Balancing risk and patience: An innovation conversation with Benoit Berthoux

In this episode of Catalyst, Tammy talks with Benoit Berthoux, co-founder of Mindy, an AI startup. Mindy lets you generate and collaborate on images, animated visuals and videos — all within Slack. Drawing on decades of consulting experience with firms like Capgemini and Accenture, Benoit shares how he made the leap from corporate life to building a product from scratch. He and Tammy explore emotional resilience at work, creative approaches to research and how AI is blurring team roles.

Highlights from the episode include:

• Meeting users in their existing workflows. Benoit explains Mindy’s core philosophy of embedding AI directly into tools people already use rather than forcing them to adopt new platforms. This approach recognizes that true adoption happens when technology integrates seamlessly into daily routines.
• The death of linear customer journeys. Tammy and Benoit explore how AI enables hyper-personalized experiences based on immediate context rather than predetermined personas. This shift allows products to adapt to users’ current situations and emotional states in real time.
• Balancing agility with patience in AI development. Benoit discusses the challenge of pivoting quickly when the competitive landscape changes daily, while giving products enough time to find their audience. This balance becomes especially difficult when larger players like OpenAI can replicate features overnight.

Check out the full episode to hear more about Benoit’s approach to product building and why he thinks large-scale enterprise adoption will come suddenly.

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Please note that the views expressed in this episode may not necessarily be those of NTT DATA.