Agentic

AI is a platform shift unlike any other, with far-reaching implications for every startup. In my recent webinar with the Founder’s Bay community in Silicon Valley, hosted by Mariane Bekker, I explored why AI should be the core focus for founders aiming to build scalable, high-impact companies. Key takeaways: • there’s hardly an application that AI can’t improve • AI startups are exiting faster—7 years on average vs. 13 for others • building in AI is your best shot at hitting $100M ARR • it’s not a zero-sum market—horizontal and vertical plays can both win • focus on solving high-value problems using AI to attract funding and top-tier talent In this episode, I share my views on how you could build a leading AI startup that attracts funding, customers, and talent in 2025. Connect with us here: 1. George Bandarian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebandarian/ 2. Untapped Ventures: https://www.linkedin.com/company/untappedventures/ 00:00 Trailer 03:19 Introduction 05:53 State of AI 11:55 Ideation 15:48 Agentic AI 26:32 Validation 29:06 Traction 31:48 Recruiting 33:00 Fundraising 35:28 Value-add 37:15 Takeaways
 39:01 Q&A 55:28 Outro

The insurance industry has a 400,000 agent shortage. I sat down with Harper's founders, who use agentic AI to deliver enterprise-grade service at 1/10th the cost. Dakotah Rice and Tushar Nair revealed how they're leveraging the $85B E&S market: • voice AI running quotes to claims • why selling AI tools failed, but becoming a broker worked • how they're hitting software margins in a services business As insurance carriers exit Florida and California, Harper couldn’t have come at a better time. Connect with us: Dakotah Rice: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dakotahrice/ Tushar Nair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tushar-nair-b08988222/ Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/company/harperinsure/ George Bandarian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebandarian/ Untapped Ventures: https://www.linkedin.com/company/untappedventures/ 00:00 Trailer + Introduction 04:33 Dakota's Journey to Founding Harper 05:18 Tushar's Background and Expertise 06:06 The Genesis of Harper 06:38 Challenges and Opportunities in AI-Driven Insurance 13:08 The Evolution of Harper's AI Systems 13:21 Technical Insights into Building AI Agents 16:01 The Future of AI in Insurance 17:36 Advice for Aspiring AI Founders 19:55 Focusing on the ENS Market 22:05 Scaling and Expanding Harper's Services 25:37 Innovative Sales Solutions for Insurance 26:14 Customer Acquisition and Marketing Strategies 27:42 Voice AI: Revolutionizing Customer Interaction 30:15 Leveraging AI for Enhanced Customer Service 33:02 Future of AI in Business Operations 35:49 Fundraising and Business Growth Insights 40:39 Advice for Founders: Building and Scaling Startups 46:16 Co-Founder Dynamics and Relationship 50:08 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Only 8 companies have shipped AI Agents from production. In this episode of Agentic, I brought together 3 of them, to reveal how they crossed this chasm: 1. Aria Attar (TensorStax) shows how they're tackling the 1:250 data scientist shortage with agents that drop into existing cloud environments. 2. Joe Stolte (Daily.ai), fresh off multiple exits including a $62.5 M acquisition, reveals how they turned 1B newsletter interactions into $1.2M in ARR in just 14 months. 3. Jacky Wong (Nullify) explains how they're helping enterprises where security teams are outnumbered 4:1 by developers. Key insight? While the AI market races toward $733.7B by 2027— Solving for deployment and LLM reliability > focussing on model capabilities. Let’s dive right in. Connect with us at: 1. Jacky Wong: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wongja/?originalSubdomain=au 2. Aria Attar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariaattar/ 3. Joe Stolte: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephstolte 5. George Bandarian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebandarian/ 6. Untapped Ventures: https://www.linkedin.com/company/untappedventures/ 00:00 Trailer + Introduction 02:26 Agentic AI Overview 06:49 Meet the Founders 10:42 Deep Dive into AI Security 20:01 Building Agentic Models 25:59 Deep Reasoning and Inference in AI Models 26:19 Building and Training Baby Agents 27:37 Trust and Acceptance in AI Solutions 28:49 Lessons Learned and Advice to Founders 29:40 Common Mistakes in LLM Development 33:32 Customer Acquisition Strategies 36:57 Fundraising Insights and Challenges 42:38 Driving Acceptance and Trust in AI 44:37 Reconciling AI as a Deflationary Technology 46:56 Removing Human Evaluators in Development

With $90B poured into AI over the past year, where is the focus going to be in 2025? I spoke to four top investors to find out. 1. Yipeng Zhao (Embark Ventures) believes AI offers a one-year head start. Fast GTM wins. Slow movers risk irrelevance. 2. Hari Arul (Khosla Ventures) has stopped backing co-pilots altogether. His take? Human-in-loop models won’t survive past 2026. 3. James Shecter (Fika Ventures) says enterprises need the illusion of control over their AI workflows. 4. Nicole Toussaint (TenOneTen Ventures) sees the “Scopely moment” for AI agents approaching fast — and soon, market entry will outweigh engineering breakthroughs. Tune in now. Connect with us at: 1. Yipeng Zhao: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yipengzhao/ 2. Hari Arul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hariarul/ 3. James Shecter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesshecter/ 4. Nicole Toussaint: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-toussaint-2874a1106/ 5. George Bandarian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebandarian/ 6. Untapped Ventures: https://www.linkedin.com/company/untappedventures/

While 92% of Fortune 500s realize the surplus alpha that can be created from leveraging AI, only 25% of SMBs realize the same. I sat with 6 founders who are building Agentic AI solutions: Jacky Wong (Nullify), Aria Attar (TensorStax), Max Ahrens (Maihem), Saurabh Sharma (You.com), Jonas Diezun (Beam AI), and Ashar Rizqi (Bounti.ai). The key highlights from our conversation were: - OpenAI’s function calling breaks down when scaling requires consistent outputs and error handling—just ask Jacky or anyone building enterprise agents. - MongoDB could face disruption as AI agents take over infrastructure orchestration—Aria flagged it, and I agree. - Calling agents "AI workers" simplifies adoption for hesitant enterprises—a shift that doubled Jonas Diezun’s sales. - Agentic AI scales across verticals in months, not years—Ashar says the old SaaS scaling playbook is obsolete. - Max at Maihem points out that building functional agents hinges on managing the edge cases that crash your system. Let’s dive right in. Connect with us here: 1. Jacky Wong- https://www.linkedin.com/in/wongja/?originalSubdomain=au 2. Aria Attar - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariaattar/ 3. Max Ahrens - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximilianahrens/?originalSubdomain=uk 4. Saurabh Sharma - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saurabhs/ 5. Jonas Diezun - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonasdiezun/ 6. Ashar Rizqi - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashar-rizqi-6614487/ 7. George Bandarian - https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebandarian/ 8. Untapped Ventures - https://www.linkedin.com/company/untappedventures/ 00:00 Trailer 01:26 Welcome to the Agentic Podcast 02:21 Founder Panel Introduction 02:41 Founders' Backgrounds and Insights 10:08 Defining Agentic AI 20:00 Building Effective AI Agents 26:08 Challenges in Early AI Development 26:21 Human in the Loop: Enhancing AI Adoption 26:58 Debating the Importance of Evaluations 27:39 Technical Insights and Mistakes 29:07 Impact of Agentic Paradigm Shift on Infrastructure 29:52 Customer Adoption and Market Strategies 31:21 Go-to-Market Strategies and Early Stage Focus 39:18 Horizontal vs Vertical Approaches in AI 47:39 Final Thoughts #ai #tech #podcast #vc

As we transition into agentic models, it’s evident there’s a blend of optimism and caution. In this panel discussion, I was joined by Jon Chu (Khosla Ventures), Pranav Reddy (Conviction), Andrew Brackin (Gradient), Arash Afrakhteh (Pear VC), Alejandra Vergara (Bee Partners), and Nahim Nasser (Georgian) as we explored: • why agentic AI will drive systemic shifts across various industries • the need to define scalable, high-impact use cases for agent-driven solutions • shifting dynamics of human-machine interaction • how agentic AI is advancing in parallel with LLMs • why regional disparities and emerging foundation models could profoundly shape future progress, and • how value will accumulate for vertical companies beyond the API Let’s jump right in. 00:00:00 Trailer 00:02:13 Introduction 00:11:47 Current State of AI 00:21:00 Investment Insights and Startup Pitfalls 00:30:49 Vertical vs Horizontal 00:42:09 Evaluating Business and Team Dynamics 00:51:19 Different ways to look at AI 00:58:06 The AGI Landscape 01:01:17 Outro Connect with us here: 1. Jon Chu- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jchu/ 2. Pranav Reddy- https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranavgreddy/ 3. Andrew Brackin- https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbrackin/  4. Arash Afrakhteh- https://www.linkedin.com/in/arasha/  5. Alejandra Vergara- https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandra-vergaral/  6. Nahim Nasser- https://www.linkedin.com/in/nahimnasser/

To me, agentic is intent meeting capability—systems that act autonomously, adapt intelligently, and drive purposeful outcomes. Our guests on this episode—Jonathan Corbin, Sami Shalabi, and Eugene Mann—embody that. They're pushing AI agents forward for real-world enterprise use cases with Maven AGI. We discuss: • solving complex challenges with AI agents • empowering enterprises with cutting-edge tools, and • why agentic AI will create new roles for humankind Let’s get into it. Connect with us here: 1. Jonathan Corbin- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcorbin01/ 2. Sami Shalabi- https://www.linkedin.com/in/sshalabi/ 3. Eugene Mann- https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenemann/ 4. George Bandarian- https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebandarian/ 5. Untapped Ventures- https://www.linkedin.com/company/untappedventures/