Venture with Grace

Anand Raghavan is the Chief Product Officer at Snorkel AI.~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators. Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers. AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~Where he leads product strategy for programmatic AI and enterprise ML systems. Previously VP of AI Products and Engineering at Cisco and co-founder/CPO of Armorblox (acquired), Anand has spent two decades building AI-native security and data platforms from zero to enterprise scale. His career spans founding engineering roles at Blue Jeans Network (acquired by Verizon), AI/ML leadership at Medallia and ThoughtSpot, and early infrastructure work at NVIDIA. Anand brings a rare end-to-end perspective on shipping production AI—from model pipelines and human-in-the-loop systems to secure enterprise GTM.Topics:Building Snorkel AI's data foundation for custom enterprise models beyond the usualArchitecting programmatic data pipelines for production-grade AI systemsHow Cisco's AI Defense and Canvas redefine secure enterprise genAI at global scale#ProductLeadership #Cybersecurity #Analytics #Founder #SiliconValley

Shay Levi is Co-Founder and CEO of Unframe.~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators. Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers. AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~The enterprise AI platform delivering turnkey solutions for observability, data extraction, intelligent agents, and modernization—enabling Fortune 500s to deploy custom AI use cases in hours without data sharing, fine-tuning, or rigid vendor lock-in, achieving millions in ARR within year one. Serial entrepreneur fresh off co-founding Noname Security as CTO, scaling it to the first API security unicorn in 18 months ($40M ARR) before Akamai's $500M acquisition—backed by LSVP, Insight, Cyberstarts—Shay built on Unit 8200 elite engineering roots, Facebook senior engineering, ironSource R&D leadership, and early exits with Meme/Vidoplay (Somoto acquisition).TopicsEngineering-driven GTM: bridging technical rigor with business scaleTranslating elite intelligence R&D into commercial cybersecurity solutionsWhat serial founders learn about AI infrastructure after perfecting API security at scale#Startups #Founder #AIAgents #Hypergrowth #UnicornExit

Fatimah Hussain is a powerhouse creator with 200M+ views, 200K followers, and 50M likes across TikTok and Instagram in the education and early-career space. She is the founder of Fatimah’s Guide, an all-in-one mentorship platform connecting top college students with ambitious high schoolers. Fatimah is an EECS student at the University of California, Berkeley and has partnered with F500s including Adobe, Notion, and Microsoft to deliver practical study, productivity, and career content.She’s currently building Finnie with Chloe Hughes, a tool that automates scholarship discovery by analyzing a user’s Common App PDF. Previously, she founded Workout Wizard, a computer-vision fitness app that won Contra Costa Shark Tank and was featured on FOX, KRON4, and AOL, as well as Perky 3D Prints, a customizable 3D-printed toys venture—demonstrating a repeat founder who builds, ships, and scales products for her generation. Her work sits at the intersection of creator-led growth, AI products, and education access at scale.Topics:Building a creator-led user acquisition engine that converts audience → product usersDesigning AI-powered mentorship platforms with strong supply-demand liquidityBalancing UC Berkeley EECS, content creation, and a startup while avoiding burnout#GenZ #CreatorEconomy #Mentorship #Startups #WomenInSTEM

Deepak Prasad is a Director at Qualcomm Ventures, leading US investments across early- to growth-stage tech companies with expertise in sourcing, deal execution, and portfolio management, drawing on over five years of investment experience. As a founding team member at GPO Fund, he drove enterprise tech deals like MapAnything (acquired by Salesforce), built on prior roles at Unilazer Ventures investing in consumer successes such as Lenskart, and positions at The Carlyle Group and Soros Fund Management. A Columbia Business School MBA graduate with a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Engineering from VJTI Mumbai, Deepak combines technical depth with investing passion, while enjoying travel, hiking, snowboarding, and tennis outside work.Topics - Qualcomm Ventures' playbook for US early-stage tech dealsWhat “long-term technical advantage” actually looks like in venture diligenceUnderwriting cloud-to-edge startups with long enterprise adoption cycles#VentureCapital #QualcommVentures #DeepTechInvesting #CloudToEdge #EnterpriseTech

Sarah Klingman is Founder and CEO of Mostest, the New York-based platform reimagining event planning with AI-powered curation, professional-grade vendor matching, transparent pricing, and end-to-end execution support that eliminates research rabbit holes and vendor ghosting for hosts, while connecting vendors to serious clients and enabling brands to scale community events effortlessly. Drawing from nearly five years at adidas—rising to Sales Director, pioneering the SPEEDFACTORY-powered Lifestyle Exclusive Creation partnership with Foot Locker to let consumers drive footwear trends, and managing Foot Locker as Key Account Manager—plus Lifestyle Key Account Manager at Under Armour, Sarah applies retail partnership mastery to make unforgettable events accessible on any budget and timeline.Topics:Building a consumer-focused product strategy with AI-powered event curation and reliable vendorsLessons from adidas and Under Armour on turning partnerships into explosive community and brand growth-Transitioning from corporate leadership to startup founder#ConsumerTech #BrandInnovation #ProductStrategy #StartupLeadership #Partnerships

Vineet Edupuganti is Co-Founder & CEO of Cogent Security, deploying generative AI to supercharge vulnerability management and risk reduction for global brands, after scaling Abnormal Security from early PM through Head of Multi-Product Platform where he grew his 30-person division 4X, launched Knowledge Base/Security Posture Management, rolled out RBAC platform capabilities, and drove PLG initiatives as ARR crossed $100M with 15X headcount growth. Ex-ML engineer at Meta (generative AI for Facebook Assistant), Stanford researcher (GANs/VAEs accelerating MRI 10X, 100+ citations at top ML conferences), New Relic (time-series forecasting), and Menlo Ventures (AI incubation), Vineet fuses hardcore AI systems with enterprise security product leadership giving him deep insight into scaling AI product strategy, engineering, and go-to-market execution.Topics:AI operational excellence: building data labeling, ML pipelines, and PM systemsHow Abnormal Security rocketed to $100M ARR with smart platform pivots and product-led growthLessons from growing teams 4X during 15X company hypergrowth while launching new products#AI #Cybersecurity #Startups #VulnerabilityManagement #ML

Kristina Simmons has built, advised, and invested in leading brands, establishing herself as a trusted partner with proven venture and operational experience. At lululemon, she was an early member of the “web team,” playing a pivotal role in launching e-commerce and managing social media and digital channels, making lululemon a pioneer in these spaces. She later led Emerging Products and Concepts, focusing on innovative initiatives such as digital products, strategic partnerships, and international expansion. Kristina then joined Andreessen Horowitz as a partner, where she supported market development, helping portfolio companies evolve into renowned brands and connecting them with global leaders. Her career path then led her to an early-stage food startup, transitioning later to advising and angel investing. At Khosla Ventures, she served as Chief of Staff and investment partner, serving on boards from Seed to Series D. Recognizing the need for a more founder-centric approach in venture capital, Kristina founded Overwater Ventures to create more value and support for early-stage companies.Topics:a16z GTM acceleration: Portfolio hacks turning raw tech into household brand namesArchitectural decisions that determine brand defensibility, Platform vs. productSeed→D boardroom playbook: Scaling deep-tech and consumer companies through clinical and regulatory gates#FounderLed #BrandBuilding #DeepTech #HealthTech #ConsumerTech

Travis Skelly is a Partner at Pruven Capital, where he invests across fintech, proptech, ecommerce, and enterprise software at multi-stage scale. Prior to Pruven, he was a Director at Citi Ventures, leading more than 15 investments including Socure, Betterment, SmartAsset, HighRadius, and Clarity Money. Earlier, Travis was a founding team member at FinTech Collective, backing category-defining companies like Plaid/Quovo, MoneyLion, Octane Lending, and NextCapital. Before venture, he worked in banking at Nomura and HSBC and as a strategy consultant at Accenture, giving him a rare operator-investor lens across financial services innovation.Topics:How to engineer MoneyLion, Clarity, Boom & Bucket acquisitions from seed to payout—full timelines and triggersHow enterprise fintech complements banks with data and compliance at scaleUnderwriting AI in fintech: data moats, model decay, and regulatory failure modes#Fintech #EnterpriseSoftware #StartupInvesting #VCInsights #FounderLessons

Jeff Tatarchuk, co-founder and CGO of TensorWave and serial entrepreneur, builds hyperscale AI compute with AMD GPUs. He discusses securing GPU and FPGA capacity, building capital‑intensive AI/cloud infrastructure, AMD vs NVIDIA strategy, designing massive liquid‑cooled training clusters, and practical GPU procurement, deployment and financing for training and inference.

Cecilia Ziniti, three-time General Counsel and CEO of GC AI, built an enterprise legal AI platform used by 1,200+ companies. She talks about turning in-house insight into a product, why ChatGPT alone is risky for lawyers, and building legal-specific models, pricing and go-to-market strategies. Short, practical stories about fundraising, converting early users, and scaling legal teams with AI.