Meet the guests

Abhishek Das

CEO & Co-Founder

Abhishek Das, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Yutori, joins the show to discuss how autonomous AI agents are revolutionizing web interactions. Learn how his team, with roots in Meta's AI division, is building proactive agents to automate our daily digital tasks.

Varun Puri

Co-Founder & CEO

How do you train a global sales team in the age of AI? Varun Puri, Co-Founder & CEO of Yoodli, shares how his AI communication coach evolved from a consumer app to an enterprise powerhouse used by Google and Snowflake, offering a masterclass in product evolution and GTM strategy.

Jeff Tatarchuk

CEO

Jeff Tatarchuk, Co-Founder of TensorWave, joins the show to reveal how specialized AI cloud builders are challenging NVIDIA’s market dominance. Learn how his company is betting on AMD's GPUs to build a more open and accessible AI compute future.

Eilon Reshef

Co-Founder & CPO

Eilon Reshef, Co-Founder and CPO of Gong, discusses the company's journey from conversational intelligence to a comprehensive revenue AI operating system. He shares insights on product-market fit, the impact of AI, and the future of enterprise...

Andrew Bialecki

CEO & Co-Founder

Andrew Bialecki, CEO of Klaviyo, discusses the company's journey from a database solution to a marketing automation powerhouse. He shares insights on product-market fit, capital efficiency, and the evolving role of AI in customer engagement.

Ilya Levtov

CEO

Ilya Levtov, CEO of Craft, discusses how his company is revolutionizing supply chain management with an AI-powered platform that provides 360-degree visibility and risk mitigation. Learn how Craft helps governments and enterprises proactively avoid...

Andrew Feldman

CEO

Andrew Feldman, Co-Founder & CEO of Cerebras Systems, reveals the inside story of building the world's largest AI chip. Learn how their wafer-scale architecture challenges NVIDIA by delivering unprecedented speed for AI inference.

Joseph Krause

CEO

Discover how Radical AI is revolutionizing material science with self-driving labs. CEO Joseph Krause shares how they combine AI and robotics to accelerate R&D and unlock materials we've never been able to build.

Ashwin Sreenivas

Co-Founder

Ashwin Sreenivas, co-founder of Decagon AI, reveals how his company is revolutionizing enterprise customer support with human-level AI agents. Discover the shift from rigid chatbots to fluid, instruction-following AI concierges.

Alex Konrad

Journalist & Founder

Discover the evolving roles of traditional vs. new media in tech and gain insights into effective content creation strategies. About the episode: In this episode, Nataraj hosts Alex Konrad, founder and editor of Upstart...

Pedro Domingos

Professor & Author

Pedro Domingos, best-selling author of "The Master Algorithm," joins the podcast to cut through the AI hype. He offers a critical look at LLMs, OpenAI, and the future of AI research.

David Stout

Founder

David Stout, founder of webAI, is revolutionizing AI by moving it from the cloud to your pocket. He shares how compressing powerful models to run offline on everyday devices unlocks new levels of privacy, efficiency, and real-time processing.

Matt Martin

CEO & Co-Founder

In this episode, Nataraj welcomes Matt Martin, CEO of Clockwise, to explore the science of smart scheduling. Discover how Clockwise uses AI to optimize calendars, reduce meeting overload, and create more focused work...

Arvind Jain

Co-Founder

Discover how Glean AI is transforming enterprise productivity with AI-powered search and intelligent agents. About the episode: Join Nataraj as he explores the evolution of enterprise AI with Arvind Jain, CEO of Glean....

Matt DeBergalis

CEO

Matt DeBergalis, CEO of Apollo GraphQL, joins the show to discuss the evolution of GraphQL from an open-source project to a product company. Learn how to balance shipping speed with long-term architecture and why APIs should be treated as graphs, not endpoints.

Ben Kus

CTO

In this episode of Startup Project, Nataraj interviews Ben Kus, CTO of Box, about the critical role of unstructured data in the AI revolution. They discuss the cost structures of adopting and building with AI, and how...

Goutham Buchi

CTO

AngelList CTO Goutham Buchi explains how the platform sits at the center of the innovation economy. This episode explores how AngelList is leveraging AI to automate startup formation, scale fund products, and provide deeper insights for investors and founders.

Jared Siegal

Founder

About the episode: Join Nataraj as he explores the world of online advertising with Jared Siegal, founder and CEO of Aditude. Discover how programmatic advertising empowers publishers to scale their revenue and the...

Ambarish Mitra

Co-Founder

Ambarish Mitra, Co-Founder & CEO of Greyparrot, is tackling the $1.6 trillion global waste crisis with AI. Learn how his team builds ruggedized hardware and edge AI to digitize and sort waste, turning landfills into valuable resources for the circular economy.

Vijaye Raji

CEO & Co-Founder

Join Nataraj as he sits down with Vijaye Raji, founder and CEO of Statsig, a platform revolutionizing product development with data-driven decision-making. Formerly a VP at Facebook and head of Facebook Seattle, Vijaye...

Martin Mao

CEO

Martin Mao is the co-founder and CEO of Chronosphere, an observability platform built for the modern containerized world. Prior to Chronosphere, Martin led the observability team at Uber, tackling the unique challenges...

Emilie Gerber

Founder

Emilie Gerber, founder of the tech PR firm Six Eastern, joins The Startup Project to demystify public relations for founders. She shares a playbook on how early-stage startups can earn media coverage and build credibility in a crowded landscape.

Todd Bracher

Founder

Award-winning industrial designer Todd Bracher joins the podcast to demystify the process of creating great hardware. The Betterlab founder shares how to design manufacturable products at scale by merging science, sustainability, and human-centered principles.

Zach Lloyd

CEO & Co-Founder

Zach Lloyd, CEO & Co-Founder of Warp, is building an intelligent terminal to modernize the command-line experience. He shares how AI is transforming developer productivity by moving from manual coding to a prompt-driven workflow.

Startup Mistakes to Avoid

Join host Nataraj on Startup Project as he sits down with Vanessa Larco, Partner at NEA, to discuss the transformative impact of AI on startups and venture capital.

Karthee Madasamy

Managing Director

Join host Nataraj as he sits down with Karthee Madasamy, the Managing Director of MFA Partners, to discuss his journey from chip designer to venture capitalist in the world of deep tech. About the Episode: This episode...

Aatish

CEO & Founder

Atish Davda, CEO and founder of EquityZen, joins The Startup Project to demystify the world of secondary markets. Discover how his personal need for liquidity led to the creation of a platform that provides access to pre-IPO shares for accredited investors.

Building a Billion-Dollar Portfolio

Founder and Managing Partner

David Blumberg, Founder of Blumberg Capital, joins the podcast to share insights from three decades in venture capital. Learn his framework for early-stage investing and the story behind the rise of Israel's 'Startup Nation'.

Building RelationalAI

CEO & Founder

Molham Aref, CEO of RelationalAI, shares insights from his 30-year journey in AI and machine learning. Learn how he's building an AI coprocessor for Snowflake and the strategy behind navigating the modern data stack.

Silicon Valley Secrets

Founder

Ameesh Divatia, a 3x exit founder and CEO of Baffle, shares his Silicon Valley journey. Learn how he navigated the dot-com boom at Cisco and is now pioneering data-centric security for the cloud and AI era.

Satya Singh

Co-Founder

Satya Singh, Co-Founder of Scispot, joins The Startup Project to discuss his journey from leading data teams at Expedia to tackling biotech's biggest data challenges. Learn how Scispot is building the essential data infrastructure for modern life science labs.

Sajid Rahman

Investor

Prolific angel investor Sajid Rahman, with over 1000 startup investments, returns to discuss the seismic shifts in the venture landscape. Learn his secrets for navigating down rounds, Web3, and the AI boom.

Brian Bell

Investor

Brian Bell, Managing Partner at Team Ignite, shares his incredible journey from a product manager at Microsoft and AWS to a full-time investor. Learn the realities of operating a syndicate and the mindset required to succeed in early-stage venture capital.

Matt McIlwain

Managing Director

Matt McIlwain, Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group, joins the podcast to break down the current state of venture capital. Learn his take on navigating market cycles and why AI is creating a tale of two cities for startups.

Jon Staenberg

Managing Partner

Jon Staenberg, a veteran investor and early Microsoft employee, shares his journey from the tech giant's explosive growth to launching his own venture funds. Discover why he's now moving away from traditional VC and pioneering search funds.

Ashmeet Sidana

Founder

Ashmeet Sidana, Founder and Chief Engineer of Engineering Capital, joins the podcast to discuss his journey from VMware to venture capital and his thesis on investing in deep tech startups with unique technical insights.

Joe Heitzeberg

Entrepreneur

Joe Heitzeberg is a serial entrepreneur who went from building viral apps for MySpace to revolutionizing the meat industry with Crowd Cow. Learn how he validated his sustainable meat marketplace and why he believes the commodity food system is broken.

Tim Chen

Investor

Tim Chen is the Managing Partner at Essence VC, an early-stage fund focused on data infrastructure and developer tool companies. He has over a decade of experience leading engineering in enterprise infrastructure and open source communities and companies.

Aseem Datar

Partner

Aseem Datar, Partner at Madrona Ventures, shares his incredible journey from a Microsoft intern to General Manager at Azure. Learn how his breadth of experience in a tech giant shaped his perspective as a venture capitalist investing in the next generation of infrastructure and AI.

TA McCann

Managing Director

TA McCann, a 5x founder and Managing Director at Pioneer Square Labs, shares his unique journey from professional sailor to serial entrepreneur. Learn his systematic process for customer discovery and why venture studios are a powerful model for building companies.

Taylor Black

Principal Product Manager, Office of the CTO Incubator

Taylor Black, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft's Office of the CTO Incubator, shares his non-traditional path from law school to deep tech and corporate innovation.

Marius Ciocirlan

Managing Director

Marius Ciocirlan, Managing Director of Techstars Seattle, shares his unconventional journey from film school to tech entrepreneur. Learn how he co-founded and sold ShareGrid, a marketplace for creatives.

Jacob Colker

Director

Jacob Colker, Co-Managing Director of the AI2 Incubator, joins The Startup Project to discuss building AI-first companies. Learn how to navigate the hype and focus on solving real customer problems.

Jacques Fu

Co-founder

Jacques Fu, Co-founder of the fintech unicorn Stax, joins The Startup Project to share his journey from early-stage builder to Chief Innovation Officer. Learn how Stax grew to a $1B valuation by turning SaaS companies into payments businesses.

Geoff Harris

Managing Partner

In this episode of Startup Project we spoke to Geoff Harris, Managing Partner Flying Fish VC. Flying Fish is a thesis driven fund focused on Al/ML.

Mohan Belani

Co-Founder

Todays guest is Mohan Belani the co-founder of E27.co. E27 is tech publication covering SEA startups.

Todd Bishop

Co-Founder

In this week's episode of Startup Project we spoke to Todd Bishop, Co-Founder of Geekwire.

Liron Shapira

Investor

Liron Shapira, a prominent Web3 critic, shares his journey from raising $170M for a failed startup to building a profitable YC company and, ironically, being an early seed investor in Coinbase.

Chris DeVore

Managing Partner

Chris DeVore, Founding Managing Partner of Founders' Co-op, shares his journey from building Patagonia's first online store to backing unicorns like Remitly, Auth0, and Outreach. Learn his core investment thesis: bet on the 'who' and 'how,' not the 'what.'

Sudip Chakrabarti

Partner

Sudip Chakrabarti, Partner at Decibel.vc, joins the podcast to share his unique journey from a two-time founder to a top-tier venture investor at firms like A16Z and Madrona.

Eric Bahn

General Partner

Eric Bahn, Co-Founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, shares his journey from accidental EdTech founder to pioneering a new model for pre-seed investing. Learn how his definition of "hustle" shapes every investment decision.

Mike Fridgen

Managing Director

Mike Fridgen, Managing Director at Seattle's Madrona Venture Labs, joins the podcast to demystify the startup incubator model and share his playbook for navigating successful M&A exits.

Shruti Gandhi

General Partner

Shruti Gandhi, Founder and General Partner of Array.VC, joins The Startup Project to share her journey from engineer to founder to solo GP. Learn how she reverse-engineered venture capital to build her own fund.

Founding Partner of Ascend.vc

Founding Partner

Kirby Winfield, Founding Partner of Ascend.vc, joins the podcast to discuss his incredible career as an operator with four successful exits. He shares the playbook for how startups can strategically position themselves for acquisition and why he started a pre-seed fund.

First Check Ventures

Founder

Ali Jamal, Founder of First Check Ventures, joins the podcast to share his journey from operator to prolific angel investor. Learn how he built a thriving syndicate by focusing on emerging markets and being the literal first check into startups.

Harvey Multani

Founder

Harvey Multani, founder of RUV Alliance, shares how he's flipping the venture capital script. Learn how his community leverages Roll Up Vehicles (RUVs) to give investors more power.

Richard White

Founder

Richard White, founder of Fathom.Video (YC W21) and UserVoice, shares his journey as a repeat founder. Learn his unique fundraising strategy of raising many small checks to build a powerful network.

Luba Lesiva

Founder

Luba Lesiva, Founder of palumni.vc, joins The Startup Project to share her playbook for building a highly successful investment syndicate focused exclusively on Palantir alumni.

Eric Satz

Founder

Eric Satz, Founder and CEO of Alto IRA, shares how a frustrating, 8-week process to make one investment led him to build a platform to unlock the $30 trillion retirement market for alternative assets.

Sajid Rahman

Investor

Sajid Rahman, Founder of My Asia VC, shares his incredible journey from banking to becoming a prolific operator-investor in over 1000 startups with 40+ exits. Discover his unique frameworks for investing globally, from pre-seed syndicates to late-stage secondary funds.

Martin Tobias

Founder

Martin Tobias, founder of Incisive.vc and a prolific angel investor, joins The Startup Project to reveal his evolution from a 'shotgun' approach to a thesis-driven strategy. Learn how he evaluates high valuations using 'notional capital' and why he backed DocuSign when it was still illegal.

Vipul Agrawal

Founder

Vipul Agrawal, Founder of Unlu.io, joins The Startup Project to discuss his journey building for the creator economy. Learn how he built a platform to attract legends like Ruskin Bond and Manoj Bajpayee.

Ani Mohan

Founder

Ani Mohan, Founder & General Manager of GameSnacks, shares the inside story of building a startup within Google's Area 120 incubator. Learn how his team pivoted from a US-based game show to a web gaming platform for emerging markets by following unexpected user data.

Manik Mehta

Founder

Manik Mehta, Co-Founder of Omnify, shares his decade-long journey of building a global SaaS platform. Learn how multiple pivots, scrapping products, and shifting from a local to a global-first mindset led to finding product-market fit.

Vikas Malpani

Co-Founder

Vikas Malpani, Co-Founder of Leher and previously Commonfloor.com, joins The Startup Project to discuss the explosion of social audio. He shares insights on getting startup timing right, building community, and the evolution of India's startup ecosystem.

Pankaj Jain

Investor

Pankaj Jain, COO of Workomo and a veteran of the Indian startup ecosystem, joins The Startup Project to share his journey as a founder, investor, and community builder. Learn how he navigated failure, built foundational communities like Startup Weekend, and gained unique insights into India's tech e

Pranay Gupta

Cofounder

Pranay Gupta, Co-founder of 91Springboard, shares the incredible origin story of one of India's largest co-working companies. Learn how a failed attempt to start a micro-fund led to a necessary pivot that built a billion-dollar business.