Shridhar Ramaswami is the CEO and co-founder of Niva, an AI-powered search engine and chatbot. This weekend's start-ups is brought to you by Microsoft for Startup Founders Hub. Sign up today at aka.ms slash this week in startups. Go to linkedin.com slash this weekend startups and get 20% off the first six months.
Neeva CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy joins Molly to talk all things search and AI chatbots, including Neeva’s technology and the difficulty of building a search engine (1:41), Neeva’s consumer focus and business model (20:00), and the search-to-answer revolution (41:31).
(0:00) Molly kicks off the show
(1:41) Neeva’s Purpose
(5:06) The technological underpinning of Neeva
(8:00) The hurdles building Neeva
(10:26) Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub - Apply in 5 minutes for six figures in discounts at http://aka.ms/thisweekinstartups
(11:53) The problems search aims to solve
(18:31) LinkedIn Marketing - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at https://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups
(20:00) Why choose Neeva
(24:01) Neeva’s business model
(29:18) Moving from search to answers + citing sources
(35:53) The ad supported publishing ecosystem
(37:58) Pilot - Get 20% off the first 6 months at https://pilot.com/twist
(39:13) Leaving Google
(41:31) The search to answers revolution
(44:34) Compensating publishers and dealing with content moderation
(48:51) Open loop vs. Closed loop
(54:29) Neeva copycats
FOLLOW Sridhar: https://twitter.com/ramaswmysridhar
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood