What happens when a broke Kiwi founder and his team fly to San Francisco with only $15,000 left, sleep in a basement, and end up playing poker with the investor who changes everything?

In this episode of Startup Theatre, Troy Hammond sits down with Alistair McLeay, co-founder and co-CEO of Grw AI, one of New Zealand’s most ambitious artificial intelligence startups.

Alistair shares how a chance poker game in San Francisco helped him land funding and kickstart the creation of what he calls a “superhuman AI sales leader.”

Grw AI is a tool that coaches, trains, and lifts entire sales teams like the world’s best manager on steroids.

🔑 Topics Covered:

• ​The high-stakes gamble that almost ended his company before it began
• ​What it takes to raise capital when you have nothing left but conviction
• ​Why AI could make us more human, not less
• ​The personal cost of chasing something world-changing
• ​How the next five years of AI will transform how we think and work

From investing in San Frasnciso, to neural networks, this is a story about risk, belief, and the blurred line between human intuition, machine intelligence, and moral responsibility.If you care about startups, AI ethics, and the people shaping the future of artificial intelligence when everything is on the line, this one is for you.

🔥 Soundbites:

• ​We had $15,000 left and nowhere to sleep, so we went all in.
• ​We’re not building AI to replace people. We’re building it to make them superhuman.
• ​The real danger isn’t that AI will take your job. It’s that it might take your purpose.
• ​We taught machines to think, but can we teach them to care?
• ​This isn’t just a startup story. It’s a glimpse into the next chapter of humanity.
• ​You don’t need comfort to build the future. You need obsession.

🎧 Tune in now – and take notes. Alistair doesn’t hold back.

This podcast was brought to you by our amazing sponsor in ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Vanta⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🙌🏻

Get USD $1000 off ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Vanta⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ using the link ⁠https://www.vanta.com/startup