Jeremiah Owyang is a Silicon Valley–based General Partner at Blitzscaling Ventures, where he leads early-stage AI investing focused on startups that can rapidly scale by leveraging network effects and defensible distribution. A longtime tech analyst and operator since the dot-com era, he has anticipated and helped shape multiple innovation waves from Web 2.0 to today’s AI agent ecosystem, drawing on prior roles as an industry analyst, founder of technology research firms, and advisor to global brands. Beyond investing, he is an ecosystem builder who founded Llama Lounge, one of the largest GenAI startup event series, and is a sought-after global speaker on how AI, scale, and networks are transforming business models and competitive advantage.Topics
#AI #VentureCapital #Blitzscaling #NetworkEffects #FutureOfWork
Lance Matthews is a partner at DTCP and is responsible for sourcing investment opportunities and making investment recommendations in the US. Lance’s DTCP investments include: Arctic wolf networks, Innovid (NYSE: CTV), StreetlightData (acquired by Jacobs), and Cohere. Lance joined from Touchdown Ventures, a SF based Corporate Venture firm, where he worked on company sourcing, investment analysis and diligence, and portfolio management. Prior to that, he spent time at Illuminate Ventures, a seed stage Enterprise SaaS firm and at Twitter (now X) holding a position in the finance department. Lance holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, a master’s degree in History from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and graduated Summa Cum Laude from CSU Fresno.Topics:
#AIInference #GroqFunding #DTCPGrowth #AICybersecurity #EdgeAI #GenAI #VCTech #SovereignAI #InferenceTrends #ArcticWolf
Paul serves as the Managing Partner at Depth Ventures, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture firm focused on backing B2B SaaS founders at the intersection of finance and AI operations, leveraging his extensive operator experience as former CFO of AI-powered accounting platform Pilot and VP of Corporate Finance & Strategy at Dropbox to guide teams in building scalable business models and data-driven operating rhythms. Prior to launching Depth Ventures, he was a Partner at Index Ventures, where he led investments in category-defining B2B SaaS and fintech leaders including Datadog, Built, Confluent, and Slack, honing his expertise in high-growth software scaling and market creation. With a track record spanning operational leadership at tech unicorns and venture investing, Paul bridges finance, AI ops, and enterprise software to empower founders navigating complex GTM challenges in today's competitive landscape.Topics:
#VC #B2Bsaas #AIops #Fintech #DepthVentures #IndexVentures #Startups #FounderJourney #SaaSscaling
Ali Ansari is the Founder and CEO of micro1, an AI-powered recruitment platform he launched in 2022 to help companies vet and hire top global engineering and domain talent using advanced screening models. A Bay Area-based entrepreneur, he previously built a successful software development agency and other ventures, experiences that directly informed micro1’s focus on scalable, AI-led talent assessment. Ali studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in three years to concentrate on growing micro1, and now also conducts AI research at Stanford on the efficacy and bias of AI-assisted recruitment systems, positioning him at the intersection of cutting-edge research and practical company-building in the future of work.Topics:
#AIHiring #micro1 #VentureCapital #TechTalent #aivetting micro1 is featured on the Smart Venture Media Smart AI 100 2025 list.
Or Lenchner is the CEO of Bright Data, a market-leading web data collection platform he has led since 2018, where he has driven the company’s expansion and innovation to well over $300 million in annual revenue while serving thousands of customers, including Fortune 500 enterprises, leading businesses, universities, and public sector organizations. A former founder and operator of several web-based businesses, he first joined Bright Data on the product side before rising to CEO, a trajectory that reflects his deep focus on building transparent, compliance-driven data infrastructure. Recognized as a thought leader on AI, data ethics, and public web data, Lenchner is an advocate for keeping public web data open and accessible, viewing it as a core driver of innovation and better decision-making across society.Topics:
#WebData #AIInfrastructure #DataEthics #EnterpriseAI #VenturePodcast
Omar Haroun is the founder and CEO of Eudia, a next‑generation augmented intelligence platform for legal teams that has rapidly scaled into a nine‑figure venture‑backed business, attracting over $100M in capital from top‑tier investors on the back of triple‑digit annual growth and adoption across dozens of Fortune 500 legal departments. A second‑time legal‑AI founder, he previously co‑founded Text IQ, whose AI for e‑discovery and privacy was used by Global 2000 enterprises and ultimately acquired by Relativity, cementing his track record for building category‑defining platforms in conservative, high‑stakes markets. With a background spanning law, ethics, and AI from institutions such as UC Berkeley and Oxford, Haroun positions Eudia as the “AI‑augmented law firm” that helps GCs reclaim thousands of hours of high‑value legal work, compress outside counsel spend, and turn legal from cost center to measurable strategic advantage.Topics:
#LegalAI #AugmentedIntelligence #Eudia #LegalTech #AIinLaw #Fortune500
Bob Rosin is the Managing Partner at Antler US, a global early-stage venture capital firm with over $1B in assets under management and investments in more than 1,500 companies. A three-time startup founder who raised over $130M from top investors like Sequoia and Marc Andreessen, he led his third venture, Qik, to a $150M acquisition by Skype, followed by roles as VP of Business Development at Skype and VP & GM at Microsoft after its $8.5B sale. Rosin later drove partnerships at LinkedIn for 4.5 years as part of the product leadership team, headed partnerships at Stripe, served as Partner at Defy.vc from 2020-2025, and joined Antler in 2025 to focus on pre-seed investments, co-founder matching, and scaling ideation-stage startups. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Cornell University.Topics:
#VentureCapital #PreSeed #StartupFounders #EarlyStageVC #Entrepreneurship
Hemal Shah is a seasoned product leader currently serving as Product lead at OpenAI, where he focuses on integrating ChatGPT into workplace tools like Slack and developing features such as company knowledge powered by GPT-5. Previously, he was VP of Product, Head of Growth, Monetization & Expansion at Atlassian, Chief Product Officer at Root Inc. (NASDAQ: ROOT), and held product roles at Instagram (co-creator of Threads and DMs), Meta (consumer wallet & identity), and Twitter (Developer Tools like Crashlytics).
#ProductLeadership #AIatWork #OpenAI #EnterpriseAI #TechLeadership
Jim Tananbaum is the founder and CEO of Foresite Capital, a U.S.-focused healthcare investment firm he launched in 2011 that manages approximately $3.5 billion in assets. With a career spanning three decades, Jim has partnered with some of the fastest-growing and most influential healthcare companies of their generation, including 10x Genomics, Amerigroup, and Jazz Pharmaceuticals. A lifelong student of both data science and medicine, his vision for Foresite Capital is to sit at the intersection of biology, technology, and data to support entrepreneurs building transformative healthcare solutions. Earlier in his career, he co-founded GelTex Pharmaceuticals and Theravance, companies that together delivered blockbuster drugs and multibillion-dollar market capitalizations. Jim holds a BS and BSEE from Yale, an MD from Harvard Medical School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was also part of the Harvard/MIT HST Program.Topics:
#BiotechInvesting #AIBiotech #ForesiteCapital #JimTananbaum #HealthcareInnovation
Ashley Smith is the GP and Founder of Vermilion Cliffs Ventures, where she backs early-stage technical founders building in AI, developer tools, data, security, and infrastructure. Previously, she served as Global Vice President of Marketing at GitHub through its acquisition by Microsoft, Chief Marketing Officer at GitLab, and Venture Partner at OpenView. Her extensive go-to-market leadership at developer-first companies like Twilio and Facebook’s Parse team informs her focus on founder-led growth and durable AI infrastructure products.Topics:
#VC #AIVentures #DevTools #AIInfra #FounderStories #StartupInvesting
Philip Rathle is the Chief Technology Officer of Neo4j, where he has spent more than a decade helping transform the company from a niche on‑premise database into a leading global graph database and analytics platform used in modern AI and data-intensive applications. With over 25 years in enterprise data, he previously led Neo4j’s product organization, growing ARR from under seven figures to well into nine figures and expanding the portfolio into multiple cloud product lines, while building and leading large global product and engineering teams. Earlier in his career, Philip co-founded a customer data integration startup and held product and consulting roles at Embarcadero, Accenture, and Tanning Technology, giving him deep experience in databases, data modeling, and large-scale information systems. A Northwestern-trained engineer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, he is also known for thought leadership around graph technology, GenAI, and GraphRAG, including authoring “The GraphRAG Manifesto” and championing industry standards such as ISO GQL.Topics:
Igor Taber is the founder and General Partner of Cortical Ventures, an early-stage AI-focused venture fund launched in 2021 to invent, incubate, and invest in companies driving the AI revolution. Previously, he served as SVP of Corporate Development at DataRobot, where he shaped growth strategy, raised over $500 million in capital, and managed M&A and partnerships; before that, as Managing Director at Intel Capital, he led the AI and data investment practice, funding over 20 organizations and earning recognition as a top AI investor. A Wharton MBA graduate based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Taber remains an active angel investor, advisor, and board member for AI startups like Weaviate, Immerok, and OthersideAI.Topics:
#AICapital #VentureAI #CorticalVentures #AIInvesting #StartupFunding #DataRobot #IntelCapital
Dave Steer is Chief Marketing Officer at Webflow, where he leads global marketing to scale the company’s enterprise growth and AI-powered digital experience strategy. A veteran marketing leader, he brings two decades of experience across B2C, B2B, and developer marketing, with prior senior roles at GitLab, Cloudflare, Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, eBay, TRUSTe, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Known for unifying story, strategy, and go-to-market execution, he has led platform positioning, major AI product launches, and customer advocacy and community programs while managing large cross-functional teams. Steer is also a recognized mentor and marketing thought leader who frequently speaks on topics such as AI and the future of product marketing and building trust in marketing. Topics:
#Webflow #CMO #ProductMarketing #AIMarketing #GoToMarket #MarketingLeadership #B2BGrowth #DeveloperMarketing #BrandStrategy #Hypergrowth
Flaviu Radulescu and Ioana Hreninciuc are the co-founders of Runware, an AI infrastructure company focused on making high-performance generative media dramatically more affordable and accessible for developers and product teams worldwide. Drawing on over two decades of Flaviu’s experience building bare-metal data clusters and custom hardware, Runware designs its own GPU and networking systems plus the Sonic Inference Engine, enabling up to 10x cost savings and order‑of‑magnitude speedups for visual and media AI workloads. As business and product leader, Ioana has helped steer Runware from an early image-generation prototype through major funding rounds and into a scalable AI media platform, partnering with leading investors and powering billions of creations while keeping AI inference costs low enough for companies of all sizes.Topics:
#AIInfra #GenerativeMedia #StartupFounders #DeepTech #AI2026
Josh Sirota is the founder and CEO of Eragon, an AI operating system for work that connects to a company’s business apps and uses custom agents to provide unified, on-demand insights across everything from sales forecasts to product analytics. Based in San Francisco, he founded Eragon to help teams run their companies “from idea to IPO,” after earlier roles in enterprise software sales and go-to-market at Oracle and Salesforce. Under his leadership, Eragon has quickly grown to serve fast-scaling startups and large enterprises, positioning itself at the center of the emerging AI-powered future of work.Topics:
#AI #FutureOfWork #AgenticAI #StartupLife #EnterpriseAI #Productivity #AIOS #EragonAI #SaaS #VentureCapital
Jack Raines is a Forward Deployed Personality Hire at Slow Ventures, where he scouts the bold, the obsessive, and the slightly unhinged founders building the next wave of breakout companies. Before VC, Jack built a 65,000-subscriber Substack that landed him a Penguin book deal, wrote 50,000 words in 14 days, and worked across Robinhood’s Sherwood News, Litquidity, and UPS. A creator turned investor, he blends storytelling with venture to back founders and influential creators who want to build real businesses—not just audiences. His first book, a guide to navigating your 20s, comes out in 2026.Topics:
#VC #Startups #Creators #FounderLife #SlowVentures #JackRaines
Denise Teng is a Partner at Gradient. Prior to joining Gradient, Denise spent six years as a product manager. Most recently, she was a PM on the Meta AI platform team where she built infrastructure tools for ML workflows. Denise previously spent time at Twitter as a senior PM where she launched products ranging from ad tech and social commerce to real-time data analytics. After grad school, she joined the Walmart e-commerce APM program where she scaled merchant-facing products for Walmart marketplace and supported the post-acquisition integration of Jet.com. Denise obtained an M.S. in software management from Carnegie Mellon University. Topics:
#AIVC #GradientVentures #MLInfra #AIStartups #VCPodcast #ProductToVC
Rob Ferguson is the CTO and Head of AI at Microsoft for Startups, where he helps high‑growth founders access GPUs, frontier models, and strategic partnerships to scale AI products. A veteran engineering leader with more than two decades in AI and infrastructure, he previously served as Global Head of AI/ML for Startups and VC at AWS and has been a three‑time startup CTO/VPE with over $100M in exits, including Automatic Labs’ acquisition by SiriusXM. He has scaled engineering teams from early seed stages to hundreds of people at companies like Automatic Labs and Standard Cognition, and is known for making early, market‑shaping bets on platforms such as Databricks, Weights & Biases, and Ray. As a global AI keynote speaker, he focuses on turning cutting‑edge AI—LLM ops, RAG, and distributed training—into pragmatic playbooks for founders, enterprises, and investors navigating hyperscale cloud and modern AI infrastructure.Topics:
#AIInfrastructure #StartupFounders #VentureCapital #CloudComputing #AIEngineering
Chappy Asel serves as Co-Founder and Executive Director of The AI Collective, the largest grassroots AI community in the US with over 25,000 members across major tech hubs, fostering in-person events and online forums for founders, researchers, operators, and investors to shape AI's future. A self-taught coder from age 12, he built and sold the world's #1 homework app with 338k installs before roles at Apple—contributing to Vision Pro prototypes, Apple Intelligence, App Intents, and AI/ML eye-tracking—and brief stints at Meta and Xevo. He also founded a top-rated weightlifting app (70k+ installs), Cofactory, and a stealth project on social capital allocation, while pursuing competitive natural bodybuilding, reading 50-100 books yearly, and scouting for ventures like Madrona.AJ Green is the Founding Director of Growth at The AI Collective, where he leads the expansion of the world’s largest AI nonprofit community. He views AI as the most disruptive force humanity has ever discovered and is dedicated to building systems that provide asymmetric leverage, transforming compounding intelligence into exponential opportunities. AJ aims to create defining cultural moments in AI history through his work, driving impactful growth and engagement within the AI ecosystem.Topics:
#AI2026 #FutureOfAI #AIAgents #AICommunity #AgenticWorkflows
Madison is a Partner at NEA investing in early-stage data, infrastructure, developer tools, data science, and AI and she also leads the data and AI initiative internally for data-driven investment decision-making. She has invested in and works with companies including Factory, Datafold, Metabase, Foresight Data, Delphina, Fixify, World Labs, Sakana and more. Prior to investing, Madison was Head of Data Science and Machine Learning at growth startup Thrasio, Head of Data Science at Greycroft, and led a data science team at Facebook focused on the ad auction and deep learning with FAIR. Madison received a BS in Engineering from Stanford and grew up in Colorado performing in rodeos. She spends free time advising entrepreneurship organizations at Columbia, UWashington and Stanford. Topics:
#VentureCapital #AIInfrastructure #DeveloperTools #DataScience #MachineLearning