Stories behind innovations and bold moves
Stories behind innovations and bold moves
Today, we’re talking about Reflection AI — the new startup everyone’s watching. Fresh with a $2 billion raise at an $8 billion valuation, it’s founded by ex-DeepMind researchers behind AlphaGo and Gemini. Their goal? To build open, frontier-scale intelligence that rivals the closed labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. We’ll dig into their technology and discuss the future of open-weight models.
Today, we’re looking at Hippocratic AI, a startup building generative AI agents for patient-facing, non-diagnostic healthcare tasks. From post-discharge check-ins to chronic care management, Hippocratic’s goal is to ease staff shortages and create what it calls “healthcare abundance.” The company recently raised a $141 million Series B at a $1.6 billion valuation, and we’ll explore how its safety-focused approach and deep clinician involvement could reshape the way patients and providers experience care.
Today, we’re looking at Fyxer AI, a startup building AI executive assistants for email and meetings. Fyxer plugs directly into Gmail and Outlook to sort messages, draft replies, and even handle scheduling and notes — all to save users an hour a day. The company has grown ARR from $1 million to $17 million in just eight months, and we’ll explore how its rapid rise is reshaping the future of workplace productivity.
Today’s episode is a little different — we’re talking about defense AI. Shield AI builds autonomous systems designed to protect soldiers and civilians by enabling aircraft and drones to operate without GPS or communication links. We’ll explore the company’s origin story, its core software platform HiveMind, and how its AI-powered drones are changing modern warfare. We’ll also look at its $5.3 billion valuation, key defense partnerships, and the ethical questions around AI on the battlefield.
Today, we’re looking at Groq, a startup aiming to redefine AI inference speed. Groq recently raised $750 million, bringing its valuation to $6.9 billion. We’ll explore Groq’s founding story, its specialized LPU chip, and how its focus on real-time AI performance positions it against Nvidia and other giants in the GPU cloud market.
Today, we’re discussing Decagon and how they’re rethinking customer support with human-like AI agents. We’ll look at how their generative AI engine differs from traditional chatbots, the impact of integrations like Stripe, and what it means for enterprises facing rising support costs. Plus, we’ll explore where this technology might go next, from personalization to new applications beyond customer service.
In this episode we explore the differences between U.S. and Chinese venture capital, from software-driven models to hardware and supply chain innovation. It highlights how biases shape investment, the role of trust networks, and why overcapacity can fuel new opportunities.
In this episode, we talk about CalAI, a fast-growing nutrition app that tracks daily calories through photos. Its founders are teenagers. While some online reports speculate its ARR could be over $30 million, we’ll focus on how the app works and its challenges.
Today, we’re discussing Sana Labs and their approach to workflow automation. We’ll explore how their AI-driven solutions set them apart in the market, particularly when compared to companies like Asana. Plus, we'll take a look at some of the everyday tasks that AI can automate to boost productivity.
Doctors today spend nearly two hours on administrative work for every hour with patients, a major driver of burnout and inefficiency in healthcare. Nabla is tackling this problem with its AI assistant, already used by over 85,000 clinicians
 across 130 organizations. The company recently raised $70 million in Series C funding, bringing its total to $120 million, to expand from reducing documentation time into building agentic AI that can also support coding, launch orders, and integrate more deeply into clinical workflows.
Today we’re looking at Crescendo AI, a company that hit nearly $100 million in ARR in just 15 months. Crescendo’s approach blends automation with human expertise to create a more responsive, scalable, and cost-effective support platform. We’ll talk about their rapid growth, the shortcomings of current business models in the space, and how they aim to fix them.
In this episode we’re talking about Gamma, the online tool for creating beautiful, interactive presentations and documents in minutes. We’ll explore how it started, how it works, how people are using it, and the challenges it’s overcome to get where it is today.
Midjourney just launched its first video model—and at nearly the same moment, found itself facing a major lawsuit from Disney and NBCUniversal. In this episode, we'll unpack how Midjourney reached this pivotal point and where it might be headed next. From its rapid rise as a leading AI image generator to the creative and legal challenges it now confronts, Midjourney’s story offers a glimpse into the broader future of generative AI.
Today, we’re looking at OpenArt.ai - a fast-growing platform making AI-generated art more accessible. We'll discuss the range of tools available and their use cases, explore how artists can train models to reflect their own unique styles, and see how OpenArt compares with other AI image and video generators.
fal.ai is a fast-growing AI infrastructure platform for media creation. Its focus is on generating images and videos using open-weight models running on its optimized inference engine. In this episode, we'll explore fal’s history, how the platform works, and how it compares with other AI infrastructure companies.
CHAI is a platform that lets anyone build and chat with custom AI characters. Founded by former quant traders, CHAI has reached $30 million in ARR with only 12 employees. We'll explore how it works, what makes it stand out among social AI apps, and where it might be heading next.
In this episode, we're talking about DevRev - a company building tools to help developers and customer support teams work better together. DevRev raised $100 million in a Series A round last year and reportedly has already reached $100 million in revenue. We'll discuss what exactly DevRev offers, how it streamlines product feedback and support, and its role in the expanding landscape of developer-focused platforms.
We've discussed CoreWeave before. Today, we're looking at another key player in the GPU cloud market: Lambda Labs. Lambda recently raised $480 million in a Series D round, with Nvidia among its investors. We'll explore Lambda's founding story, its evolution, and how it compares to others in the GPU cloud space.
Figure AI is reportedly seeking to raise $1.5 billion at a $39.5 billion valuation - just three years after its founding. What's driving this surge of investor interest? What exactly has Figure built so far and what's unique about their approach? Who else is developing humanoid robots, and what's Figure’s vision for the future? Let’s find out.
Today we're talking about a very popular AI framework, LangChain - where it came from, what it actually does, and how it fits into the broader AI landscape. We'll unpack its main components, what the team behind it is trying to achieve, and also dive into its business model and some of the challenges they're facing.