Contextual AI: Douwe Kiela co-founded Contextual AI to address the frustration with generative AI models not working for enterprise use cases. Their RAG 2.0 technology enables production-grade enterprise AI.
Hippocratic AI: Munjal Shah's Hippocratic AI focuses on building a generative AI model for healthcare, specifically targeting the nursing role to address the global shortage of nurses.
Lightning AI: Will Falcon founded Lightning AI, which provides an AI development platform to train, deploy, and monitor models, aiming to replace numerous point solutions.
Fundraising Insights:
Partnerships and Collaborations:
Growth Strategies:
Call to Action:
Douwe Kiela co-founded Contextual AI to address the frustration with generative AI models not working for enterprise use cases. Their focus is on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technology, which Douwe pioneered at Facebook AI Research. Contextual AI's RAG 2.0 platform aims to enable production-grade enterprise AI solutions.
Douwe emphasized the importance of differentiation for fundraising success, highlighting the need to have a strong story about why a startup is better than its competitors, even if the technology itself is not necessarily unique.
Munjal Shah, a serial entrepreneur, founded Hippocratic AI to build a generative AI model focused on the nursing scope in healthcare. The goal is to address the global shortage of nurses by providing an AI-powered assistant to support clinical workflows.
Munjal discussed the importance of incorporating "generative AI" messaging in fundraising pitches, as the current market is heavily focused on this trend. He also highlighted the potential of "super staffing" - leveraging AI to enable novel healthcare interventions that were previously not feasible due to staffing constraints.
Will Falcon, the founder of Lightning AI and the creator of PyTorch Lightning, discussed his company's AI development platform. The platform provides tools to train, deploy, and monitor models, aiming to replace numerous point solutions.
Will emphasized the importance of traction and a proven track record for founders without a strong network in the venture capital ecosystem. He advised startups to focus on building their product and gaining traction before spending too much time on fundraising.
The panelists highlighted the value of working closely with partners like NVIDIA, leveraging their technology, expertise, and go-to-market opportunities. Soyoung from Twelve Labs and Vered from BRIA AI shared how they have collaborated with NVIDIA to optimize their models and access enterprise customers.
The panelists also emphasized the importance of providing feedback and insights to help improve partner products, as a way to deepen these partnerships.
The founders discussed the need for agility and rapid experimentation in the fast-moving AI landscape. They avoid long-term planning and instead focus on short-term validation and iteration.
Maintaining a clear, shared long-term vision while being responsive to current market needs was described as a delicate balance. The founders emphasized the value of aligning the entire organization around a shared vision for the future.
The panelists encouraged attendees to explore their offerings, sign up for their platforms, and reach out to discuss potential collaborations, especially in the video and generative media space.