Cascade

Chris Hladczuk is the co-founder and CEO of Hanover Park, a modern AI-powered fund administration platform transforming how venture capital and private equity firms manage their back office. By combining AI agents with human expertise, Hanover Park eliminates the inefficiencies of traditional fund admin, replacing outdated spreadsheets, fragmented SaaS tools, and manual workflows with a fully integrated, automated system.With a focus on high-speed, AI-native fund accounting, they’ve already onboarded over $1B in assets under administration and are scaling rapidly. Chris previously scaled $100M+ in AUM in 100 days at Meow and built a massive audience on Twitter, using social capital as a growth engine. Now, he’s applying that same intensity and execution speed to disrupt one of finance’s most archaic industries.We spoke about→ Why he avoids hiring from Big Tech and instead looks for scrappy builders→ The social capital flywheel and how it landed him his biggest deal in a week→ Why most early-stage founders fail by playing “startup” instead of doing the workLearn more about Chris and his company below:hanoverpark.comlinkedin.com/in/chris-hladczukx.com/chrishlad

Fredrik Haga, co-founder and CEO of Dune, shares his journey from near bankruptcy to leading a billion-dollar crypto unicorn. He dives into the chaotic crypto landscape of 2015 and the evolution of blockchain analytics. Haga discusses managing massive data challenges across networks like Ethereum and Solana, and how community engagement is critical for their platform's success. He also highlights the balancing act between catering to both crypto experts and beginners, ensuring data accessibility and user-friendly experiences.

Daniel Vassilev is the co-founder of Relevance AI, an AI workforce platform that provides businesses with low-code tools to build custom AI agents that can autonomously perform detailed workflows or tasks, with the ultimate mission of "giving shape to the world's qualitative data, making it simple to discover and understand."They've secured $15 million in Series A funding, attracting over 6,000 companies in just four months, with their platform executing more than 250,000 tasks.We spoke about → him building apps that reached millions of users as a teenager→ his recent feature in Forbes Asia's 100 To Watch list→ the companies pivot from vector embeddings and databases to AI agent workflows → and automation, as well as the democratising of the technology through low-code solutions.Learn more about Daniel and his company below:linkedin.com/in/daniel-vassilevrelevanceai.com

Matthew Achariam, founder of Clay Earth, an AI-powered platform transforming relationship management, discusses his journey and innovative vision. He emphasizes the importance of curiosity and design in product development. Matthew addresses overcoming skepticism in a challenging market and how beauty enhances user experience. He shares insights on building meaningful connections and intentional growth in a competitive landscape, while managing a staggering 1.2 billion interactions for half of the Fortune 500 companies.

Greg Foster is the co-founder and CTO of Graphite, a modern code review platform that’s raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz to enhance developer productivity and streamline the software development process. He discovered that developers outside of large tech companies lacked access to efficient code review tools while working various engineering roles at Google and Airbnb, leading him to team up with his former Harvard computer science classmate and go all-in on solving the problem.With Peter Levine (the first investor in GitHub) on their board and a lean, growing team, their customer base already includes notable companies like Snowflake, Asana, Bolt, Brex, and Ramp to name a few. We discussed the entire process behind the technology, covering everything from;→ the stacked changes workflow→ to the GitHub integration → and AI-powered code reviewas well as→ how to recruit top engineering talent → and the intangible benefits that come with fundraising from credible investors.Learn more about Greg and his company below:linkedin.com/in/gregmfostergraphite.dev

Andrew Rea is the founder of Taxwire, a software company that specialises in automating sales tax compliance, allowing businesses to focus on their core operations without the burden of tax paperwork.They have raised $2.7 million in pre-seed funding, oversubscribing their round by over $1 million in just 5 weeks.From starting his entrepreneurial journey out of his suitcase building neighbourhood EVs, he’s gone on to work for companies like On Deck, helping them raise over $100 million from the likes of Founders Fund, Tiger Global, & many others.To then, Head of Growth at Capital, a fundraising and banking platform for startups.He’s also an active angel investor, having invested around $3 million into over 20 startups with his friend and business partner and alongside top venture firms like Sequoia and a16z.Learn more about Andrew and his company below:linkedin.com/in/andrewreataxwire.com

Kevin Jiang is one of the co-founders of Mangusta Capital, an early to growth stage venture capital firm investing in consumer technology and vertical AI.With notable portfolio companies including Elon Musks xAI and Vanessa Hudgens Caliwater.They have currently deployed around $50 million in proprietary capital and plan to deploy another $150 million over the coming years.Prior to Mangusta, Kevin started his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, then quickly transitioned to private equity at Apollo, did long/short equity at Soros Fund Management, and eventually became VP on the founding Investment Team of SoftBank’s Vision Fund, leading deals like Flexport, Shipbob, and Wiz.We spoke about → the sacrifices his parents made as first-gen American immigrants in the 1980s semiconductor industry→ his old thesis on tax inversion from Harvard’s archive→ Softbank’s approach to valuations→ the future of AI application layer investing→ and how he’s going about fundraising $150 million dollars.Learn more about Kevin and his fund below:linkedin.com/in/jiangkevinmangustacap.com

Ron Nachum is the co-founder and CEO of Sapien, an AI company developing “autonomous co-workers” for financial analysis. After seeing how much time investment advisors waste on repetitive financial tasks he dropped out of his computer science at stats degree at Harvard to create a solution alongside his close friends.In just 9 months, they’ve raised $8.7 million in funding led by General Catalyst, and attracted a range of paying customers across industries like healthcare and manufacturing.They’re able to reduce over a 100 hours of manual work to just five minutes and are now on a mission to land partnerships and contracts with Fortune 500 companies.We spoke about → him building liquid-fuelled rockets in high school→ what poker at Harvard taught him about entrepreneurship→ technical challenges and product data integration→ personalisation in finance→ and the application in the government with new departments like DOGE.Learn more about Ron and his company below:linkedin.com/in/ron-nachumgetsapien.com

Kian Sadeghi is the founder and CEO of Nucleus Genomics, a leading biotechnology company revolutionising DNA analysis and health insights through affordable whole-genome sequencing (WGS).Kian doesn’t have a PhD, is actually a Penn dropout and is only 24.He’s raised $18 million from the likes of Peter Theil’s Founders Fund and Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six to capitalise on  the plummeting costs of DNA sequencing from $1 billion in 2001 to well below $1,000 today.Nucleus offers whole-genome sequencing for just $399, plus a $39 annual membership fee, delivering detailed reports on over 800 health conditions, including various cancers, heart diseases, and mental health disorders.We spoke about→ his marketing stunt at the Tyson vs Paul fight→ the importance of intellectual alpha and innovators dilemma→ the cost of healthcare administration→ and the future of consumer health companiesLearn more about Kian and his company below:linkedin.com/in/kian-sadeghimynucleus.com

Neil Mitra is the founder and CEO of Mitra Biotechnologies, a startup that is creating novel patented rapid point-of-care diagnostics and predicting disease conditions.Backed by Cory Levy, Pareto Holdings,  Alchemist Accelerator, and Andrew Cote. They are currently developing nanomaterial platforms to make blood tests 1000X cheaper, 10X faster, and 50X more accurate at the point-of-care. Neil is also a Global Teen Leader, Presidential Scholar at UBC, Mason Foundation Member, and Z Fellow.We spoke about → his early science projects→ innovations in rapid diagnostics→ the dark side of biotech exits→ the future of preventative healthcare→ AI’s impact→ and the quest for digital biology.Learn more about Neil and his company below:linkedin.com/in/neilmitra