Converting Cameras into Autonomous AI Agents | Rish Gupta, CEO of Spot AI
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
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38:50
Are AI Phone Agents Ready for Prime Time? | Alex Levin, CEO of Regal
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
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45:21
What it Takes to Build a BI Platform | Colin Zima, CEO of Omni
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-infiniteX: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi
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40:07
Building Billing Infrastructure for AI Companies | Alvaro Morales, CEO of Orb
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
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38:21
Turning Legal Services to APIs | Jay Madheswaran, CEO of Eve
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
The best place to find out how AI builders build. The host Prateek Joshi interviews world-class AI founders and VCs on this podcast. You can visit prateekj.com to learn more about the host.
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