Founder Real Talk

In this episode of Founder Real Talk, Glenn Solomon welcomes back Rich Waldron, CEO of Tray.ai. Rich discusses how the company recently rebranded from their original name, Tray.io to mark their intensified focus on integration and automation with AI. They discuss the challenges organizations face in adopting AI and the need to be fast, flexible, and safe. Rich shares insights on customer feedback, memorable moments in the company's journey, and valuable lessons for founders and IT leaders.KEY TAKEAWAYS:A Rebrand To Support On-Going Growth: After shifting the company from Tray.io to Tray.ai, the team has aligned on a significant pivot towards AI-driven integration.AI Integration Success: For successful AI implementation, it’s crucial for companies to align on data, agility, and security. Composable Tech Stacks: IT leaders should focus on building composable tech stacks to adapt to AI changes.CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction to Tray.ai and Rich Waldron01:26 The Rebranding Journey: From Tray.io to Tray.ai05:02 Challenges of Integrating AI in Organizations07:48 Tray.ai's Unique Value Proposition10:15 Positioning as an AI-Ready iPaaS Platform12:10 Product Evolution: Introducing Merlin and AI Palette15:55 Speed and Agility in AI Implementation17:53 Security Considerations in AI Projects20:10 Customer Feedback and Adoption of AI Solutions23:27 Memorable Moments in Tray.ai's Journey27:39 Lessons Learned as a Founder30:23 Advice for IT Leaders on AI Readiness33:41 Rapid Fire Round: Fun Insights and Future VisionRESOURCESLearn more about Notable Capital: www.notablecap.comLearn more about Tray.ai: https://tray.ai/ CONNECTConnect with Glenn Solomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennsolomon/ Follow Glenn Solomon on Twitter: https://x.com/glennsolomonConnect with Rich Waldron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwaldron/ Follow Rich Waldron on Twitter: https://x.com/richwaldron Produced by Saschi ProductionsMusic by Gus Culpo

In this episode of Founder Real Talk, host Glenn Solomon, Managing Partner at Notable Capital, sits down with LocalStack’s co-founders, Gerta Sheganaku and Waldemar Hummer, to discuss how LocalStack is revolutionizing the developer experience. LocalStack enables developers to emulate cloud environments on their local machines, drastically reducing testing times and costs while accelerating product development.Listen as Gerta and Waldemar share the journey behind LocalStack, from its humble beginnings as an open-source project to its growth into a full-fledged business with over 900 paying customers, including Fortune 100 companies. They dive into the unique challenges of cloud-based development, how LocalStack provides a faster alternative, and why speed in the development cycle—what they call “product velocity”—is crucial for innovation in tech.Glenn also explores why Notable Capital led LocalStack’s Series A funding and what makes LocalStack stand out in the crowded cloud development space.Key Topics Discussed:How LocalStack’s local cloud emulation tool saves time and cost for developersLocalStack’s journey from an open-source project to an enterprise-grade productGerta and Waldemar’s backgrounds and what led them to build LocalStackThe future of cloud development and how LocalStack plans to expand and innovateRESOURCESLearn more about Notable Capital: www.notablecap.comLearn more about LocalStack: www.localstack.cloudCONNECTConnect with Glenn Solomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennsolomon/ Follow Glenn Solomon on X: https://x.com/glennsolomonConnect with Gerta Sheganaku on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerta-sheganaku/Follow Gerta Sheganaku on X: https://x.com/Sheg_GeConnect with Waldemar Hummer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whummer/Follow Waldemar Hummer on X: https://x.com/w_hummerProduced by Notable CapitalMusic by Gus Culpo

In this episode of Founder Real Talk, Glenn Solomon and Hans Tung welcome the Founder and CEO of Jam, Dani Grant. Jam is helping 150k builders fix bugs faster, trusted by 32 of the Fortune 100. The conversation explores Dani's journey from being a product manager at Cloudflare to founding Jam, the challenges of being a first-time CEO, and the role of AI in shaping the future of software development. They also discuss how to approach developers as a customer and the launch of Dev Starter Pack, a multi-company initiative aimed at supporting aspiring founders by making it easier to get started.KEY TAKEAWAYS:Fostering Efficient Collaboration: Jam accelerates communication between product and engineering teams, drawing inspiration from Dani Grant's experience at Cloudflare, while AI integration is a focus for future tools.Empathy and Community in Leadership: Dani emphasizes empathy in product development, highlights the importance of community in developer-focused companies, and leads by empowering her team while balancing control and trust.How Users Inform the Product Roadmap: How patience and user feedback are critical to reaching product-market-fit and how users can inspire your next great product idea. CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction to Jam and Its Impact02:25 Dani Grant's Journey and the Birth of Jam05:47 The Dev Starter Pack: A Collaborative Initiative08:41 AI's Role in Shaping Software Development10:18 Building a Developer Community15:54 Challenges of Being a First-Time CEO19:56 Finding Product-Market Fit21:36 Leadership Style and Team Dynamics33:45 Commercialization Plans and Future DirectionsRESOURCESLearn more about Notable Capital: www.notablecap.comLearn more about Jam: https://jam.dev/ CONNECTConnect with Glenn Solomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennsolomon/ Follow Glenn Solomon on Twitter: https://x.com/glennsolomonConnect with Hans Tung on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hans-tung/ Follow Hans Tung on Twitter: https://x.com/hanstung Connect with Dani Grant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danigrant/ Follow Dani Grant on Twitter: https://x.com/thedanigrant Produced by Saschi ProductionsMusic by Gus Culpo

In a world where enterprises are moving faster than ever to adopt generative AI solutions, Patronus AI offers solutions to scalably and reliably catch mistakes and evaluate the performance of large language models (LLMs). In this episode of Founder Real Talk, host Glenn Solomon and guest host Dan Cahana sit down with AI visionaries and Patronus AI co-founders Anand Kannappan and Rebecca Qian to explore their journey from CS students at the University of Chicago to AI leadership roles at Meta and the reasons they felt compelled to start Patronus after recognizing the need for robust evaluation tools following the release of ChatGPT in late 2022.Anand and Rebecca illuminate the challenges enterprises face in adopting AI and the ways they’ve built Patronus to mitigate challenges like hallucinations and brand alignment. Against the backdrop of rapid AI adoption at large companies, the founders share their vision for creating the enterprise standard for unbiased, independent evaluations.KEY TAKEAWAYSAI Visionaries: Anand and Rebecca's extensive experience in AI and machine learning, including their time at Meta and the University of Chicago, laid the foundation for Patronus.Day -1 for AI: The founders see AI adoption as still being in the very early stages, describing it as "Day -1." Large companies are moving faster than ever to adopt AI technologies but face challenges in navigating the rapidly evolving landscape.Solving Critical AI Issues: Patronus addresses the challenges of LLMs, such as hallucinations, unexpected behavior, and brand misalignments, making AI deployment safer and more reliable for enterprises.API-First Approach: Patronus's API-first solution allows for seamless integration into various parts of the tech stack, offering flexibility and scalability for real-time and offline use cases.Enterprise Adoption: The rapid adoption of AI by enterprises, driven by the need for reliability and safety, highlights the importance and urgency of Patronus's solutions.Future of AI: Patronus describes “Scalable oversight" and how humans will learn to supervise increasingly intelligent AI systemsRESOURCES• Learn more about Notable Capital: www.notablecap.com• Learn more about Patronus AI: https://www.patronus.ai/ CONNECT• Connect with Glenn Solomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennsolomon/ • Follow Glenn Solomon on Twitter: https://x.com/glennsolomon• Connect with Dan Cahana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dancahana/ • Follow Dan Cahana on Twitter: https://x.com/dan_cahana • Connect with Anand Kannappan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandnkannappan/ • Follow Anand Kannappan on Twitter: https://x.com/anandnk24 • Connect with Rebecca Qian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaqian/ • Follow Rebecca Qian on Twitter: https://x.com/rebeccatqian Produced by Saschi ProductionsMusic by Gus CulpoCHAPTERS00:00 Intro and Introductions 5:00 What does Patronus do? 6:55 What’s been some of the surprises in AI?10:00 The Patronus Product12:15 How are customers using Patronus?15:27 Why is an API-first approach important? 16:45 How did you know this was the right place to focus?19:40 Large companies of the world are moving faster than ever26:40 Into the Future: What will you look for to know that AI has been successful?29:00 How do customers plan to deploy this type of technology?32:00 AI Predictions 35:00 What motivates the Patronus founders?36:40 What advice would you give to founders looking to start a company in the AI field?