Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

Zach Lloyd is the cofounder and CEO of Warp, the intelligent terminal powered by AI. They recently raised their $50M Series B led by Sequoia Capital. He was previously the cofounder of SelfMade and the interim CTO of TIME. Zach's favorite book: The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Author: Leo Tolstoy)(00:01) Introduction(00:07) Basics of the Terminal: What It Does and Why Developers Use It(01:48) Foundation of Warp: Addressing Terminal Shortcomings(05:00) Initial Feature Set: Building Warp’s Early Product(07:19) Product Iteration and Retaining Early Users(10:15) AI Integration in Warp: Initial Use Cases and Evolution(14:00) Technical Challenges: Building Warp in Rust(16:25) Feature Prioritization: Balancing Feedback and Vision(18:26) Warp's Tech Stack: Languages, Frameworks, and Tools(22:22) Cross-Platform Development Challenges(23:07) Importance of Design: Competitive Advantage in Dev Tools(26:10) Hiring for Design in Early-Stage Startups(30:22) Warp’s Vision for the Next Five Years(32:15) Lessons from Scaling Warp: Advice to Younger Self(34:02) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Zach Lloyd: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachlloyd/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Amias Gerety is a partner at QED Investors, a fintech-focused VC firm with $3.8 Billion under management. He was previously the Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Treasury. And he graduated from Harvard. Amias's favorite finance book: Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (Author: Walter Bagehot)(00:01) Introduction(00:46) Why Do Robots Need Insurance?(03:04) Challenges for Insurance Companies with Robot Liability(07:34) Risks of Autonomous Robots in Industrial vs. Domestic Settings(12:22) Cybersecurity and Hacking Risks in Robotics(15:41) Importance and Challenge of Historical Data in Robotics Insurance(18:52) Leveraging Telemetry Data for Risk Modeling(22:09) Creating a Functional Insurance Market for Robotics(26:42) Should Robots Be Independent Legal Entities?(28:34) Should Robots Buy Their Own Insurance?(32:30) Partnerships Between Insurers and Robotics Companies(37:11) Regulatory Framework for Robotics Insurance(38:57) Advice for Founders in Robotics Insurance(40:07) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Amias Gerety: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amias-gerety/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Jordan Tigani is the cofounder and CEO of MotherDuck, a data warehouse platform based on open source database DuckDB. They've raised $100M in funding from amazing investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis, Madrona, and Altimeter. He was previously the CPO at SingleStore and spent 11 years at Google before that. He has a degree in electrical engineering from Harvard.  Jordan's favorite book: The Master and Margarita (Author: Mikhail Bulgakov)(00:01) Introduction(00:08) Founding of MotherDuck(01:12) The Philosophy of Shipping Products at MotherDuck(05:02) Founding Story and Identifying the Market Opportunity(10:57) Building the First Version and Overcoming Early Challenges(12:23) Validating Customer Needs and Asking the Right Questions(18:24) Deciding What Features to Prioritize and Exclude(21:30) Positioning a New Product in a Mature Market(27:36) Overcoming Challenges in Scaling MotherDuck(32:29) Measuring Success of New Features in Enterprise Products(36:20) Structuring the Organization for Effective Execution(41:09) Preparing MotherDuck for the AI Native Era(43:28) Rapid Fire Round --------Where to find Jordan Tigani: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordantigani/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Amias Gerety is a partner at QED Investors, a fintech-focused VC firm with $3.8 Billion under management. He was previously the Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Treasury. And he graduated from Harvard. Amias's favorite book: The Origin of Species (Author: Charles Darwin)(00:01) Introduction and Setting the Stage(00:29) The Status Quo: AI Agents and Online Purchases(02:20) The Current Payment Infrastructure Explained(04:42) Automation Today: Auto-Complete and Recurring Payments(06:09) Why AI Agents Need Dedicated Financial Infrastructure(08:29) Historical Examples: Auctions, Bots, and Payment Systems(09:32) Identifying and Verifying AI Agents in Commerce(11:59) Risks of Agentic Commerce: Lessons from Knight Capital(14:47) Stripe’s Role in Agent Payments: SDKs and Gaps(19:46) Opportunities for Startups in Agentic Frameworks(22:49) Challenges: Disputes, Chargebacks, and Reversals(26:32) Regulation and Governance in Agentic Payments(28:24) Building Merchant Trust in AI Transactions(30:11) Needs of AI Developers: Reliability in Transactions(33:04) The Future of Agentic Commerce and Microtransactions(35:42) Building Consumer Trust in Agentic Systems(38:45) Broader AI Applications in Finance(40:13) Rapid Fire--------Where to find Amias Gerety: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amias-gerety/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Cody Coleman is the cofounder and CEO of Coactive AI, a multimodal AI platform to accelerate metadata generation. They recently raised their $30M Series B co-led by Cherryrock Capital and Emerson Collective along with participation from Greycroft, Andreessen Horowitz, and Bessemer Venture Partners. He has a masters degree from MIT and a PhD from Stanford. Cody's favorite books: - The Inner Game of Tennis (Author: W. Timonthy Gallwey) - Gettine More (Author: Stuart Diamond)(00:01) Introduction: Setting the Stage for Metadata(00:21) What is Metadata? Structure in Unstructured Data(01:37) Metadata in Real-World Visual Data Analysis(03:01) Automating Metadata Generation: Challenges and Approaches(06:57) Introduction to Multimodal AI: What and Why(11:25) Managing Trade-Offs in Multimodal AI Systems(13:31) Labeling Challenges in Multimodal Datasets(16:23) Characteristics of an Ideal Metadata Language(18:22) Linking Metadata Quality to Model Effectiveness(20:56) Measuring Efficiency of Metadata Extraction Engines(22:55) Role of Synthetic Data in Metadata and AI(25:30) Evolution of Data Labeling and Future of Metadata(27:27) Exciting Technological Advancements in AI(29:29) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Gilwoo Lee is the founder and CEO of Zordi, a company that builds and operates autonomous greenhouses with mobile robots and AI. They raised $20M in their most recent funding round led by Khosla Ventures. She has degrees from MIT, CMU, and University of Washington. Gilwoo's favorite book: Masayoshi Son's 300-Year Plan (Author: Takashi Sugimoto)(00:01) Introduction(00:08) What is a Greenhouse?(01:08) Greenhouse Usage in Different Regions(02:45) Advantages and Challenges of Greenhouses(06:15) Crops Suitable for Greenhouses(08:23) Introduction to Autonomous Greenhouses(10:40) Technology Stack of Autonomous Greenhouses(12:17) Factors Affecting Crop Growth and Automation(14:00) Data Requirements for AI Models in Greenhouses(15:14) Upgrading Traditional Greenhouses to Autonomous(17:26) Tasks Managed by Robots in Greenhouses(18:45) Engineering Challenges in Robotics for Greenhouses(20:16) Future of Robotics in Greenhouses(21:39) Robotics Supply Chain and Standardization(23:23) Verticalized vs. General-Purpose Robots(27:16) Robotics Foundation Models(29:52) Economics of Autonomous Greenhouses(33:16) Future of Autonomous Farming(34:01) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Vivas Kumar is the cofounder and CEO of Mitra Chem, the first lithium-ion battery materials product company focused on shortening the lab-to-production timeline by over 90%. They recently raised more than $80M in funding from Social Capital, General Motors, Alpha Wave Ventures, and others. Vivas's favorite book: Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (Author: Nelson Mandela)(00:01) Introduction(02:25) How Lithium-Ion Batteries Work(04:56) Evolution of Battery Materials(06:46) Development of Lithium-Ion Battery Technology(08:10) Optimizing Battery Properties: Cost, Energy Density, and Cycle Life(10:52) Supply Chain of Battery Materials(13:16) From Lab to Production: Key Bottlenecks(15:26) Using AI to Accelerate Synthesis Design(18:18) Battery Cell Qualification: Process and Importance(20:13) Managing Risk in AI-Driven Battery Experiments(21:20) Data Generation for AI-Driven Battery Development(22:52) Challenges in Manufacturing Large-Scale Batteries(25:02) Current Limitations in Battery Materials Development(26:39) Next-Generation Battery Materials in the Pipeline(27:50) Advancements in Battery Technology Beyond Materials(29:52) Advice for New Founders in the Battery Industry(31:42) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Alan Cowen is the cofounder and CEO of Hume, a company building voice-to-voice foundation models. They recently raised their $50M Series B from Union Square Ventures, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and others. Alan's favorite book: 1984 (Author: George Orwell)(00:01) Introduction(00:06) Defining Voice-to-Voice Foundation Models(01:26) Historical Context: Handling Voice and Speech Understanding(03:54) Emotion Detection in Voice AI Models(04:33) Training Models to Recognize Human Emotion in Speech(07:19) Cultural Variations in Emotional Expressions(09:00) Semantic Space Theory in Emotion Recognition(12:11) Limitations of Basic Emotion Categories(15:50) Recognizing Blended Emotional States(20:15) Objectivity in Emotion Science(24:37) Practical Aspects of Deploying Voice AI Systems(28:17) Real-Time System Constraints and Latency(31:30) Advancements in Voice AI Models(32:54) Rapid-Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Hassaan Raza is the cofounder and CEO of Tavus, a video API platform for digital twins. They've raised more than $28M in funding from investors such as Sequoia and Scale VP. Hassaan's favorite book: Go Like Hell (Author: A. J. Baime)(00:01) Introduction(00:38) Overview of AI in video generation(01:44) AI models used in video generation(03:35) Capturing intricate facial movements in real-time(06:46) Data capture and 3D modeling from basic video input(09:01) Explanation of neural radiance fields and Gaussian splatting(10:14) Capturing facial expressions for video generation(15:22) Temporal coherence in video generation(18:05) Challenges in conversational video, including lip-syncing and emotion alignment(20:38) Inference challenges in conversational video(22:47) Bottlenecks in the pipeline: LLMs and time-to-first-token(26:58) Multimodal models and trade-offs(27:36) Advice for founders running API businesses(30:04) Pitfalls to avoid in API businesses(32:15) Technological breakthroughs in AI(34:10) Rapid-fire round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Alex Gallego is the founder and CEO of Redpanda, a streaming data platform built for data-intensive applications. They've raised more than $165M in funding from investors such as Lightspeed, GV, and Haystack. He was previously the cofounder and CTO of Concord Systems. (00:01) Introduction(00:07) Defining Streaming Data(04:14) Evolution of Streaming Data Systems Over the Last 10 Years(09:10) Introduction to Sovereign AI(14:14) How Sovereign AI Works in Practice(19:51) Infrastructure Needed for Sovereign AI(23:48) Sensitive Workloads in Enterprise AI(28:01) Foundation Models and Streaming Data(32:41) Breakthroughs in AI Related to Streaming Data(34:39) Rapid Fire Round --------Where to find Alex Gallego: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandergallego--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi