Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

Nick Schrock is the founder of Dagster Labs, a data platform that helps you build, schedule, and monitor reliable data pipelines. They've raised $49M in funding from investors such as Sequoia, Index, Amplify, Slow, and 8VC. He is also the cocreator of the popular query language GraphQL. Nick's favorite books: The Great CEO Within (Author: Matt Mochary)(00:01) Introduction and Welcome(00:39) The Origins of GraphQL at Facebook(05:24) Explaining Data Orchestration in Plain English(09:03) What Dagster Is and Why It Matters(12:37) Assets vs. Tasks: A New Philosophy(16:51) Balancing Open Source and Commercial Features(22:18) Growing the Early Open Source Community(25:26) Signals of Community Health(27:59) Landing the First 10 Customers(32:25) Culture Shift: From Engineering-Heavy to Go-to-Market(37:49) Mistakes DevTool Founders Often Make(41:21) Selective Micromanagement and Leadership Style(44:36) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Nick Schrock: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schrockn/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infiniteX: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Rehan Jalil is the CEO of Securiti, a platform that enables the safe use of data and generative AI. They've raised $156M in funding from investors such as General Catalyst, Mayfield, and others. He was previously the CEO of Elastica, which was acquired for $280M by Bluecoat. Before that, he was the CEO of WiChorus, which was acquired by Tellabs for $180M.Rehan's favorite books: Good to Great (Author: Jim Collins)(00:00) Introduction (02:14) Founding Securiti and the Evolution of Data Privacy(06:08) Why Data Security Needs a Unified Platform(09:32) Scaling Challenges and Product Decisions(13:17) The Role of AI in Data Security(17:20) Navigating the Enterprise Sales Motion(21:56) Go-to-Market Lessons from Elastica to Securiti(25:43) Competing in a Crowded DSPM Market(29:00) Shifting Buyer Personas and GenAI Adoption(32:11) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Rehan Jalil: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rehanjalil/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infiniteX: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Alberto Rizzoli, CEO of V7 Labs, shares insights on automating knowledge work through AI. He discusses the evolution of AI tools, emphasizing dual products like Darwin and Go that assist in medical research and business automation. Alberto reveals strategies for gaining initial customers and stresses the importance of human oversight in AI tasks. He explores product-market fit in the competitive landscape and highlights exciting trends like AI-to-AI communication. His wealth of knowledge and innovative thinking makes for an engaging listen!

Dave Selinger is the CEO of Deep Sentinel, an AI-powered video surveillance system. They have raised $38M in funding from Intel Capital, Shasta Ventures, and others. Prior to this, he was the cofounder and CTO of Redfin. And he was also the cofounder of RichRelevance. Dave's favorite books: - The Speed of Trust (Author: Stephen Covey)- Snow Crash (Author: Neal Stephenson)(00:01) – Origin Story: A Near-Miss and the Broken Security Market(04:22) – What Deep Sentinel Does and Why It Works(06:23) – Benefits of Vertical Integration in Security Tech(10:20) – How Deep Sentinel Tackles False Positives with AI(14:06) – Balancing Escalation Risk and Deterrence(17:06) – How Deep Sentinel Processes and Uses Its Data(19:36) – Positioning Deep Sentinel in the Competitive Landscape(21:12) – Go-to-Market Learnings for Hardware-Software Companies(23:39) – Residential vs. Commercial Security: A Comparison(26:41) – Regulation and Public Sentiment Around Security AI(29:03) – Insurance, Security, and Incentive Alignment(31:23) – Company Building and Lessons from 20 Years of Founding(39:26) – The Role of Distillation and LLMs in Deep Sentinel’s Future(42:27) – Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Dave Selinger: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/selly/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Brennan Pothetes is the CEO of Infinity Constellation, an AI-native holding company. They've raised $17M from Freestyle Capital, Charlie Songhurst, and others. Brennan's favorite books: Zero to One (Author: Peter Thiel)(00:01) Lightning Bolt Moment – Origin of Infinity Constellation(03:48) Transitioning from Founder to Holdco CEO(07:00) How Infinity Incubates vs Acquires Companies(09:05) Infinity vs Traditional Venture Studios(10:58) Aligning Incentives: Founders, Holdco, and Investors(16:32) Target Markets and How They’re Chosen(20:27) When a Company Graduates from the Holdco(23:04) Resource Allocation and “Too Many Toddlers” Problem(26:29) Shared Infrastructure and the Code Commons(29:48) Model Choices, Full Stack AI, and the Infinity Playbook(32:05) First 3 Hires at a Portfolio Company(33:53) Who is the Real Competition?(37:03) Infinity’s 5-Year Vision and AI Trends(38:37) Rapid Fire Round

Mark Fussell, CEO of Diagrid and co-creator of Dapr, dives into the evolution of cloud-native applications. He shares the origins of Dapr and explains its rising popularity among developers. Fussell discusses the challenges of open-source commercialization and how companies benefit from Diagrid's tools. The conversation also highlights the transformative impact of AI on microservices design, leading to a shift towards agentic applications and innovative approaches in software development. Plus, discover his favorite books and insights from early customer experiences.

Jan Liphardt is the founder of OpenMind, where they're building an operating system for intelligent machines. He is an associate professor at Stanford and was previously an associate professor at UC Berkeley. He got his PhD from University of Cambridge.Jan's favorite books: The Little Prince (Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)00:01 — Introduction00:32 — Gap Between Movie Robots and Real-World Robotics02:35 — Vision for a New Robotics OS07:14 — Robotics OS Stack Breakdown11:01 — Biggest Technical Challenges in Robotics15:06 — Data Volume, Processing, and Cloud vs. Local19:09 — Shared Intelligence Layer: What is Fabric?23:15 — Filtering Good vs. Bad Ideas in a Robot Network26:06 — Business Model for Robots and Machine Economy29:55 — Standards and Interoperability in Robotics33:14 — Most Exciting AI Advancements Today35:00 — Rapid Fire Round --------Where to find Jan Liphardt: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-liphardt/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

In this conversation, Anna Patterson, cofounder of Ceramic AI and former VP Engineering at Google, shares her insights on AI infrastructure for model training. She discusses achieving a 2.5x speed-up in long context training and the nuances between short, medium, and long contexts. Anna also dives into the importance of differentiating good data from bad, particularly in complex domains. She reflects on the significance of synthetic data and recent AI advancements, offering a glimpse into the future of personalized AI models.

Tom Chavez is the cofounder of super{set}, a startup studio that founds, funds, and builds data and AI startups. Prior to this, he was the CEO and co-founder of Krux, a martech platform acquired by Salesforce in 2016. Before Krux, he was the CEO and co-founder of Rapt, a provider of software for media monetization acquired by Microsoft in 2008. He went to Harvard for undergrad and Stanford for his PhD.Tom's favorite book: The Three Musketeers (Author: Alexandre Dumas)(00:01) Origin Story and Starting Superset(02:58) How Superset Evaluates Ideas and Risk(06:24) What Is a Venture Studio and How Superset Works(10:49) Underfunded Layers in AI Infrastructure(14:55) Orchestration Opportunities in LLM Workflows(15:49) The Future of Data Infra and ETL in the AI Era(20:46) Code Infra: Code Quality and AI-Generated Software(24:55) Model Infra, MLOps, and Why It’s Underwhelming(27:22) Cloud Economics and Gross Margins in AI Companies(32:15) Early Team Structure in AI Infra Startups(34:49) Full Stack vs Composable Infra in AI(37:52) Fragmentation vs Consolidation in AI Tooling(41:02) Where Moats Will Accumulate: Data In, AI, Data Out(45:10) Biggest Challenge in Building Superset(46:23) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Tom Chavez: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommychavez/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Rowan Stone is the CEO of Sapien, a decentralized data foundry where AI models can access verified human expertise worldwide. They've raised raised a $10.5M round led by Variant. He's also the co-creator of Coinbase's layer 2 network called Base.Rowan's favorite book: Outlive (Author: Peter Attia)(00:01) Introduction(01:09) The Flaws in Centralized Data Models(04:10) Mechanism of Knowledge Transfer and Expert Incentives(07:08) Supply, Demand, and Market Dynamics for Training Data(10:22) Chain of Thought Reasoning and 3D/4D Data Use Cases(12:22) Building the MVP: What Worked and What Didn’t(15:17) Acquiring the First Five Customers(17:59) What They Got Right and What They’d Change(20:15) How to Scale from Early Customers: Advice to Founders(22:02) Data Infrastructure Opportunities in 2025(25:57) Designing AI-Native Databases(28:04) Biggest Startup Challenge: Messaging and Clarity(30:22) Future of Data Collection Mechanisms (2 to 5 Years Out)(32:07) Autonomous Vehicles and Demand for 4D Data(35:33) Emerging AI Use Cases: Memory, Wearables, and Robotics(36:19) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Rowan Stone: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rowan-stone/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi