Episodi

  • Runway’s Cris Valenzuela: Building The Hollywood-Friendly Video AI That OpenAI Couldn’t

    Runway’s Cris Valenzuela: Building The Hollywood-Friendly Video AI That OpenAI Couldn’t
    May 1 2026
    The ChatGPT craze was still years away when Chilean-born Cris Valenzuela co-founded Runway to tinker on visual AI models with two classmates at an NYU lab in 2018. Back then, investors weren't sold — not just on video AI, but on generative AI altogether. "There's always doubt when you get 50 rejections," Valenzuela says. "I've realized that building something special, you have to be able and willing to be non-consensus driven." Fast forward, and Runway works not just with many film studios and Hollywood, but creative teams and engineers at corporations like Allstate, Siemens and Robinhood. It's had no recent trouble fundraising, reaching a $5.3 billion valuation. And it's outlasted gen AI's heavyweight, OpenAI, which recently shuttered its Sora app. On The Upstarts Podcast, Valenzuela talks about his journey building an AI lab for artists in New York, and what the big labs missed; why Runway helps expert and amateur filmmakers alike; and why he believes creators should look past controversy around AI to embrace technology. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: collecting those rejection emails from top VCs and sharing them with the whole company to motivate his team. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:32 Why world models matter 03:57 What OpenAI got wrong 06:32 Runway’s NYU origins 13:10 Like going to the gym 16:06 A fan at ‘The Late Show’ 20:36 Cris’s Upstart Moment: VC doubts 25:30 Building at the speed of AI 30:28 Darren Aronofsky and amateur users 33:12 A new normal in filmmaking 39:05 Up next: Characters, robots and games For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod
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    43 min
  • Chapter's Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz: From Palantir To $3B Medicare Disruptor

    Chapter's Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz: From Palantir To $3B Medicare Disruptor
    Apr 24 2026
    When Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz's parents struggled to navigate Medicare—faxes, phone calls, even a trip to the Social Security office—he figured someone had built a better way. Nobody had. So, in 2020, he co-founded Chapter: a startup focused on connecting Americans to better Medicare plans, saving seniors thousands of dollars per year. Among legacy healthcare players, that hasn’t made him many fans. “I am one of the most hated people in the industry,” he says. “I’m bad for business.” On The Upstarts Podcast, Blumenfeld-Gantz shares his journey from foreign policy studies to forward deployed engineer at Palantir; how Chapter’s nationwide database of Medicare plans helped it reach $100 million in revenue and a $3 billion valuation; and why he proposes a twist on a typical startup metric: product-market-channel fit. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: when last year’s government shutdown cut off Chapter's data right at the opening of Medicare's busiest enrollment window, and his team had one week to reverse-engineer their way out. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:04 Solving his parents’ problem 08:08 From foreign policy to Palantir 12:01 Why Palantir breeds so many startup founders 14:28 Getting started and managing VC no’s 20:24 Why product market channel fit matters 26:51 Cobi’s Upstart Moment: the shutdown 32:33 “One of the most hated people in the industry’ 35:41Tuning out noise and talent density 42:37 Up next: a wider financial platform for senior spend For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod
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    44 min
  • Cohere's Aidan Gomez: The Canadian Founder Taking AI Models To The World, Not Just Big Tech

    Cohere's Aidan Gomez: The Canadian Founder Taking AI Models To The World, Not Just Big Tech
    Apr 16 2026
    A self-described "shy nerd" from rural Ontario, Aidan Gomez doesn't like to scream his startup’s name from the rooftops. But the co-author of the landmark ‘Attention Is All You Need’ paper is quietly building one of AI's most important infrastructure companies — one focused on bringing its benefits to the wider world outside Silicon Valley. Toronto-based Cohere works with major enterprises and G7 governments, providing secure models for them to build everything from email-summary apps to onboard ship telemetry on top. Revenue grew 6x last year, past a reported $240 million; with $1.7 billion in total funding, an IPO is in its sights. On the Upstarts Podcast, Gomez talks about his journey to co-developing the Transformer architecture that underpins modern AI; why he sees AI as the best shot at restoring global growth and democratic resilience; and why it’s so important that more nations than the world’s biggest benefit. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: building on ‘hard mode’ by not taking money from Amazon, Google or Microsoft early on. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:11 Cohere’s ‘takeoff phase’ 05:09 Where vibe coding falls short 08:05 Smalltown Canada to AI epicenter 14:27 Co-authoring the Transformer paper 18:52 Starting up Cohere 25:22 Why AI sovereignty matters 30:25 Aidan’s Upstart Moment 32:56 Playing on ‘hard mode’ 36:55 Ethical questions of AI 39:44 Why Cohere should IPO For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod
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    42 min
  • Decagon’s Jesse Zhang: Closing Customer Service Doom Loops With AI Concierges

    Decagon’s Jesse Zhang: Closing Customer Service Doom Loops With AI Concierges
    Apr 10 2026
    When it comes to calling customer support, startup CEO Jesse Zhang knows your pain.  ”It's just a very frustrating experience, because you're stuck in a loop,” he says. In 2023, he and co-founder Ashwin Sreenivas launched Decagon to solve the problem with powerful new technology: AI agents. Today, customers like Avis Budget Group, Duolingo and Fanatics all work with Decagon, helping it reach a $4.5 billion valuation. But as AI unlocks new possibilities in support, Zhang faces serious competition from more established and better-funded rivals. On the Upstarts Podcast, Zhang shares how Decagon wins by using speed as a weapon, but not a moat; why 10x better products can fend off the big AI labs; and how his AI concierge can help future customers beyond just solving problems. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: winning uphill sales battles with a bottoms-up hustle that turned “red dots” into green buyers. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:38 Why support was still a problem 05:34 Jesse Zhang’s founder story 15:23 Three pillars of startup strength 16:20 A 10x name and first customers 19:24 Winning with speed and scale 24:20 Jesse’s Upstart Moment in sales 31:35 Why you need to be 10x better 33:43 Revenge of the AI ‘wrapper’ 37:17 Long-running agent ‘duets’ 40:44 Your future concierge For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury: https://mercury.com/ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod: https://lightningpod.fm/
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    45 min
  • Axiom’s Carina Hong: Solving Math’s Hardest Problems With AI, And AI's Problems With Math

    Axiom’s Carina Hong: Solving Math’s Hardest Problems With AI, And AI's Problems With Math
    Apr 2 2026
    Just nine months ago, Morgan Prize-winning prodigy Carina Hong was still on an academic track, pursuing a joint law degree and math PhD at Stanford. Now, as the founder of startup Axiom Math, she runs one of the most promising challengers in a new, fast-paced category: AI for math. Recently valued at $1.6 billion, Axiom has already solved some of math’s most challenging problems, and Hong hopes it can help researchers advance the field. Her bigger ambition? To power real-time math-based verification of AI-generated code, to do away with vibe-coded slop. On this episode of The Upstarts Podcast, Hong shares her founder journey from immigrant at MIT to Oxford, and ultimately dropping out of Stanford; how she’s learning as a first-time founder to help Axiom compete in a red-hot new category; and her Upstart Moment when Axiom took the world’s hardest college-level math test. Chapters 00:48 Intro to Carina Hong 2:02 What Axiom Math does 5:51 ‘Math is AGI’ 8:48 Not replacing mathematicians 13:28 Winning the Morgan Prize 17:17 Origins of Axiom 22:22 The new math AI race 25:51 Carina’s Upstart Moment 31:47 Axiom’s business prospects 36:39 Why the future is verified coding For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod
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    39 min
  • Harvey's Winston Weinberg: From Law Associate To $11 Billion Legal AI Startup CEO

    Harvey's Winston Weinberg: From Law Associate To $11 Billion Legal AI Startup CEO
    Mar 26 2026
    Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg operates between two worlds. On one side are highly-trained lawyers who are skeptical about AI’s ability to improve their work. On the other are Silicon Valley technologists who see law as one of the fields that the biggest AI labs, Anthropic and OpenAI, can easily absorb. Co-founded in 2022, Harvey now works with more than 100,000 lawyers across 1,000 businesses, generating $200 million in revenue and recently reaching an $11 billion valuation. On The Upstarts Podcast, Weinberg talks about how a cold email to Sam Altman helped launch Harvey’s journey; why he believes lawyers are a surprise power user of AI tools; and why Anthropic is his biggest threat. Plus, he talks about his Upstart Moment: a never-before-disclosed attempt to “one-shot” company growth that saw Harvey almost merge with another company of equal size in 2024 – only to luckily pull back. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:48 Winston's path to law 2:05 Testing GPT-3 and Sam Altman 7:45 A 'risky' demo 10:42 Investor skepticism 14:23 Near-miss 'one-shot' merger 18:50 Winston's approach to hiring 22:31 Responding to skeptics 29:23 Why you should build in public 31:02 Winning over lawyers 32:46 Anthropic and the competition 35:36 Happy customers beat Twitter love For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod
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    37 min
  • Star Catcher’s Andrew Rush: Harnessing The Sun To Build The First Energy Grid In Space

    Star Catcher’s Andrew Rush: Harnessing The Sun To Build The First Energy Grid In Space
    Mar 19 2026
    Star Catcher CEO Andrew Rush grew up loving science fiction. Now he’s helping to bring a whole new generation of tech into reality in space by tackling its biggest bottleneck: access to power. “Everybody basically goes on camping trips. You bring your solar rays with you,” says Star Catcher CEO Andrew Rush. “Our daily lives are based on and enriched by space, regardless of who we are. So providing more power ultimately enriches humanity.” Rush isn’t new to the problem. He was previously CEO of Made In Space, which built the first 3D printer used in space more than a decade ago. In 2024, he co-founded Star Catcher, raising $12 million to harness the Sun’s power by beaming more concentrated energy to solar panels and satellite arrays. On The Upstarts Podcast, Rush talks about his orbital career journey from patent lawyer to space CEO. He explains why energy and power are such an important unlock for space innovation, and why space startups are slowly getting better at raising venture dollars. And he shares his Upstart Moment, as Star Catcher passed key checkpoints by completing optical tests at Jacksonville's EverBank Stadium and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center last year. Chapters: 1:38 Intro to Star Catcher 3:16 Space’s power problem 9:16 Football field-sized satellites 15:13 Star Catcher’s solution 21:48 Moonshot financing 26:15 Patience with a big vision 27:26 Andrew’s Upstart Moment 30:45 Lawyer to space CEO 33:54 Science fiction to real life 35:36 A founder’s daily whiplash For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury: https://mercury.com/ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod: https://lightningpod.fm/
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    38 min
  • Synthesia's Victor Riparbelli: Using AI To Replace Boring PowerPoints With Interactive Video

    Synthesia's Victor Riparbelli: Using AI To Replace Boring PowerPoints With Interactive Video
    Mar 12 2026
    Startup founder Victor Riparbelli has always been drawn to counterculture ideas. "Life's more interesting at the fringes," he says. When Victor co-founded Synthesia in 2017 to produce AI video, most investors didn't buy it — nearly 100 said no. A pivotal refocus away from Hollywood toward unglamorous business use cases like training videos and internal communications changed everything, helping Synthesia reach $150 million in annual recurring revenue, a $4 billion valuation, and customers across more than 90% of the Fortune 100, from Amazon to IKEA and Merck. On The Upstarts Podcast, Victor traces his journey from selling World of Warcraft characters as a teenager in Denmark to building one of AI's most surprising startup success stories in London. He shares his Upstart Moment winning over billionaire Mark Cuban and going all in on enterprise; how Synthesia has navigated deep fake fears and AI skepticism; and why he believes honesty is a rare — and underrated — competitive advantage in the AI startup world. Plus: why Synthesia's next act in interactive video could be its boldest bet yet. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:31 Victor’s origins in gaming and music 05:24 Finding startup energy in London 09:24 Synthesia’s founding thesis 12:35 Early struggles and fringe ideas 16:42 Victor’s Upstart Moment 22:13 Video at the chocolate factory 27:31 AI fears and deep fakes 31:10 What’s next for Synthesia 35:22 The rising value of human contact 38:59 Integrity in a lying startup culture 42:21 An interactive future For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury: https://mercury.com/ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod: https://lightningpod.fm/
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    45 min