Vanja Josifovski, CEO and co-founder at Kumo.AI, ex-CTO of Airbnb and Pinterest
Query the future
This week at SV Icons we had the pleasure of hosting Vanja Josifovski, a seasoned tech leader, co-founder and CEO at Kumo.AI, which uses graph neural networks to make AI for enterprises as simple as analytics.
Here are five valuable insights from our conversation:
1. The CEO vs. CTO Experience: Vanja shared that being a CEO is a world apart from being a CTO, with new challenges such as engaging with clients and maintaining self-confidence at all times. Despite the hurdles, he considers it the best job he's ever had.
2. Value proposition is to solve real problems: Vanja advises those aspiring to be founders to first identify a pain point before building a solution. He recommends spending time with customers first, exploring the space and then building a product. Kumo's value proposition lies in its ability to quickly generate predictions using a company's data, making it a game-changer in the market.
3. The Power of Nuance: Vanja believes that subtle differences in a product can lead to its tipping point, drawing a parallel with Retool's success. When a product is exceptional, word of mouth can outshine internal tools and drive adoption.
4. Resilience and Timing in Startups: While the timing of a startup's launch is crucial, Vanja emphasized that conviction and endurance play a more significant role in determining success.
5. The Future of AI: Vanja notes that no one should underestimate generative AI, and he envisions a future where Generative AI can help find cures for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's. He also said that understanding AI's "black box" can lead to improvements in reasoning and learning capabilities of LLM models.
A big thank you to Vanja Josifovski for sharing his wisdom and experience with us. It's always inspiring to learn from industry leaders, and we look forward to watching Kumo.AI's journey unfold!
#generativeAI
Organizers: Aizada Marat and Chyngyz Dzhumanazarov