Forget PowerPoint; the Future of Business Explainers is Like a Video Game
Synthesia, With a $200M Series E, Reimagines Video as Interactive AI
If you’d like to join me – and peers – for deeper conversations on innovation and leadership, get on this list for Fortt Knox Executive Communities, launching soon: mba.fortt.com.
This is an AI-assisted summary of my Fortt Knox 1:1 with Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli. View the full interview here:
In this Fortt Knox 1:1, Jon Fortt speaks with Victor Riparbelli, co-founder and CEO of Synthesia, about how AI is transforming video from a passive medium into an interactive, adaptive interface for work. Riparbelli frames Synthesia’s next chapter around “AI-native video”: content that talks back, tests understanding, role-plays scenarios and generates data rather than just views.
The conversation spans product vision, economics and personal origin. Riparbelli explains why enterprise use cases such as training, sales enablement and recruiting are the first to justify AI inference costs. Photo-realistic avatars, he says, are only one tool in a broader visual-communication stack. He traces his path from a childhood immersed in books, games and music in Denmark to early entrepreneurial experiments and the difficult early years of Synthesis, including a nail-biter fundraising moment.
The interview closes with a major milestone: a $200M Series E led by Google Ventures, underscoring Synthesia’s ambition to make interactive video a core layer of enterprise software, not just a content format.
Today’s Toughest Problem
Synthesia’s central challenge is redefining video in an AI era. Riparbelli argues that traditional video – recorded once, watched identically by everyone – is limited. AI enables video that adapts to the viewer. It can answer questions, role-play customers, test comprehension, and branch based on responses. Solving this requires breakthroughs across the stack, from model reasoning and controllability to rethinking the video player itself. If done right, video begins to resemble a game, structured yet interactive. That unlocks far more value than passive viewing.
Origin Story
Riparbelli grew up in Copenhagen, the oldest of three brothers, in a household shaped by media and business. His mother was a journalist who later became CEO of a Danish lifestyle-media company; his father ran traditional, non-tech businesses. Partially deaf in one ear as a child, Riparbelli retreated into books, computers and games, cultivating deep curiosity and imagination. Early entrepreneurial instincts showed up in gaming arbitrage (selling World of Warcraft accounts) and later building low-cost websites and e-commerce stores for local businesses. These experiences honed a blend of product intuition and commercial pragmatism that would later define his leadership style.
Death Valley
Synthesia’s lowest point came after its first $1M raise, when the company struggled to secure a follow-on round. Generative AI was not yet a hot category, and the team initially asked for too much capital at too high an implied valuation. After widespread rejections, they were set to run out of money within months. The breakthrough came by resetting expectations and raising a smaller $3M round from believers who trusted the team’s ability to figure it out. That capital funded the first real product iteration, launched in 2020, which became the company’s inflection point.
Core Belief
Riparbelli’s leadership philosophy centers on staying calm under pressure. He believes panic is wasted energy; leaders should focus on what they can control and maintain optimism even in crisis. Humor and shared laughter, he argues, build trust and cohesion when stakes are highest. This mindset – staying composed and positive – became a durable operating principle forged during Synthesia’s most precarious moments.
Strategic Imperative
With $200M in new capital, Synthesia’s imperative for 2026 is to push video beyond communication into lightweight process automation. Interactive video can validate learning, generate performance data, and even conduct first-round interviews, turning content into an operational asset. Riparbelli sees enterprise training and recruiting as the beachhead, where AI video delivers ROI by saving time and creating new insight. Longer term, Synthesia aims to make AI-native, conversational video as easy to create as a PowerPoint – and far more powerful.
If you’d like to join me – and peers – for deeper conversations on innovation and leadership, get on this list for Fortt Knox Executive Communities, launching soon: mba.fortt.com.