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If you’ve parked a car recently in the U.S. or Canada, there’s a good chance you paid through a startup called Metropolis. Founded in 2017 by CEO Alex Israel and three co-founders in a Santa Monica garage, Metropolis is now the largest parking operator in North America – with 23,000 employees, $5 billion in payments, and 30 million Americans signed up for its ticketless app. If that sounds unusual for a startup, you’re right. Metropolis got there in unusual fashion, enlisting the help of billionaire Todd Boehly to acquire a legacy player many times its size in a move one banker initially dismissed as “dog catches 747.” But its CEO doesn’t really see Metropolis as just a parking company. He calls it an applied AI company, one piloting a new “recognition economy” that cuts the wait out of experiences for consumers, from drive-throughs to hotel lobbies. On The Upstarts Podcast, Israel talks about why merging “ugly, unsexy” businesses with AI has suddenly gained popularity; why Metropolis is all-in on autonomous vehicles, robotaxis, and drones; and why he argues the startup’s opt-in approach avoids the privacy concerns facing surveillance startups. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: Inviting the CEO of his bigger competitor to a seafood buffet to inform him that he planned to take their company private. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:33 A Parking App, Or Applied AI? 03:42 Why Metropolis Wants You Off Its Own App 05:05 The Drive-Through That Knows Your Order 07:55 Four Founders In A Garage 09:45 In Love With “Ugly, Unsexy” Businesses 13:19 “Dog Catches 747”: Buying Out The Industry’s Giant 18:07 Upstart Moment: Called A Liar Before The Seafood Buffet 21:41 Answering Todd Boehly: The One Non-Negotiable 24:37 Turning 21,000 Skeptics Into Evangelists 27:00 Inside The Wallet-Free “Recognition Economy” 28:52 Security, Consumer Choice, And Metropolis’s Red Line 31:30 Cookies For The Real World 36:13 Metropolis As Your Privacy Passport 40:46 Why Drones And Robotaxis Still Need Parking Alex's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-israel/?isSelfProfile=false Metropolis: https://www.metropolis.io/ For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 3 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Jira by Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod: https://lightningpod.fm/

Neko Health CEO Hjalmar Nilsonne calls it the most valuable hour you can spend on your health. Since opening its first U.S. location in New York last month, more than 50,000 people have joined the waitlist – for one clinic alone. Co-founded in 2018 with Spotify’s Daniel Ek and valued at $7 billion, Neko offers one-hour scans that map your skin, heart and blood for $499. A clinician then walks you through the results before you leave, complete with a futuristic 3D scan. Already in operation in the U.K. and Sweden, Neko’s now expanding across America, with Miami, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco coming next. On The Upstarts Podcast, Nilsonne talks about the fateful Twitter DM from Ek that got Neko going; why the doctor visit hasn’t changed much in 100 years; and how to keep a startup team motivated while chasing a long-term “moonshot.” Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: a bet-the-company pivot driven by an internal memo he wrote, “Free Is Not Enough.” Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:48 Mapping Your Body In One Hour 03:54 Why The Doctor’s Visit Hasn’t Changed In 100 Years 07:31 Building Four Businesses In One: Devices, Hardware, Software, Clinics 09:22 Breaking Down A Neko Visit First-Hand 12:58 Why Half of Neko’s U.K. Members Never Had A Health Check 16:59 ‘Brutally Efficient With Your Time’: Why Every Second Counts 19:04 Helping Human Doctors, Not Replacing Them 22:40 Delivering Outcomes For the 92% Of Members Not At Risk 26:47 A Climate ‘Crash Landing’ And A DM From Daniel Ek 33:12 Motivating A Team To Chase A Moonshot 37:42 Neko’s Upstart Moment: The ‘Free Is Not Enough’ Memo And Pivot 41:30 Pricing Neko Accessibly For The 99.9% 45:44 What The Tesla Roadster Can Teach Founders About Change 48:33 Space-Age Scan, Old-School Advice: Cut The Coffee Hjalmar's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nilsonne?originalSubdomain=se Neko Health: https://www.nekohealth.com/gb/en For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 3 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Jira by Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod: https://lightningpod.fm/

Founder Ben Lamm has found success building startups in gaming, SaaS and AI. But the boldest — and biggest — bet of his career is Colossal Biosciences, a biotech venture working to bring back extinct species like the dire wolf, dodo, Tasmanian tiger and woolly mammoth. It's a decades-long endeavor so crazy that one investor warned Lamm it would "completely ruin" his career. But so far, it's working. Founded in 2021 by Lamm and famed Harvard geneticist George Church, Colossal has already cloned and raised three dire wolves in a secret location, created woolly mice, and reportedly held talks to raise at a valuation of $23 billion or more. Still, Lamm faces some basic, persistent questions: Why do all this? And isn't this like Jurassic Park? On The Upstarts Podcast, Lamm talks about why Colossal made reviving the mammoth its North Star; why building in biology is so different from software; and why he won't consider anything short of reviving every targeted species a success. Plus: Why Lamm insists Colossal won't bring back the dinosaurs. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:48 A Dinosaur-Free Future 03:52 George Church And The Mammoth As North Star 06:28 Why Kids Brought In 30% Of Colossal's Investors 9:47 Current-Day Conservation Efforts With Elephants 15:17 "The Most Undervalued Company On The Planet" 17:45 Founder Origins In Gaming And Jurassic Park 22:24 Spending $1 Million Of Personal Cash To Face Early Doubts 25:22 No Splicing: Reading 104 Mammoth Genomes 29:15 Dire Wolves, Woolly Mice And Uninvited Visitors 32:05 Why Mammoths Are More Dangerous Than Dire Wolves 35:55 Government Contracts, Spinouts And Noah's Ark 2.0 41:54 Artificial Wombs And A Slipping Mammoth Deadline 43:54 Why Missing One Species Would Mean Failure Colossal Biosciences: https://colossal.com/ Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benlamm/ For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 3 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Jira by Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod: https://lightningpod.fm/

A crisis is happening in accounting that goes far beyond creative bookkeeping or lost receipts: we don't have enough people. Enough work exists for 30 million accountants to prepare tax returns and audits, restructure data and improve how companies organize. The U.S. has just 3 million, says Basis co-founder and CEO Matt Harpe. "The number is rapidly declining," he says. Founded in 2023 by Harpe and co-founder Mitchell Troyanovsky, Basis builds AI agents to help. Operating behind the scenes, Basis agents learn a firm's best practices and then automate much of the process, allowing its staffers to review more work for clients. Basis reached a $1.15 billion valuation in February 2026. Far from eliminating jobs, Harpe believes his startup will help those human accountants get paid more. "It will increase how valuable accountants are, because they will be able to accomplish so much more," he says. On the Upstarts Podcast, Harpe talks about why Basis shunned a chatbot approach to go all-in on agents from the start; why outcome-based pricing is preferable, but not easily achieved; and how he pitches top AI talent in New York on building in accounting, of all things. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: turning down short-term revenue by not charging for a product until their outcomes could match what they promised. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:47 The basis for Basis 07:25 Why no one wants to be an accountant any more 14:37 CEO Matt Harpe's founder journey 19:46 "The home for applied AI talent in New York" 22:58 Winning over skeptical accountants as customers 28:41 A big bet on agents from the start 31:31 Outcome-based pricing and its challenges 35:52 Competing with the big AI labs like OpenAI 41:11 Making human accountants more valuable Matt's LinkedIn Basis For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Doctors are burned out. Patients don’t understand the advice they’re given. And the U.S. healthcare system is drowning each year in $1.5 trillion – with a “T” – in administrative costs. Abridge co-founder and CEO Shiv Rao thinks he can help. He’s seen the problem on both sides – as a practicing cardiologist who still sees patients, and as a partner who spent years navigating the system to seek fertility treatments with his spouse. “We’d look at each other and be like, ‘What did they just say?’ And I’m a doctor,” he says. Founded in Pittsburgh in 2018, Abridge is building what Rao calls the “AI operating system” for healthcare. Abridge’s software automates all the clerical work of a visit, from notes to billing, and increasingly assists with making clinical recommendations, too. Valued at $5.3 billion, Abridge serves more than 300 health systems, reaching 250 million Americans, and recently partnered with Eli Lilly and Nvidia. But Abridge has faced an uphill journey from day one, when Rao convinced his former employer to take a chance on a fledgling startup. Microsoft’s a big player. Epic Systems looms, and a number of well-funded startups are chasing Abridge’s lead. On The Upstarts Podcast, Rao talks about how an early bet on AI got Abridge going, before ChatGPT; why reaching scale in healthcare requires years of “eating glass” and “kissing frogs;” and why he thinks Abridge can help doctors and nurses feel like “superheroes.” Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: A “YOLO” decision to take on Microsoft head-to-head. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:16 What Abridge does for doctors, patients and hospitals 06:39 Solving the ‘conversation’ problem 10:45 From doctor to startup founder 18:48 “Eating glass” and “kissing frogs” early on 20:14 What IBM Watson got wrong 23:25 Why healthcare is a hard sell for startups 31:39 A “YOLO move” to go after Microsoft 37:42 Dealing with increasing competition 40:29 Working with NVIDIA, Anthropic and OpenAI 43:26 Shiv’s personal healthcare journey Shiv's LinkedIn Abridge For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

The world's big companies are blowing through their AI budgets. At French startup unicorn Pigment, Eléonore Crespo wants to help. "Our CEO is pressuring us for everybody in the company to use AI, but we don't have any right way to think about it," Crespo says she hears chief financial officers complain. “It’s going to be a big topic for everyone, and it goes beyond just understanding your costs." Pigment, founded by co-CEOs Crespo and Criteo veteran Romain Nicoli in 2019, fights runaway AI spending with AI. Its agents help CFOs and finance teams at customers like Anthropic, Notion, Coca-Cola and Unilever make faster, better financial decisions. For analysts, Crespo argues her tools can free up much of the 80% of time they currently spend sifting through data; her (perhaps optimistic) hope is that they can then focus on higher-level decisions, without fearing for their jobs. On The Upstarts Podcast, Crespo talks about how building in Paris helps Pigment compete; how a culture of “unreasonable hospitality” makes it win; and how careful communication makes a co-CEO setup work. Plus, she shares her Upstart Moment: landing a key executive hire, with an in-person assist from the actor Tom Cruise. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:18 What Pigment does, and who it helps 06:06 Seeing Google’s spreadsheet problem first-hand 10:05 Finding a co-founder, CIA style, and a product, Ferrari style 15:49 Cookies, WhatsApp and “unreasonable hospitality” as strategy 18:56 How to make startup co-CEOS work 24:00 Building in Paris versus the Bay Area’s “talent buffet” 30:11 How AI agents change CFO and analyst jobs 34:05 Bringing AI token spending under control 39:02 How Tom Cruise helped close Pigment’s CRO hire Eléonore's LinkedIn Pigment For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling⁠⁠ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Materials science hasn’t changed much in 150 years. Radical AI CEO Joseph Krause wants to change that. In a big new lab in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, the startup founder is looking to change that. He’s building a “next-gen” approach that he says makes other autonomous labs look like hand-free driving mode on a car, compared to a fully self-driving Waymo. It’s an approach that plenty of corporate scientists tell Krause must be too good to be true. “How could you really discover more alloys in a week than we have discovered in our company history?” he says they ask. But since its founding in 2024, Radical AI has already produced valuable, and secret, alloys for customers, Krause insists. And the startup has done it after raising just $55 million in its last funding round, not the $1 billion of well-heeled competitors.. On the Upstarts Podcast, Krause explains how a SpaceX breakthrough helped kick off a category; why cloud labs and deep tech companies often fail; and why concurrent engineering is as important as next-gen lab equipment itself. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: a 100-year-vision to become one of the world’s most important companies: “When we put a civilization on Mars, the habitat that they're living in will be made with Radical materials.” Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:25 What Radical AI does 04:36 Starting with metal alloys 08:30 Cold-emailing 100 VCs 12:22 An industry unchanged until SpaceX 15:56 Waymo vs. hands-free driving 19:09 Succeeding where cloud labs failed 25:42 Why Radical doesn’t need a billion dollars – yet 29:01 Unlocking 10x more research for customers 35:23 Why scientists should root for Radical 36:28 A 10-year timeline for impact 38:53 Radical materials on Mars Joseph's LinkedIn Radical AI For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling⁠⁠ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

First at West Point and then as an officer in the U.S. Army Rangers, Brian Elliott always sought out the hardest, highest-impact challenge. “You can do hard things that don’t have impact, but you can’t do things that have impact that aren’t hard,” he says. Now Elliott is taking the same approach at Blitzy, the Boston-based startup he co-founded with Harvard Business School classmate Sid Pardeshi in 2023 to overhaul and lead massive code projects for large corporations. Blitzy’s agents can understand 100 million-plus lines of code, automating away work that customers would otherwise pay millions over months to consulting firms to barely crack. “For eons, we have been limited by how much a human context can hold in their brain,” Elliott argues. Now Blitzy can offload that context to its AI systems: “We can do changes at a size and scale that were previously impossible." On The Upstarts Podcast, Elliott shares how he built Boston’s newest tech unicorn by becoming a CFO’s friend; why Cursor and Claude Code only see enterprise code through a straw; and what West Point and the Army Rangers taught him about operating with precision under pressure. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: catching the 6am train to New York to close an early customer, with his co-founder’s visa at stake. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 1:59 What Blitzy does 7:12 Like an F-15 of 'pure technology risk' 10:43 West Point, the U.S. Army Rangers, and Harvard 18:34 Why OpenAI's models can't do it alone 21:20 Building in Boston, not Silicon Valley 23:50 A visa-saving Upstart Moment 27:23 Proving value across millions of lines of code 31:07 Why token maxing won't work 34:41 A CFO's best friend 38:20 Moving to 'proactive' autonomy next Brian's LinkedIn Blitzy For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling⁠⁠ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Writer’s May Habib: On VC Bias, Token Maxing’, And The Customers Anthropic And OpenAI Leave Behind Fortune 500 boards are in weekend crisis meetings about adopting AI. Many have nothing to show for it, despite spending millions with the big AI labs. "Anthropic and OpenAI salespeople walk in like heroes, get a contract, and leave to literally never be seen again,” says Writer CEO May Habib. That’s where her startup, Writer, cleans up. Valued at $1.9 billion, Writer builds for the ‘normal’ people in enterprise, its agents helping customers like Accenture, Cigna and Vanguard with everything from creating morning sales briefings to personalized product invites. On The Upstarts Podcast, Habib talks about the pivot from Qordoba’s machine translation to Writer’s AI models; ‘token maxing’ and tokenomics’ “absolute insanity”; and why she believes people should start getting fired for buying AI without results. Plus, she shares her Upstart Moment: facing VC bias first-hand, from Vinod Khosla falling asleep in their meeting, to a rejection from Sequoia that called her running a startup with two kids “inspiring.” Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 1:55 How Writer helps ‘normal’ people 9:31 The temperature in the C-suite around AI 16:56 The killer use case for Writer’s tools 21:16 Pivoting from Qordoba to Writer 22:31 Vinod Khosla, Sequoia, and bias in VC 27:43 ‘Survive, don’t sell, don’t quit’ 30:33 Why Writer trains models, but isn’t a lab 33:38 Anthropic, OpenAI and how Writer can compete 40:52 Why people should be fired for buying AI badly May's LinkedIn Writer For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling⁠⁠ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Salespeople have a problem: they only spend 21% of their time actually selling to customers. Founder Jaleh Rezaei set out to fix that – and business was booming. Her startup, Mutiny, reached $10 million-plus in revenue for software that helped take some of the busywork out of the sales process. “When you start a company, the expectation is failure,” she says. “It’s really hard to accept that you’re going to burn it to the ground for the possibility of a better future.” But the CEO now believes that re-founding Mutiny, including painful layoffs and firing all of its customers, was the best thing she could do. The reborn business now uses AI agents to automate away that pain, allowing sales reps to set custom pricing and share peer case studies with just a prompt. It’s growing 150% month over month. On The Upstarts Podcast, Rezaei shares why follow-ups are the sales killer; how AI is disrupting software; and how she got over ‘Claude spookies’ about the big labs. Plus, she shares her Upstart Moment: convincing her co-founder to start over again, on a fateful New York walk. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 2:41 An AI agent for sales 7:04 Why an AI ‘blank canvas’ doesn’t work 10:38 Jaleh’s founder journey and Gusto lessons 17:01 Mutiny’s early software success 22:51 Jaleh’s Upstart Moment: tearing it down 24:42 Why you can’t rebuild a business halfway 27:15 Intercom’s founders share valuable advice 30:44 Focus on the business, not the optics 34:53 ‘Speed is the only thing that matters’ 37:40 ‘Claude spookies’ in the AI app layer 43:59 Second-time founder advantage For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling⁠⁠ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Ever since neurosurgeon Alex Ksendzovsky was in college, he’s been captivated by an idea worthy of a mad scientist: turning brain cell ‘wetware’ into ‘software’ that can make predictions and help train AI. It sounds like science fiction, but at Ksenzovsky’s startup The Biological Computing Co., or TBC, the founder swears it’s already reality. A model improved with algorithms derived from a process that involves connecting a dish of neurons to tiny electrodes demonstrated a 27-fold efficiency gain. “I have about 500 million years of evidence behind me,” Ksendzovsky says. “So our moat is evolution.” Investors have poured more than $25 million into the project. But at least one told Ksendzovsky to leave the neurons out of their pitch, for now. He won’t listen. “We’re bringing something completely crazy to the world, and we’re showing that it works,” Ksendzovsky says. On The Upstarts Podcast, we discuss why algorithms derived by actual brain cells beat traditional ones only inspired by the brain; the ethics of using living neurons for training AI models; and a possible living data center future. Plus, Ksendzovksy shares his Upstart Moment: giving up, alongside his neurosurgeon co-founder, promising careers in academia to pursue a startup. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 01:12 Building software from wetware 05:09 A college idea to predict the stock market 08:40 The first test from an Airbnb 12:46 Rat neurons and electrodes 17:30 Pitching VCs with no data 24:52 Promising early AI results 31:09 The ethics of using neurons 34:40 ‘Our moat is evolution’ 35:38 A real-time biological computing future For more, visit ⁠⁠⁠https://www.upstartsmedia.com/⁠⁠⁠ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling⁠⁠ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from ⁠⁠⁠LightningPod

When Vanta co-founder Christina Cacioppo first pitched investors on compliance software, she faced a frosty reception. It wasn’t a viable product category, she was told. They’d sell for peanuts within a couple of months. No one actually wanted to work on compliance. But Cacioppo had felt the pain first-hand. She was convinced: software could prove the perfect painkiller for fellow startups to handle security audits and grow faster. Today, Vanta works with more than 16,000 customers like Lovable, Snowflake and Icelandair. It’s valued at $4.2 billion – and it’s successful enough that Cacioppo is now fending off a new wave of startup copycats. She welcomes the challenge. “I subscribe to the ‘never let them see you blink’ school of thought,” she says. On The Upstarts Podcast, Cacioppo shares how she created hype in a sleepy category; how she prioritizes “infinity things” as a startup unicorn CEO; and why when it comes to good security hygiene, we could all spend more time brushing our teeth. Plus, she shares her Upstart Moment: working to re-think, and attempt to future-proof, Vanta’s software business for the era of powerful AI models. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 1:39 What Vanta does 5:26 Selling to other startups 9:28 How AI agents change ‘pretty much everything’ 14:06 Christina’s *real* founder origin story 16:23 Underdog fundraising and gaming VCs 18:59 The problem with startup valuations 24:08 Turning LinkedIn ‘cringe’ into customer traction 26:41 Reinventing Vanta with AI 33:43 Whether AI could clone Vanta 35:23 ‘Never let them see you blink’ 37:24 Avoiding burnout with ‘infinity things’ to do For more, visit ⁠⁠https://www.upstartsmedia.com/⁠⁠ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠Rippling⁠ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from ⁠⁠LightningPod

If you could fix the genetic lottery to ensure your baby was born healthy, would you? For entrepreneur Noor Siddiqui, there's no question. Ever since her mother started to lose her vision as the result of a genetic condition, she’s dreamed of solving the problem through better genetic testing. And at Orchid, the startup she founded in 2019, she now offers a novel approach to genetic testing that can spot thousands of potential conditions in embryos before they’re implanted as part of the IVF process. Orchid assisted its first birth in 2023, and now works with more than 100 clinics in the U.S. and abroad. But Siddiqui’s vision for designer “superbabies” has plenty of doubters, from Orchid’s ethical implications to its cost, at $2,500 per screened embryo. Siddiqui’s heard it all. "Right now, it might be edgy for me to say, 'Sex is for fun, and embryo screening is for babies,' but I just think it's a statement of fact.” On the The Upstarts Podcast, Siddiqui talks about her founder journey as a Thiel Fellow turned Stanford research dropout; why she compares previous testing to proofreading only the chapter titles of a book; and how she’s gotten used to the backlash. Plus, she talks about her Upstart Moment: sparking a new wave of reproductive tech startups that she sees carrying the field far beyond where Orchid can go alone. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 1:45 Creating ‘superbabies’ 3:17 Motivated by mom’s blindness 8:04 Stigma around reproductive tech 11:26 How Orchid improves IVF 16:19 From Thiel Fellow to Stanford 21:42 Dropping out (again) for Orchid 24:40 Facing the ‘holy war’ haters 28:44 Orchid’s cost and improving access 34:00 Noor’s Upstart Moment 36:58 What success looks like For more, visit ⁠https://www.upstartsmedia.com/⁠ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠Rippling Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from ⁠LightningPod

The ChatGPT craze was still years away when Chilean-born Cris Valenzuela co-founded Runway to tinker on visual AI models with two classmates at an NYU lab in 2018. Back then, investors weren't sold — not just on video AI, but on generative AI altogether. "There's always doubt when you get 50 rejections," Valenzuela says. "I've realized that building something special, you have to be able and willing to be non-consensus driven." Fast forward, and Runway works not just with many film studios and Hollywood, but creative teams and engineers at corporations like Allstate, Siemens and Robinhood. It's had no recent trouble fundraising, reaching a $5.3 billion valuation. And it's outlasted gen AI's heavyweight, OpenAI, which recently shuttered its Sora app. On The Upstarts Podcast, Valenzuela talks about his journey building an AI lab for artists in New York, and what the big labs missed; why Runway helps expert and amateur filmmakers alike; and why he believes creators should look past controversy around AI to embrace technology. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: collecting those rejection emails from top VCs and sharing them with the whole company to motivate his team. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:32 Why world models matter 03:57 What OpenAI got wrong 06:32 Runway’s NYU origins 13:10 Like going to the gym 16:06 A fan at ‘The Late Show’ 20:36 Cris’s Upstart Moment: VC doubts 25:30 Building at the speed of AI 30:28 Darren Aronofsky and amateur users 33:12 A new normal in filmmaking 39:05 Up next: Characters, robots and games For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

When Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz's parents struggled to navigate Medicare—faxes, phone calls, even a trip to the Social Security office—he figured someone had built a better way. Nobody had. So, in 2020, he co-founded Chapter: a startup focused on connecting Americans to better Medicare plans, saving seniors thousands of dollars per year. Among legacy healthcare players, that hasn’t made him many fans. “I am one of the most hated people in the industry,” he says. “I’m bad for business.” On The Upstarts Podcast, Blumenfeld-Gantz shares his journey from foreign policy studies to forward deployed engineer at Palantir; how Chapter’s nationwide database of Medicare plans helped it reach $100 million in revenue and a $3 billion valuation; and why he proposes a twist on a typical startup metric: product-market-channel fit. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: when last year’s government shutdown cut off Chapter's data right at the opening of Medicare's busiest enrollment window, and his team had one week to reverse-engineer their way out. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:04 Solving his parents’ problem 08:08 From foreign policy to Palantir 12:01 Why Palantir breeds so many startup founders 14:28 Getting started and managing VC no’s 20:24 Why product market channel fit matters 26:51 Cobi’s Upstart Moment: the shutdown 32:33 “One of the most hated people in the industry’ 35:41Tuning out noise and talent density 42:37 Up next: a wider financial platform for senior spend For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod