Listen Here

| |

Conversation
Highlights

 

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries, the show that explores the future of tech with innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Douwe Kiela, CEO and Co-Founder of Contextual AI, an enterprise large language model company that has raised $20 million in funding.

  • The key problems that Contextual AI aims to solve, including hallucination, attribution, data privacy, and cost-quality tradeoffs in current language models, by building a next-generation platform based on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
  • The gradual nature of AI progress and the realization that the promise of the technology was evident as early as 2016, driven by advancements in data availability and hardware capabilities.
  • The potential for AI to fundamentally change the way we work, with specialized solutions tailored to specific enterprise use cases and the vision of employees becoming CEOs of their own teams of AI assistants.
  • The challenge of choosing target verticals and use cases when the potential market is as broad as the global economy, and the importance of focusing on tech-forward companies with clear AI strategies and success criteria.
  • The role of the team’s pedigree, investor network, and open-source models like Meta’s LLaMA in driving inbound interest from Fortune 500 companies and accelerating the company’s progress.
  • The need for balanced regulation that focuses on the applications of AI rather than the underlying models themselves, to avoid stifling innovation and entrenching incumbent advantages.
  • The importance of authenticity and self-awareness in the fundraising process, and the pitfalls of exaggeration or lack of clarity in one’s own strengths and weaknesses.
  • The long-term vision of transforming the way the world works by becoming the go-to enterprise language model platform, empowering employees to be more effective and productive in their roles.

Actionable
Takeaways

Learn from Analogous Industries:

Douwe draws lessons from the browser and Linux kernel when thinking about the appropriate level of regulation for AI models, arguing that the focus should be on regulating applications rather than the underlying technology itself. Founders should look to similar industries for insights on how to navigate complex regulatory landscapes.

Leverage Open-Source Models to Accelerate Progress:

By building on top of open-source models like Meta's LLaMA, Contextual AI was able to focus on contextualizing and fine-tuning rather than training from scratch, accelerating their time to market. Founders should actively seek out opportunities to collaborate with and build upon open-source initiatives in their respective fields.

Focus on Tech-Forward Early Adopters:

When faced with a broad potential market, Douwe recommends prioritizing companies that have a clear understanding of their AI use cases, success criteria, and overall strategy. These tech-forward early adopters are more likely to be receptive to innovative solutions and can serve as valuable design partners and references.

Cultivate a Strong Team and Investor Network:

Contextual AI's inbound interest from Fortune 500 companies is largely driven by the strength of their team's pedigree and the connections provided by their investor network. Founders should invest in building a team with deep domain expertise and seek out investors who can provide strategic introductions and support.

Stay True to Yourself in Fundraising:

Douwe advises founders to be authentic and self-aware in the fundraising process, rather than exaggerating or bullshitting their way through difficult questions. By staying close to one's own strengths and being honest about areas for improvement, founders can maximize their chances of successful fundraising on their own terms.

Recommended Founder
Interviews

Ryan Alshak

CEO & Founder of Laurel

Ryan Alshak, CEO & Founder of Laurel: $55.7 Million Raised to Build the Future of Gen AI for Timekeeping

Jeong-Suh Choi

CEO of Bobidi

Jeong-Suh Choi, CEO Bobidi: Nearly $6 Million raised to Deliver Better, More Inclusive AI Solutions for Developers

Ariel Katz

CEO of Sisense

Ariel Katz: The Story of Sisense ($1+ Billion Valuation)

Davit Baghdasaryan

Co-Founder and CEO of Krisp

Davit Baghdasaryan, Co-Founder and CEO of Krisp: $19 Million Raised to Build the Voice Productivity Category

Roger Luo

Founder & Managing Partner of Embedding VC

Funding the Future: Roger Luo, Managing Partner at Embedding VC

Meryem Arik

CEO & Co-Founder of Titan ML

Meryem Arik, CEO and Co-Founder of Titan ML: $2.8 Million Raised to Revolutionize LLM Deployment

Ryan Sevey

CEO of Mantium

Ryan Sevey, CEO of Mantium: $12 Million Raised to Help Teams Deploy and Monitor their AI Process Automations

Malte Pietsch

CTO & Co-Founder of Deepset

Malte Pietsch, CTO & Co-Founder of Deepset: $45 Million Raised to Build the Future of LLMs

Richard Potter

Co-Founder and CEO of Peak

Richard Potter, Co-Founder and CEO at Peak: $118 Million Raised to Power the Future of AI-Enabled Businesses

Jorge Penalva

CEO & Co-Founder of Lang AI

Jorge Penalva, CEO of Lang.ai: $40 Million+ Raised to Build the Customer Experience Operations Category

Krish Ramineni

CEO of Fireflies

Krish Ramineni, CEO of Fireflies: $19 Million Raised to Build the Future of AI Meeting Assistants

Jonathan Dambrot

CEO and Founder of Cranium

Jonathan Dambrot, CEO and Founder at Cranium: $32 Million Raised to Power the Future of AI Security

Anand Gopalan

CEO and Co-Founder of Vayu Robotics

Anand Gopalan, CEO & Co-Founder of Vayu Robotics: $12.7 Million Raised to Build the Next Wave of Robotics Solutions

Deon Nicholas

CEO & Co-Founder of Forethought

Deon Nicholas, CEO & Co-Founder of Forethought: $92 Million Raised to Power the Future of Customer Support with AI

Daniele Grassi

CEO of Axyon AI

Daniele Grassi, CEO of Axyon AI: $5.5 Million Raised to Power the Future of Financial Markets with AI

Patricia Thaine

Co-Founder & CEO of Private AI

Patricia Thaine, Co-Founder & CEO of Private AI: Over $11 Million Raised to Help Organizations Anonymize PII to Achieve Regulatory Compliance

Nikola Borisov

CEO & Co-Founder of Deep Infra

Nikola Borisov, CEO & Co-Founder of Deep Infra: $9 Million Raised to Build the Future of AI Model Hosting

Jonathan Schneider

CEO and Co-Founder of Moderne

Jonathan Schneider, CEO & Co-Founder of Moderne: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Code Remediation

Jason Corso

Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of Voxel 51

Jason Corso, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of Voxel 51: $15.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Developer Tools for Machine Learning

Ashley Montanaro

CEO and Co-Founder of Phasecraft

Ashley Montanaro, CEO & Co-Founder of Phasecraft: $22 Million Raised to Build the Future of Quantum Software

Igor Jablokov

CEO of Pryon

Igor Jablokov, CEO of Pryon: $50+ Million Raised to Build the Future of Enterprise Knowledge Management

Ravin Thambapillai

CEO and Co-Founder of Credal

Ravin Thambapillai, CEO and Co-Founder of Credal: $5 Million Raised to Build the Future of AI Security

Anand Kulkarni

CEO of Crowdbotics

Anand Kulkarni, CEO of Crowdbotics: $58 Million Raised to Power the Future of Rapid Application Development

Jorge Torres

CEO and Co-Founder of MindsDB

Jorge Torres, CEO and Co-Founder of MindsDB: $50 Million Raised to Enable Developers to Integrate Machine Learning into Applications

Alex Sambvani

CEO & Co-Founder of Slang AI

Alex Sambvani, CEO & Co-Founder of Slang AI: $20 Million Raised to Power the Future of Voice AI for Restaurants

Alan Cowen

CEO and Founder of Hume AI

Alan Cowen, CEO and Founder of Hume AI: Over $17 Million Raised to Measure and Improve How Technology Affects Human Emotion

Phillip Liu

CEO of Trustero

Phillip Liu, CEO of Trustero: $8 Million Raised to Build the Future of Compliance AI

Harry Xu

CEO and Co-Founder of Breeze ML

Harry Xu, CEO and Co-Founder of Breeze ML: $4.6 Million Raised to Create the Future of AI Governance

Gabriel Bayomi Tinoco Kalejaiye

CEO and Co-Founder of Openlayer

Gabriel Bayomi, CEO and Co-Founder of Openlayer: $4.8 Million Raised to Power the Future of Machine Learning Testing

Johannes Peeters

Co-Founder & CEO of VoxelSensors

Johannes Peeters, Co-Founder & CEO of VoxelSensors: $7 Million Raised to Build the Future of Spatial Computing

Rich Taylor

Vice President of Seek AI

Rich Taylor, VP of Marketing at Seek AI: $10.5 Million Raised to Transform Data Analysis with Generative AI

Bob van Luijt

CEO and Co-Founder of Weaviate

Bob van Luijt, CEO and Co-Founder of Weaviate: Over $67 Million Raised to Power the Future of Vector Databases

David DeWolf

CEO & President of Knownwell

David DeWolf, CEO & President of Knownwell: $2 Million Raised to Build the Future of Commercial Intelligence

Joe Witt

CEO & Co-Founder of Datavolo

Joe Witt, CEO & Co-Founder of Datavolo: $21 Million Raised to Unlock the Potential of Unstructured Data for AI

Jonathan Corbin

CEO & Co-Founder of Maven AGI

Jonathan Corbin, CEO and Co-Founder of Maven AGI: $28 Million Raised to Build the Future of Customer Experience

Ilya Preston

CEO & Co-Founder of Paxafe

Ilya Preston, CEO & Co-Founder of Paxafe: $14 Million Raised to Power the Future of Decision Intelligence in Logistics

Tom Trowbridge

Co-Founder of Fluence Labs

Tom Trowbridge, co-founder of Fluence Labs: $9 Million Raised to Build the Future of Decentralized P2P Computing