Building low-code ML tools, being a second-time founder | Tommy Dang

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

24:35

It’s the very first episode of The Big Pitch with Jimmy Carr and our first guest is Phil Wang! And Phil’s subgenre is…This Place is Evil. We’re talking psychological torture, we’re talking gory death scenes, we’re talking Lorraine Kelly?! The Big Pitch with Jimmy Carr is a brand new comedy podcast where each week a different celebrity guest pitches an idea for a film based on one of the SUPER niche sub-genres on Netflix. From ‘Steamy Crime Movies from the 1970s’ to ‘Australian Dysfunctional Family Comedies Starring A Strong Female Lead’, our celebrity guests will pitch their wacky plot, their dream cast, the marketing stunts, and everything in between. By the end of every episode, Jimmy Carr, Comedian by night / “Netflix Executive” by day, will decide whether the pitch is greenlit or condemned to development hell! Listen on all podcast platforms and watch on the Netflix Is A Joke YouTube Channel . The Big Pitch is a co-production by Netflix and BBC Studios Audio. Jimmy Carr is an award-winning stand-up comedian and writer, touring his brand-new show JIMMY CARR: LAUGHS FUNNY throughout the USA from May to November this year, as well as across the UK and Europe, before hitting Australia and New Zealand in early 2026. All info and tickets for the tour are available at JIMMYCARR.COM Production Coordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries Production Manager: Mabel Finnegan-Wright Editor: Stuart Reid Producer: Pete Strauss Executive Producer: Richard Morris Executive Producers for Netflix: Kathryn Huyghue, Erica Brady, and David Markowitz Set Design: Helen Coyston Studios: Tower Bridge Studios Make Up: Samantha Coughlan Cameras: Daniel Spencer Sound: Charlie Emery Branding: Tim Lane Photography: James Hole…

3 years ago 42:01

MP3•Episode home

Tommy Dang is the cofounder and CEO of Mage, a collaborative AI tool for product developers. They've raised a $6.3M seed round led by Gradient Ventures. Prior to this, he was a machine learning engineer at Airbnb for 5.5 years. He was previously the cofounder of OnMyBlock and has a bachelors degree from UC Berkeley.
In this episode, we cover a range of topics including:
- Building low-code ML tools for developers
- How to incorporate AI into a product
- Building machine learning models for Airbnb's Experiences vertical
- His key learnings as a second time founder
- What he's building at Mage
- How they got their first 10 customers for Mage

172 episodes

#Tech #Prateek Joshi

Building low-code ML tools, being a second-time founder | Tommy Dang

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published 3 years ago

MP3•Episode home

172 episodes

#Tech #Prateek Joshi

All episodes

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Decentralized Data Foundry for AI | Rowan Stone, CEO of Sapien 38:22

1 day ago38:22

38:22

Rowan Stone is the CEO of Sapien, a decentralized data foundry where AI models can access verified human expertise worldwide. They've raised raised a $10.5M round led by Variant. He's also the co-creator of Coinbase's layer 2 network called Base. Rowan's favorite book: Outlive (Author: Peter Attia) (00:01) Introduction (01:09) The Flaws in Centralized Data Models (04:10) Mechanism of Knowledge Transfer and Expert Incentives (07:08) Supply, Demand, and Market Dynamics for Training Data (10:22) Chain of Thought Reasoning and 3D/4D Data Use Cases (12:22) Building the MVP: What Worked and What Didn’t (15:17) Acquiring the First Five Customers (17:59) What They Got Right and What They’d Change (20:15) How to Scale from Early Customers: Advice to Founders (22:02) Data Infrastructure Opportunities in 2025 (25:57) Designing AI-Native Databases (28:04) Biggest Startup Challenge: Messaging and Clarity (30:22) Future of Data Collection Mechanisms (2 to 5 Years Out) (32:07) Autonomous Vehicles and Demand for 4D Data (35:33) Emerging AI Use Cases: Memory, Wearables, and Robotics (36:19) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Rowan Stone: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rowan-stone/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Converting Cameras into Autonomous AI Agents | Rish Gupta, CEO of Spot AI 38:50

5 weeks ago38:50

38:50

Rish Gupta is the cofounder and CEO of Spot AI, a video AI platform for the physical world. They've raised $93M from amazing investors such as Scale, Bessemer, and Qualcomm Ventures. Rish's favorite book: Atlas Shrugged (Author: Ayn Rand) (00:01) Introduction (00:32) Video-AI basics: ingesting camera feeds across diverse networks (02:42) Edge-vs-cloud trade-offs for compute, storage, and bandwidth (05:40) Mapping the sector: hardware waves to cloud cameras to pure-software layer (07:43) Founding insight: why Spot AI attacked the video layer now (11:35) Bare-bones MVP: two-page dashboard that unified camera access (15:34) First-10-customer lessons & pruning the ideal customer profile (ICP) (18:54) Go-to-market experiments: ICP variants, pain points, and channels (23:00) Early-team blueprint: engineering-heavy, founders run sales (24:03) Hardware stance: free IP cameras to simplify one-vendor buying (26:01) Biggest tech hurdle: supporting thousands of camera brands & configs (27:00) Sales challenge: outbound fatigue forces novel GTM motions (28:55) Future vision: each camera becomes an autonomous AI agent with a "job" (30:25) Key AI unlock: massive context windows enabling flow-state reasoning (32:14) Rapid-fire round -------- Where to find Rish Gupta: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/profilerish/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Are AI Phone Agents Ready for Prime Time? | Alex Levin, CEO of Regal 45:21

6 weeks ago45:21

45:21

Alex Levin is the cofounder and CEO of Regal, a platform for AI phone agents. They've raised $82M from amazing investors such as Emergence Capital. Alex's favorite book: The PayPal Wars (Author: Eric M. Jackson) (00:01) Introduction (02:37) Evolution of customer contact tools and legacy players (06:02) Launching Regal: Origin story and early challenges (08:41) MVP strategy and problems worth solving (11:46) Lessons from 0 to 10 customers: Growth mistakes and hiring (16:13) Ideal early-stage team construction and hiring philosophy (19:06) Sequencing hires as company scales (20:58) What makes a good investor and how to leverage them (25:42) Best and worst experiments while building Regal (29:04) Internal use of AI at Regal across teams (31:49) The future of AI phone agents and near-term blockers (34:13) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Alex Levin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlevin1/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
What it Takes to Build a BI Platform | Colin Zima, CEO of Omni 40:07

7 weeks ago40:07

40:07

Colin Zima is the cofounder and CEO of Omni, a data platform that combines the consistency of a shared data model with the speed and freedom of SQL. They recently raised their $69M Series B led by ICONIQ Growth. He was previously the Chief Analytics Officer at Looker. Colin's favorite book: Blink (Author: Malcolm Gladwell) (00:01) Introduction (01:10) What Is a Data Model and Why It Matters (03:27) Gaps in the Modern Data Stack (05:38) The Staying Power of SQL (07:29) Origin Story: Why Omni Was Created (10:13) Lessons from Building the MVP (12:48) Go-to-Market Insights: Zero to Ten Customers (16:02) Founder-Led Sales and Marketing Tactics (18:58) Company Building: Recruiting and Product Challenges (21:34) Product Positioning in a Crowded Market (23:26) Design Philosophy in Enterprise Software (28:21) Omni's Tech Stack and Development Strategy (28:57) Real-World Use of AI Inside the Company (31:01) Future of Data Tooling and Role of AI (33:49) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Colin Zima: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinzima/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Building Billing Infrastructure for AI Companies | Alvaro Morales, CEO of Orb 38:21

8 weeks ago38:21

38:21

Alvaro Morales is the cofounder and CEO of Orb, a usage-based billing product for modern software companies. They've raised $44M to date from amazing investors such as Mayfield, Menlo Ventures, and Greylock. Alvaro's favorite book: Conversation in the Cathedral (Author: Mario Vargas Llosa) (00:01) Introduction (00:35) What is Usage-Based Billing? (02:27) Challenges in Metering Usage (04:14) Examples of Consumption-Based Products (05:49) Tools for Usage Metering and Billing (09:08) Founding Story and Validation of Orb (12:11) Building the MVP for a Billing System (14:48) Acquiring the First 10 Customers (18:33) Scaling Sales & Marketing After Initial Traction (21:09) Building the Team & Ideal Candidate Profile (23:26) Technology Stack Behind Orb (25:55) Real-Time Analytics vs Streaming for Billing (27:18) Other Key Components of Orb's Solution (28:38) Why Incumbents Haven’t Solved This Problem (31:09) How Orb Uses AI Internally (32:53) Most Exciting AI Advancements for the Future (34:30) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Alvaro Morales: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvaro-morales/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Turning Legal Services to APIs | Jay Madheswaran, CEO of Eve 41:02

10 weeks ago41:02

41:02

Jay Madheswaran is the cofounder and CEO of Eve, a legal AI platform for plaintiff law firms. They recently raised their $47M Series A from Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, and Menlo Ventures. He was previously a partner at Lightspeed and the first engineer at Rubrik. Jay's favorite book: The Truth Detector (Author: Jack Schafer) (00:01) Introduction (00:44) Overview of Legal AI and Industry Impact (03:53) Daily Operations in Plaintiff Law Firms (05:49) Identifying and Launching Eve's MVP (08:58) Framework for Building an Effective MVP (12:02) Acquiring Early Customers (Zero to Ten) (14:20) Scaling Beyond Early Customers: Growth Strategies (16:08) Encouraging Word-of-Mouth and Inbound Growth (18:21) Product Development and Customer Feedback Loops (20:27) Eve's Technology Stack and Internal AI Usage (22:16) Team Structure and Leadership Development (24:20) Role and Impact of Designers in Early Startups (27:15) Future Trends in Legal AI: Consolidation vs. Specialization (30:29) Exciting AI Advancements Relevant to Eve (31:58) Rapid Fire Questions -------- Where to find Jay Madheswaran: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayanth1/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Is LLM the New Operating System? | Anant Bhardwaj, CEO of Instabase 45:37

11 weeks ago45:37

45:37

Anant Bhardwaj is the founder and CEO of Instabase, an AI-native unstructured data platform. They've raised $322M in funding to date from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, and Index Ventures. He did his masters from Stanford and PhD from MIT. Anant's favorite book: The Singularity Is Near (Author: Ray Kurzweil) (00:07) Defining Unstructured Data (01:18) The Growth of Unstructured Data and Its Challenges (02:05) Evolution of Tools for Analyzing Unstructured Data (04:25) How Large Language Models (LLMs) Changed Data Processing (05:27) Do We Still Need ETL in the LLM Era? (06:05) Structured Queries vs. Direct Unstructured Querying (08:22) Applying LLMs in Enterprise Settings (09:34) Ensuring Accuracy in AI-Driven Data Analysis (11:29) SQL vs. AI-Driven Queries in Business Use Cases (13:48) Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for Enterprise AI (15:02) The Founding of Instabase and Its Early Vision (19:03) Building the MVP of Instabase (22:52) First 10 Customers: Lessons from Early Sales (26:01) Scaling Customer Acquisition: Experiments and Failures (30:35) When to Hire a Sales Team: Key Lessons (33:52) AI Adoption at Instabase for Internal Productivity (37:48) The Technology Stack Behind Instabase (42:36) Transition from OS-Based Architecture to LLM-Based System (43:45) Rapid Fire Questions -------- Where to find Anant Bhardwaj: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anantpb/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Building AI Agents That Actually Work | Malte Kosub, CEO of Parloa 33:54

13 weeks ago33:54

33:54

Malte Kosub is the cofounder and CEO of Parloa, an AI agent platform for customer service. They raised their $66M Series B led by Altimeter. Malte's favorite book: The Qualified Sales Leader (Author: John McMahon) (00:01) Introduction (00:26) Overview of AI in Customer Support (01:33) The Current Landscape of AI Agents (02:46) Enterprise Adoption of AI Agents (04:16) The Founding Story of Parloa (06:25) Deciding What Goes into V1 of a Product (07:56) Achieving 99.9999% Accuracy in AI Agents (09:29) How to Identify Customer Needs for AI Products (10:55) Scaling from Early Customers to the Next 10 (12:41) Growth Experiments: What Worked and What Didn’t (14:42) Current State of Parloa: Capabilities and Scale (16:36) Structuring Teams for AI-First Companies (18:49) Technology Stack and Internal AI Use Cases (21:29) How to Pitch an AI Product to Enterprises (23:32) Essential Tools Used Inside the Company (25:41) AI’s Role in Daily Life and Workflows (27:54) The Future of AI Agents in Customer Support (28:37) Can AI Agents Fully Replace Human Agents? (29:05) Exciting AI Advancements Impacting Parloa (30:06) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Malte Kosub: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maltekosub/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
3000 Customers, One Bold Pivot: Building the First Generative AI Copilot for Lawyers | Scott Stevenson, CEO of Spellbook 44:07

14 weeks ago44:07

44:07

Scott Stevenson is the cofounder and CEO of Spellbook. They launched the first generative AI copilot for lawyers. It's used by more than 3,000 law firms and are growing really fast. They most recently raised $20M Series A from investors such as Inovia, Bling, and Moxxie. Scott's favorite book: Zero to One (Author: Peter Thiel) (00:01) Introduction (00:06) The basics of legal AI and its applications (02:57) How lawyers use AI for contract review and drafting (03:22) Inspiration from GitHub Copilot and AI’s role in legal work (04:19) AI in litigation vs. transactional legal work (06:37) Why AI adoption in legal work accelerated (07:07) The launch story of Spellbook (07:45) Finding the right problem to solve in legal tech (10:11) How GitHub Copilot influenced Spellbook’s early direction (11:42) Spellbook’s first prototype and early traction (13:11) The moment Spellbook realized it had product-market fit (14:31) Measuring actual product usage and customer adoption (15:27) Early learnings from new customers (17:59) Growth experiments: what worked and what failed (20:48) Discovering unexpected customer segments (22:50) Company building philosophy and structuring Spellbook (26:18) Avoiding over-optimization for structure in startups (30:21) How to decide what to ship in a startup (32:21) Pattern-matching vs. narrative reasoning in product development (35:39) Lessons from AI contract review and LLM usage (36:14) Rapid-fire round…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
The Outer Loop of AI-Powered Coding | Merrill Lutsky, CEO of Graphite 41:26

15 weeks ago41:26

41:26

Merrill Lutsky is the cofounder and CEO of Graphite, an AI-powered code reviewer that's used by tens of thousands of users. They are backed by amazing investors including Andreessen Horowitz. Merrill's favorite book: Never Split the Difference (Author: Chris Voss) (00:01) Introduction (00:06) Teaching AI to Understand Code (02:40) AI-Assisted Code Generation and Code Review (06:20) Current Landscape of AI-Assisted Code Review (09:04) Motivation Behind Launching Graphite (16:52) Landing the First Paying Users and Early Learnings (21:42) Growth Experiments: Wins and Misses (26:27) Current Scale of Graphite (29:12) Tech Stack Behind Graphite (33:12) Future of AI-Assisted Coding and Graphite’s Role (35:37) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Merrill Lutsky: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/merrill-lutsky/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Behind the Scenes of AI Video | Amit Jain, founder of Luma AI 48:19

17 weeks ago48:19

48:19

Amit Jain is the cofounder and CEO of Luma AI, an AI platform to create realistic looking videos. They're backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Amazon, and AMD. He was previously at Apple where he worked on VisionPro. Amit's favorite book : Skunk Works (Authors: Ben R. Rich, Leo Janos) (00:01) Introduction (00:26) How Can AI Models Generate Realistic Videos (02:38) The Current Landscape of Video Generation (06:16) Teaching AI Models the Laws of Physics (09:47) Founding Luma: Deciding on the First Product Version (12:56) Validating Market Need & User Feedback (16:42) Key Learnings from Ray 1 Before Launching Ray 2 (21:24) Growth Hacks That Moved the Needle (24:27) From Zero Users to Today: The Growth Journey (27:53) Building a Community Around Luma (30:57) Luma’s Technology Stack & AI Infrastructure (36:42) Biggest Technical Challenges in Building Luma (39:24) The Future of Video Generation & AI's Role (41:54) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Amit Jain: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gravicle/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Building an AI-Powered Terminal | Zach Lloyd 38:06

18 weeks ago38:06

38:06

Zach Lloyd is the cofounder and CEO of Warp, the intelligent terminal powered by AI. They recently raised their $50M Series B led by Sequoia Capital. He was previously the cofounder of SelfMade and the interim CTO of TIME. Zach's favorite book : The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Author: Leo Tolstoy) (00:01) Introduction (00:07) Basics of the Terminal: What It Does and Why Developers Use It (01:48) Foundation of Warp: Addressing Terminal Shortcomings (05:00) Initial Feature Set: Building Warp’s Early Product (07:19) Product Iteration and Retaining Early Users (10:15) AI Integration in Warp: Initial Use Cases and Evolution (14:00) Technical Challenges: Building Warp in Rust (16:25) Feature Prioritization: Balancing Feedback and Vision (18:26) Warp's Tech Stack: Languages, Frameworks, and Tools (22:22) Cross-Platform Development Challenges (23:07) Importance of Design: Competitive Advantage in Dev Tools (26:10) Hiring for Design in Early-Stage Startups (30:22) Warp’s Vision for the Next Five Years (32:15) Lessons from Scaling Warp: Advice to Younger Self (34:02) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Zach Lloyd: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachlloyd/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
When Robots Go Haywire, Who Picks Up The Tab? | Amias Gerety 48:54

19 weeks ago48:54

48:54

Amias Gerety is a partner at QED Investors, a fintech-focused VC firm with $3.8 Billion under management. He was previously the Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Treasury. And he graduated from Harvard. Amias's favorite finance book: Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (Author: Walter Bagehot) (00:01) Introduction (00:46) Why Do Robots Need Insurance? (03:04) Challenges for Insurance Companies with Robot Liability (07:34) Risks of Autonomous Robots in Industrial vs. Domestic Settings (12:22) Cybersecurity and Hacking Risks in Robotics (15:41) Importance and Challenge of Historical Data in Robotics Insurance (18:52) Leveraging Telemetry Data for Risk Modeling (22:09) Creating a Functional Insurance Market for Robotics (26:42) Should Robots Be Independent Legal Entities? (28:34) Should Robots Buy Their Own Insurance? (32:30) Partnerships Between Insurers and Robotics Companies (37:11) Regulatory Framework for Robotics Insurance (38:57) Advice for Founders in Robotics Insurance (40:07) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Amias Gerety: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amias-gerety/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Building MotherDuck to a $400M Company 49:18

20 weeks ago49:18

49:18

Jordan Tigani is the cofounder and CEO of MotherDuck, a data warehouse platform based on open source database DuckDB. They've raised $100M in funding from amazing investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis, Madrona, and Altimeter. He was previously the CPO at SingleStore and spent 11 years at Google before that. He has a degree in electrical engineering from Harvard. Jordan's favorite book : The Master and Margarita (Author: Mikhail Bulgakov) (00:01) Introduction (00:08) Founding of MotherDuck (01:12) The Philosophy of Shipping Products at MotherDuck (05:02) Founding Story and Identifying the Market Opportunity (10:57) Building the First Version and Overcoming Early Challenges (12:23) Validating Customer Needs and Asking the Right Questions (18:24) Deciding What Features to Prioritize and Exclude (21:30) Positioning a New Product in a Mature Market (27:36) Overcoming Challenges in Scaling MotherDuck (32:29) Measuring Success of New Features in Enterprise Products (36:20) Structuring the Organization for Effective Execution (41:09) Preparing MotherDuck for the AI Native Era (43:28) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Jordan Tigani: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordantigani/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
AI Agents Have Brains, But Where Are Their Wallets? 47:27

25 weeks ago47:27

47:27

Amias Gerety is a partner at QED Investors, a fintech-focused VC firm with $3.8 Billion under management. He was previously the Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Treasury. And he graduated from Harvard. Amias's favorite book : The Origin of Species (Author: Charles Darwin) (00:01) Introduction and Setting the Stage (00:29) The Status Quo: AI Agents and Online Purchases (02:20) The Current Payment Infrastructure Explained (04:42) Automation Today: Auto-Complete and Recurring Payments (06:09) Why AI Agents Need Dedicated Financial Infrastructure (08:29) Historical Examples: Auctions, Bots, and Payment Systems (09:32) Identifying and Verifying AI Agents in Commerce (11:59) Risks of Agentic Commerce: Lessons from Knight Capital (14:47) Stripe’s Role in Agent Payments: SDKs and Gaps (19:46) Opportunities for Startups in Agentic Frameworks (22:49) Challenges: Disputes, Chargebacks, and Reversals (26:32) Regulation and Governance in Agentic Payments (28:24) Building Merchant Trust in AI Transactions (30:11) Needs of AI Developers: Reliability in Transactions (33:04) The Future of Agentic Commerce and Microtransactions (35:42) Building Consumer Trust in Agentic Systems (38:45) Broader AI Applications in Finance (40:13) Rapid Fire -------- Where to find Amias Gerety: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amias-gerety/ -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Decoding Metadata in AI 32:35

26 weeks ago32:35

32:35

Cody Coleman is the cofounder and CEO of Coactive AI, a multimodal AI platform to accelerate metadata generation. They recently raised their $30M Series B co-led by Cherryrock Capital and Emerson Collective along with participation from Greycroft, Andreessen Horowitz, and Bessemer Venture Partners. He has a masters degree from MIT and a PhD from Stanford. Cody's favorite books: - The Inner Game of Tennis (Author: W. Timonthy Gallwey) - Gettine More (Author: Stuart Diamond) (00:01) Introduction: Setting the Stage for Metadata (00:21) What is Metadata? Structure in Unstructured Data (01:37) Metadata in Real-World Visual Data Analysis (03:01) Automating Metadata Generation: Challenges and Approaches (06:57) Introduction to Multimodal AI: What and Why (11:25) Managing Trade-Offs in Multimodal AI Systems (13:31) Labeling Challenges in Multimodal Datasets (16:23) Characteristics of an Ideal Metadata Language (18:22) Linking Metadata Quality to Model Effectiveness (20:56) Measuring Efficiency of Metadata Extraction Engines (22:55) Role of Synthetic Data in Metadata and AI (25:30) Evolution of Data Labeling and Future of Metadata (27:27) Exciting Technological Advancements in AI (29:29) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Building Autonomous Greenhouses with AI and Robotics 37:45

29 weeks ago37:45

37:45

Gilwoo Lee is the founder and CEO of Zordi, a company that builds and operates autonomous greenhouses with mobile robots and AI. They raised $20M in their most recent funding round led by Khosla Ventures. She has degrees from MIT, CMU, and University of Washington. Gilwoo's favorite book : Masayoshi Son's 300-Year Plan (Author: Takashi Sugimoto) (00:01) Introduction (00:08) What is a Greenhouse? (01:08) Greenhouse Usage in Different Regions (02:45) Advantages and Challenges of Greenhouses (06:15) Crops Suitable for Greenhouses (08:23) Introduction to Autonomous Greenhouses (10:40) Technology Stack of Autonomous Greenhouses (12:17) Factors Affecting Crop Growth and Automation (14:00) Data Requirements for AI Models in Greenhouses (15:14) Upgrading Traditional Greenhouses to Autonomous (17:26) Tasks Managed by Robots in Greenhouses (18:45) Engineering Challenges in Robotics for Greenhouses (20:16) Future of Robotics in Greenhouses (21:39) Robotics Supply Chain and Standardization (23:23) Verticalized vs. General-Purpose Robots (27:16) Robotics Foundation Models (29:52) Economics of Autonomous Greenhouses (33:16) Future of Autonomous Farming (34:01) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Developing Battery Materials with AI 33:27

30 weeks ago33:27

33:27

Vivas Kumar is the cofounder and CEO of Mitra Chem, the first lithium-ion battery materials product company focused on shortening the lab-to-production timeline by over 90%. They recently raised more than $80M in funding from Social Capital, General Motors, Alpha Wave Ventures, and others. Vivas's favorite book : Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (Author: Nelson Mandela) (00:01) Introduction (02:25) How Lithium-Ion Batteries Work (04:56) Evolution of Battery Materials (06:46) Development of Lithium-Ion Battery Technology (08:10) Optimizing Battery Properties: Cost, Energy Density, and Cycle Life (10:52) Supply Chain of Battery Materials (13:16) From Lab to Production: Key Bottlenecks (15:26) Using AI to Accelerate Synthesis Design (18:18) Battery Cell Qualification: Process and Importance (20:13) Managing Risk in AI-Driven Battery Experiments (21:20) Data Generation for AI-Driven Battery Development (22:52) Challenges in Manufacturing Large-Scale Batteries (25:02) Current Limitations in Battery Materials Development (26:39) Next-Generation Battery Materials in the Pipeline (27:50) Advancements in Battery Technology Beyond Materials (29:52) Advice for New Founders in the Battery Industry (31:42) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Voice-to-Voice Foundation Models 39:08

31 weeks ago39:08

39:08

Alan Cowen is the cofounder and CEO of Hume, a company building voice-to-voice foundation models. They recently raised their $50M Series B from Union Square Ventures, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and others. Alan's favorite book : 1984 (Author: George Orwell) (00:01) Introduction (00:06) Defining Voice-to-Voice Foundation Models (01:26) Historical Context: Handling Voice and Speech Understanding (03:54) Emotion Detection in Voice AI Models (04:33) Training Models to Recognize Human Emotion in Speech (07:19) Cultural Variations in Emotional Expressions (09:00) Semantic Space Theory in Emotion Recognition (12:11) Limitations of Basic Emotion Categories (15:50) Recognizing Blended Emotional States (20:15) Objectivity in Emotion Science (24:37) Practical Aspects of Deploying Voice AI Systems (28:17) Real-Time System Constraints and Latency (31:30) Advancements in Voice AI Models (32:54) Rapid-Fire Round -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Digital Replicas That Can Have Real Conversations 37:40

34 weeks ago37:40

37:40

Hassaan Raza is the cofounder and CEO of Tavus, a video API platform for digital twins. They've raised more than $28M in funding from investors such as Sequoia and Scale VP. Hassaan's favorite book: Go Like Hell (Author: A. J. Baime) (00:01) Introduction (00:38) Overview of AI in video generation (01:44) AI models used in video generation (03:35) Capturing intricate facial movements in real-time (06:46) Data capture and 3D modeling from basic video input (09:01) Explanation of neural radiance fields and Gaussian splatting (10:14) Capturing facial expressions for video generation (15:22) Temporal coherence in video generation (18:05) Challenges in conversational video, including lip-syncing and emotion alignment (20:38) Inference challenges in conversational video (22:47) Bottlenecks in the pipeline: LLMs and time-to-first-token (26:58) Multimodal models and trade-offs (27:36) Advice for founders running API businesses (30:04) Pitfalls to avoid in API businesses (32:15) Technological breakthroughs in AI (34:10) Rapid-fire round -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Sovereign AI 41:24

41 weeks ago41:24

41:24

Alex Gallego is the founder and CEO of Redpanda, a streaming data platform built for data-intensive applications. They've raised more than $165M in funding from investors such as Lightspeed, GV, and Haystack. He was previously the cofounder and CTO of Concord Systems. (00:01) Introduction (00:07) Defining Streaming Data (04:14) Evolution of Streaming Data Systems Over the Last 10 Years (09:10) Introduction to Sovereign AI (14:14) How Sovereign AI Works in Practice (19:51) Infrastructure Needed for Sovereign AI (23:48) Sensitive Workloads in Enterprise AI (28:01) Foundation Models and Streaming Data (32:41) Breakthroughs in AI Related to Streaming Data (34:39) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Alex Gallego: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandergallego -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Large Action Models 30:52

44 weeks ago30:52

30:52

Will Lu is the cofounder and CTO of Orby AI, an AI platform to automate people's repetitive tasks. He was previously the Head of Engineering at Google and a Systems Software Engineer at Nvidia. Will's favorite book : Beyond Enterpreneurship (Authors: Jim Collins and William Lazier) (00:01) Introduction (00:07) History of RPA (01:04) Building Blocks of RPA (02:34) Drawbacks of Traditional RPA (05:06) Introduction to AI-Native RPA (06:38) Advantages of AI-Native RPA (08:14) Defining Generative Process Automation (GPA) (10:15) Explanation of Large Action Models (11:47) Role of AI Agents in Process Automation (13:11) Data for Building Large Action Models (14:44) Benchmarking Large Action Models (15:53) Risk Mitigation in AI-Native RPA (17:44) Changing Roles in the RPA Industry (19:14) Adoption of Agent Technologies (21:03) ROI Measurement in AI-Native RPA (23:05) Explainability in AI Systems (24:25) Fast Adoption Teams in Enterprises (25:15) Handling Unstructured Data (26:12) Digital Organizations and Future Automation (27:09) Exciting AI Breakthroughs (28:03) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Databases for AI Workloads 37:29

45 weeks ago37:29

37:29

Tim Tully is a partner at Menlo Ventures, a VC firm that has invested in companies like Uber, Anthropic, Pinecone, Benchling, Chime, Carta, Recursion, and more. He was previously the CTO of Splunk, a publicly traded company that was acquired by Cisco for $28 billion. Prior to that, he was the VP of Engineering at Yahoo for 14 years. Tim's favorite book : Infinite Jest (Author: David Foster Wallace) (00:01) Introduction (00:07) Evolution of Databases (03:17) Enduring Business Models in Data Management (04:41) Challenges and Trade-offs in Database Choices (06:20) Modern Database Architecture (09:06) Separation of Storage and Compute (10:35) Role of Indexing in LLM Applications (13:20) Handling Different Types of Data in Databases (14:50) Distributed Databases Explained (16:20) Real-time Data Handling and Requirements (18:53) Architecting Data Infrastructure for AI (21:29) ETL in Modern Data Infrastructure (24:53) AI's Role in Database Optimization (27:17) Network Architecture (30:13) Hardware Improvements and Database Performance (33:35) Technological Breakthroughs and Investment Opportunities (35:11) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Breaking New Ground With Collaborative Robots 49:22

48 weeks ago49:22

49:22

Brad Porter is the founder and CEO of Collaborative Robotics, where they are building robots that will seamlessly blend into our surroundings. They've raised funding from Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, and Lux Capital. He was previously the CTO of Scale AI. Prior to that, he was the VP of Robotics at Amazon. He has a bachelors and masters degree from MIT. Brad's favorite book : Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (Author: Virginia Lee Burton) (00:00) Introduction (02:11) Collaborative Robots Explained (05:17) Building Blocks in Robotics (11:01) Architecture of a Cobot (14:12) Safety in Industrial Settings (18:08) Sensors in Cobots (20:20) Power Consumption and Optimization (23:31) Zonal Compute Architecture (26:34) AI Models for Task Planning (30:32) Reasoning and Human Interaction (35:00) Simulation to Real-World Deployment (38:49) Multi-Robot Coordination (41:57) Technological Breakthroughs in Robotics (45:29) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Building Floor Cleaning Robots 42:24

49 weeks ago42:24

42:24

Mehul Nariyawala is the cofounder of Matic where they are building the world's most advanced floor cleaning robots. He was previously the cofounder of Flutter, which was acquired by Google. During his career, he has held roles at Google, Like.com, and Salesforce. Mehul's favorite books: - The Martian (Author: Andy Weir) - Lyndon Johnson series (Author: Robert Caro) - Shoe Dog (Author: Phil Knight) - The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Author: Richard Rhodes) (00:00) Introduction and Core Technologies (01:26) The Evolution of Floor Cleaning Robots (09:42) Constantly Updating Maps for Optimal Cleaning (12:53) Differentiating Between Known and Unknown Objects (16:03) On-Device Processing for Privacy and Energy Efficiency (22:31) Data Collection and Privacy in Home Robotics (24:32) Reducing Noise in Home Robots (30:04) The Importance of Simplicity in AI Products (32:17) Overlooked Trends in Robotics: The Rise of Rust (40:51) Challenges and Opportunities in the Commoditization of Consumer AI -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
How to extract intelligence from speech data with AI 44:56

50 weeks ago44:56

44:56

Krish Ramineni is the cofounder and CEO of Fireflies, an AI meeting assistant that takes notes, transcribes, and analyzes all your meetings. It's used across 300,000 organizations around the world with 70% of the Fortune 500 companies using it. He was previously the cofounder of Rumblii and was at Microsoft working on customer voice analytics. Krish's favorite book : Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (Author: Jack Weatherford) (00:04) Introduction (00:11) State of Play in Voice AI Today (01:26) User Perception Shift in Voice AI (01:59) Evolution of Speech to Text Technology (04:05) Extracting Intelligence from Audio Files (07:22) Impact of New Technology on Semantic Parsing (12:46) Modern Capabilities and Gaps in Intent Recognition (17:23) Advances in Speech Generation and Processing (20:58) Role of Reinforcement Learning in Voice AI (24:05) Handling Low Resource Languages with Transfer Learning (28:32) Lessons from Building and Shipping Voice AI Products (35:10) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
Designing Antibodies with AI 34:52

51 weeks ago34:52

34:52

Surge Biswas is the cofounder and CEO of Nabla Bio, an AI platform to enable precise drug design and high-throughput measurement of drug properties. They recently raised $26M Series A led by Radical Ventures. He has a PhD in Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics from Harvard University. Surge's favorite book : Permutation City (Author: Greg Egan) (00:01) Introduction (00:07) Generative AI in Drug Design (01:19) Traditional vs. AI-driven Drug Discovery (03:42) Designing Antibodies (05:06) Therapeutic Antibodies Design Process (07:39) Data Sets for AI in Drug Discovery (10:48) High Throughput Measurement in Drug Discovery (13:14) Setting Up High Throughput Screening Assays (18:46) Multiplexed Screens in Drug Discovery (21:55) Protein Characterization Techniques (24:33) Protein-Protein Interactions (28:12) AI in Protein Characterization (30:55) Technological Breakthroughs in AI and Bio (32:36) Rapid Fire Round (36:27) Conclusion -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
The Long Tail of AI: Understanding and Resolving Edge Cases 37:53

1 year ago37:53

37:53

Michael Kohen is the founder and CEO of SparkAI, a platform that delivers real-time resolutions to longtail AI exceptions in production. SparkAI was acquired by John Deere. He was previously the cofounder of Wonder. He has also held roles at Zoox and Hero. And he got his bachelors degree from Harvard University. Michael's favorite book : Star Maker (Author: Olaf Stapledon) (00:00) Introduction and Definition of AI Edge Cases (02:24) Examples of Edge Cases in Everyday Life (03:09) Importance of Edge Cases in Various Industries (04:09) Challenges in Resolving Edge Cases (08:53) The Potential of Reinforcement Learning in Addressing Edge Cases (10:48) Continuous Updating and Retraining of AI Models (29:28) Lessons Learned in Handling Edge Cases (31:39) Exciting AI Breakthroughs in Hardware Development (36:18) Advice for Founders: Focus on Creating Value for Customers -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
How Symbolic AI is Transforming Critical Infrastructure 38:08

1 year ago38:08

38:08

Eric Daimler is the cofounder and CEO of Conexus AI, a data management platform that provides composable and machine-verifiable data integration. He was previously an assistant dean and assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was the founding partner of Hg Analytics and managing director at Skilled Science. He was also the White House Presidential Innovation Fellow for Machine Intelligence and Robotics. Eric's favorite book : ReCulturing (Author: Melissa Daimler) (00:00) Understanding Symbolic AI (02:42) Symbolic AI mirrors biological intelligence (06:01) Category Theory (08:42) Comparing Symbolic AI and Probabilistic AI (11:22) Symbolic Generative AI (14:19) Implementing Symbolic AI (18:25) Symbolic Reasoning (21:24) Explainability (24:39) Neuro Symbolic AI (26:41) The Future of Symbolic AI (30:43) Rapid Fire Round -------- Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi…

Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

1
AI Disruption: Startups vs Incumbents in the Tech Stack 46:57

1 year ago46:57