Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders S12 E3: Arsham Ghahramani, Ribbon
Jan 27, 2026
Arsham Ghahramani, founder and CEO of Ribbon and former head of machine learning, built an AI voice interviewer to scale candidate screening. He talks about using off-the-shelf voice models for an MVP, then building low-latency real-time models. He discusses team hiring traits, scalability testing to millions of interviews, and a vision for a 48-hour hiring cycle.
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AI Resumes Kicked Off Ribbon
- Arsham Ghahramani and his cofounder noticed a flood of AI-generated resumes while hiring at Ezra.
- That observation sparked the idea to build Ribbon as an AI interviewer to replace superficial resume signals.
Interviews Replaced Resumes As Signal
- Recruiters stopped trusting resumes because they're easy to fabricate and mass-send.
- Interviews became the primary remaining signal of candidate quality.
Validate Fast, Then Fix Critical Tech
- Start with off-the-shelf tools to validate an idea quickly, but watch for critical failure modes.
- If third-party components break core UX (e.g., screaming TTS), plan to build those parts in-house.