moderates and analyzes interviews. Our AI adapts the questions it asks based on the customer’s responses as well as the information it learns across all interviews. As a result, you can run hundreds more interviews much faster—hours versus weeks. The setup only takes five to 10 minutes, and the interviews and analysis are done in real time. I like to say that we are in the business of collecting insights from humans.
What inspired you to develop HEARD?
We were exploring different product applications around voice and conversational AI, and we noticed that most applications are designed so the user asks a question and the AI answers it. We wanted to take a different approach and have the AI ask the questions. Then we discovered there was great potential for this in the research space, specifically around interviewing customers to understand what they think of a product. We realized we could streamline a process that is often time-consuming and costly so it could be done daily instead of quarterly.
What does success look like for HEARD?
Success means fast growth, as well as a lot of companies seeing the value and using our product on a weekly basis. This would indicate we found a good market and are providing valuable services to our customers.
What is the most significant challenge you are facing?
Earning a customer’s trust that an AI can perform user research effectively. Once customers try our product, they see its value and efficiency, but getting them to take that first step is the hardest part.
Can you share an example of a significant pivot during your career?
When we started The Echo Nest, we wanted to sell to businesses, but we were forced to start as a direct-to-consumer product because companies were not receptive to recommending songs. They weren’t streaming yet; they were selling music, and they didn’t care what music people bought, as long as they bought music. And they didn’t believe recommendations would lead to more sales. But that all changed with streaming; the user paid a certain amount per month, so it became about engaging the user and allowing them to discover more music. It was very difficult to market our software as a direct-to-consumer product, so we pivoted back to B2B when streaming started to take off.
What inspires you?
Pushing boundaries with innovation. Nature, architecture and design are inspiring to me. I like minimalism, and elegance is my North Star. Writing an elegant piece of code or an elegant algorithm that does things in a very efficient and nice way is very satisfying.
What’s a great piece of advice you’ve received as a founder?
Make yourself redundant. Build a company that can live on its own. Build a team, a community and a culture, then find people who can eventually replace you.
What qualities are essential for a successful entrepreneur?
Resilience, creativity and the ability to communicate your vision effectively so everyone believes it and is inspired by it.
What’s your dream?
My dream is for us all to live in peace on a beautiful, sustainable planet. Climate change is very important to me. It’s a space I’m interested in, but I don’t feel equipped; I don’t have the right background for it.
How does your website work?
Our intention, which we have successfully executed, is to make data easy to access, read and interact with. It’s divided into tabs for businesses and individuals. There are multiple topics you can click on based on the information you require, and multiple categories you can engage with.
Individuals can search for hazards, such as wildfires or flooding, in their area or anywhere in the U.S. It’s updated 24/7.
On the business end, most of our impact is dedicated to multiple concerns, including risk mitigation, insurance, climate analysis, pollution exposure, etc., so businesses can protect their assets while getting data on good environmental practices.
What personal qualities do you think are essential for a successful entrepreneur?
Broad vision, working with phenomenal people, patience and open-mindedness so that one can pivot when the need arises.
What’s your dream?
I want everyone to have the opportunity to access information that’s important to their investments and to the health and safety of the people they care about or the people in their organizations’ buildings, no matter what part of the country. We should all have the clarity needed to make better decisions as environments are rapidly changing.
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This article was published in the September/October 2024 edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.
Gia Miller is an award-winning journalist and the editor-in-chief/co-publisher of Connect to Northern Westchester. She has a magazine journalism degree (yes, that's a real thing) from the University of Georgia and has written for countless national publications, ranging from SELF to The Washington Post. Gia desperately wishes schools still taught grammar. Also, she wants everyone to know they can delete the word "that" from about 90% of their sentences, and there's no such thing as "first annual." When she's not running her media empire, Gia enjoys spending quality time with friends and family, laughing at her crazy dog and listening to a good podcast. She thanks multiple alarms, fermented grapes and her amazing husband for helping her get through each day. Her love languages are food and humor.
