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

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Where to find Colin Zima: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinzima/

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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 

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

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Where to find Alvaro Morales: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvaro-morales/

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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 

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

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Where to find Jay Madheswaran: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayanth1/

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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 

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

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Where to find Anant Bhardwaj: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anantpb/

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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 

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

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Where to find Malte Kosub: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maltekosub/

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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 

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

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

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Where to find Merrill Lutsky: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/merrill-lutsky/

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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 

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

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Where to find Amit Jain:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gravicle/

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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 

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

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Where to find Zach Lloyd:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachlloyd/

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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 

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

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Where to find Amias Gerety:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amias-gerety/

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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