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Spotlight Series: Gal Vered, Co-founder of Checksum.ai

September 22, 2023
Written By
September 22, 2023
Spotlight Series 1
17:12
Written By

The {Closed} Session Spotlight Series showcases a different co-founder from the super{set} portfolio every episode. Up first: Gal Vered is co-founder and Head of Product at Checksum (checksum.ai), end to end test automation leveraging AI to test every corner of your app.

Gal details his background as a product manager at Google, a YCombinator CTO, a Northwestern Kellogg MBA, and an Israeli Navy Officer. The group delves into the exciting problem that Checksum is solving with AI and what Gal likes best about working in super{set}'s startup studio model.

Checksum automatically generates and maintains end-to-end tests based on user sessions so you can move fast without breaking things. Learn more about Checksum at checksum.ai.

Find Gal Vered on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gal-vered/

Transcript

Welcome to the closed session. How to get paid in Silicon Valley with your host Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya. 

Tom: Welcome back to the closed session. This is Tom Chavez. 

Vivek: And I'm Vivek Vaidya. 

Tom: Okay, we are going to chop it up and do something a little different today. I'm very excited here to have a chance to talk with a couple of our amazing co-founders from Superset. We haven't done this before, have we? 

Vivek: We... 

Tom: but, no, we've done it in a different context, right? 

Vivek: No, we did it quite a few times, actually. We got Pankaj in, we had Matt, we had Dane. We've done it a few times. But this is a different format, though. 

Tom: It's a different, it's, that's... 

Vivek: Different format...

Tom: That's where I got discombobulated, but yes.

Vivek: Different format. It's called the Spotlight series. 

Tom: We're doing a spotlight. 

Vivek: Yeah. 

Tom: And so it's exciting. Let's just hurl right into it. We have Gal with us. Gal is one of our co-founders, is our Principal Co-founder and Head of Product with Checksum. Hi Gal. 

Gal: Hi. How are you?

Tom: Good. I'm glad you're here.

Vivek: Yeah. Great to have you here, Gaal. 

Tom: Well... 

Gal: I'm happy to be hosted. 

Tom: Gal, back us up a little bit. Give us the, uh, the personal journey. How did you, you don't have to go all, well, yeah, go back. Where did, you know, where you from? How'd you get into this game? 

Gal: Sure. So I'm, as some of you may be able to tell by my accent, I'm originally from Israel, I served seven years in the Israeli Navy, and then I decided, I came to the US did my master's degree, worked at Google, and then founded a company at YC, and joined Superset as a co founder. 

Tom: All right. And now, and so, can you tell us more about the Navy experience? Because that's, you know, for us Americans, Israelis who train in the military. It's fascinating to us. What did you learn? What did you do? 

Gal: Yeah. So I think what you learn in the Navy is that you operate with a high risk, right? Because if something goes wrong, you're in trouble, but on the other side, you operate very fast, like you don't have time, everything needs to happen now. So you kind of learn how to processize stuff. So you can operate in high speed, but lower the tolerance to mistakes. So it's about debriefing, trusting people, and kind of getting them ready for the day. So that's what I learned. 

Tom: Dude, that sounds exactly like early stage company building. 

Vivek: Exactly. 

Tom: Well, that explains why there's so many kick-ass Israeli, entrepreneurs. 

Vivek: So speaking of early stage, what does our company do, Gal?

Gal: Yeah, so we help companies QA their product and test every corner of their web applications using AI. And if we take it one level more technically, we generate end-to-end testing suites. A switch that can run on command and test everything. Again, using a state of doubt, generative AI models. 

Tom: So I... as with all things at Superset, we explore and build companies when they're personal. And we think we know something about the space, the premise, the opportunity, but we also want to have up close and personal experience of the problem. So I always like to talk about in the context of Checksum. There's another Superset company, where I'm the guinea pig, early product user, and I'm getting so frustrated that we're bumping into this, these knowable, avoidable bugs and I'm getting angry. And then I think, well, how did this happen? And then I remember, oh, no, no, no, that's, that didn't just happen to me. I am the problem. Gal, back us up and talk a little bit about the context around this, right? The problems that, cause I'm the person in that context telling the Head of Engineering and asking the Head of Engineering in this other context, Hey, you know, ship it, go, keep it going, don't work, don't break your pick and get all caught up in your knickers on some of those bugs, we'll fix them later. Tell us a little bit about the problem and why we care so deeply about it. 

Gal: Yeah, I think, first of all, one of the cool things about Checksum is that it was never about AI, right? It always started with the problem. Like, we all suffered from the same problem again and again. And AI is just a way to solve the problem. And I think that's why we're kind of seeing, seeing the traction we're seeing. So if we start from the beginning and this is the, I'll tell you the journey from a startup perspective, but it's true for big companies, small companies, as we've kind of learned across the months is that you start with a small team and at the beginning, it's all about ship, ship, ship, you have so much risk that it doesn't make sense to think about quality because. You may not solve the right problem. Everything you do right now may go into the trash bin and you're going to start from scratch but the mindset is always about ship, ship ship. But it's a small team, so the CTO is able to handle it you know, everyone, you're recruiting very talented senior engineers so you can manage it. With time, the team grows, you get more engineers into the mix. The CTO is the most experienced person most of the times, can't micromanage and review every PR and test everything manually. The CEO, the Head of Product, the Product Manager can't keep doing like back and forth with every engineer because the team is now big. And also the bar for hiring, hopefully you keep it up, but in reality, every once in a while, like the you're going to have, you know, even forget about hiring, even junior engineers are going to join the team because that's the natural succession of the company. That's a good thing. But the problem is that with that quality goes down and you'll start seeing bugs in production and you'll start seeing tasks that should take two or three days, take three weeks, just because there is so much back and forth. Like the task itself takes three days and then it's three weeks of fixing the bugs and dealing with all of the unintended consequences. And in that point in time, you'll kind of feel like the house is on fire. And this is a time where our customers kind of like crying out loud, and we come in and we help them test their app end-to-end. So you work on a feature three days and instead of a three weeks process to figure it out, you run it, you find all of the bugs immediately. You fix them within the day. And within four days you ship it, you ship it back. 

Tom: Yeah. And so for listeners who don't work in the middle of a software engineering process, what Gal was describing, those hair on fire issues, we call that Tuesday, right? In a software, in a software group. It's very, yeah, it's a, it's a big problem and it's remained unsolved for decades.

Vivek: Yeah. And, and so let's talk about that, right? It's been, it's remained unsolved for decades. You mentioned AI and, uh, the fact that AI is. And you didn't say it like this, but AI is a means to an end for us. We focus on the problem. We always start with a problem and always have the problem in the back of our minds when we're doing this. There is an element of AI, which has informed our approach and we couldn't have done what we're doing right now, two years ago, right? So can you talk a little bit more about, about that and why check, what makes Checksum unique? Based on what's happening today. 

Gal: Yeah, how technical should I go? Is it keep it high level or? Well, give us the high level and then go deep. Yeah. So if we think about all of the great things we see in AI today, right, the most well known ones are obviously ChatGPT and, and all of the image generations. They all became available because of, of a new technology, diffusers and transformers that was introduced in 2019 and, kind of, took three years to take it to market. And I think what we're seeing today is that those technologies allow us to understand the delicate interconnections and dependencies that language or systems in general have between different steps. So with ChatGPT is how it can understand what the word that it needs to generate now, correlates with the sentence that it wrote like one sentence ago and one paragraph ago and take every all of the context into consideration. For Checksum is the ability to understand that the user, the action that the test is doing right now, how it correlates to what it's done five steps ago, ten steps ago, the entire system, the user context, everything that makes software so complex. But also so wonderful, all of the logic that's backed up into the software, the new innovations in AI now allow us to create a model that can take everything into consideration, understand what's important, that's the attentions networks, if you want to go kind of technical here and spit out a prediction that for us might perceive as, as intelligent. And I think it's up to debate whether it is intelligent or not, but perceive that as at least intelligent-like, what you see results from ChatGPT and what we see in Checksum when we generate tests. 

Tom: Yeah. So role playing here, Gal. A listener who is a software engineer say was, would listen to this and say, well, it sounds like QA automation. Is it, you're doing QA automation then, right? 

Gal: We, so we think about the problem as continuous quality in a world. Around 10 years ago, I think companies started to shift into SaaS models and into CI/CD models, meaning that instead of writing software for six months in a row and then package it up in a CD, ship it to stores. And they started doing CI/CD, every time you deploy multiple times a day. Every time you ship code, it goes to production. What's missing from this space is continuous quality. Cause yes, you ship more code, but you ship more buggy code and you create more issues. And we've all been there. Like we've all used companies from the products from the best and the greatest Amazon, Google, Apple, and there's just so many bugs out there. So we think about it as continuous quality. We think, and what we do is Checksum is because we understand systems very well and because we understand how your code works very well, we're able to make sure at every step of the process, from the developer writing code, to the integration, all the way to deployment and production, make sure that your code works. As if you had an army of people that review every PR, review every code, test every release, and make sure it just works and if it doesn't work, you get feedback now. Not two weeks from now, not two months from now when the user files a bug report. As you write this, as you write the code, you get feedback and you're able to fix it. So, and it's important to say it's as much about as about velocity as it is about quality. And because our customers, they mostly talk about speed. Like when we talk to them about the value we provide. And quality, cause it goes hand to hand, hand in hand. 

Tom: If you talk to a CTO or any Head of Engineering who's worked in software at any kind of scale and ask them rhetorically, Hey, what would you be willing to pay for just one percentage point improvement in throughput from your engineering team, like working code per unit time? It's immeasurably huge, right? So I really appreciate how you always bring us back to the, to, it's not, it's about quality, but it's also about the velocity of your software engineering process.

Vivek: Yeah. And just to, just to kind of make it personal, right? I've used so many QA automation platforms in the past, right? They, and there are, there are quite a few out there. People use testing frameworks and various CI/CD systems to implement these automation pipelines. And that's not the hard part. Those systems exist where I think Checksum solves a unique problem is you all the long pull in the tent. You have, you need to have tests that you run through those frameworks, that you run as part of your QA automation pipelines. And that's where Checksum is unique in that we actually generate tests for our software engine, for the software engineering teams who are our customers that help them achieve the velocity by not compromising on quality. 

Tom: Yeah. I don't want to get too punchy about it, but for me, Checksum is to conventional QA automation what apple's are to Hovercraft, right? I mean, yeah, I mean, they're both entities or objects, but this isn't, to your point Vivek, automating the test after it already exists, that's not the hard part. 

Vivek: Correct, correct. 

Tom: Generating a new test that smokes out a bug that I actually care about. Okay that's nirvana, right? And it couldn't, to your point Gal, it couldn't have happened two years ago, right? We had to wait for this magical cusp, right, where this gen AI, this multi layer neural network explosion of possibility fuels the kinds of, you know, things that we're doing at Checksum. I don't think we could have built this company five years ago. 

Vivek: No. 

Gal: Exactly. 

Vivek: Absolutely not. 

Tom: No. So, a note or two, Gal, if you would, about Superset, what it's been like, you know, joining up and, and whacking away at it, at it over here with me and Vivek at Superset.

Gal: Yeah. It's. First of all, it's great and... 

Tom: You don't have to just say that 

Gal: Yeah, I kind of do but I mean it in this time I mean it but I don't know... 

Tom: Along those lines, along those lines Vivek or me, who do you like more? 

Gal: Oh, there's only one right answer, here you go. 

Vivek: And it starts with a V. 

Gal: Let me, I'll, I'll take the, I plead the fifth, I believe.

Tom: Oh, gracefully dodged. 

Gal: No, I think, look, working at Superset was simply put, amazing. First of all, I'm doing what I love. I don't think, I was always happy in my, in my jobs, I, so... Yeah, I've had the luck to always work on interesting problems and roles, but this is really kind of like the essence of what I dreamt about to be working in tech, working in new technologies, innovation, solving people problems, and, you know, everyday whiteboarding, a lot of breakthroughs, a lot of disappointments and stuff that doesn't work, stuff that don't work and, and it's simply been amazing. And I think with Superset, the unique part is that it provides you all of the kind of excitement of a startup, but it just gives you some percent more guidance. Like you're still in the field, you're getting your hands dirty, you're taking the risks, but every once in a while and quite often, but like I have the Superset, it's you two, but it's also the entire Superset group and it's the Superset companies and the other co-founders to kind of share your thoughts, share ideas. And that's, I often, I, I sometimes give the analogy because people ask me about Superset. It's like, I cook and I don't cook well and my wife cooks well. So every once in a while, I like, I make the dish and I spend an hour on it. And it, it just doesn't taste well. And my wife comes and she adds a bit of salt, paprika, I don't know, some condiments, and within like two seconds, she take an okay dish to something amazing. But I couldn't do it myself. And I think that's the Superset experience. It's like, the Superset group, and especially you two, you come, you add like the salt, the paprika, the pepper, and suddenly what we had was okay, turns into amazing, because it's like those small directions in life and I think I'm very lucky to have this kind of mentorship and support system in my first kind of like tooth to nail startup. 

Tom: Oh God, not to get all goopy on you, we're the lucky ones here, actually, right? I mean, building, cause we've said in prior podcasts, like we just need the joy of building shoulder to shoulder and getting that dirt under our fingernails and getting kicked in the head as we do every day. But doing it shoulder to shoulder with with world class product leadership, that's as good as it gets.

Vivek: Yeah. And I think for us, it's also that energy that you have the hustle that you bring is infectious. We get inspired by seeing you and other, other Superset co-founders do their work. Really, we do. 

Tom: No, we need that. We need that. Really great. Gal, thanks for joining. 

Gal: Thank you. 

Tom: This was fun. 

Vivek: For our listeners, if you want to check out what Checksum does, you can go to checksum.ai. For all the software engineering leaders out there, if you want to give it a shot. Reach out to us. We're looking for design partners always. 

Gal: Thank you very much.

Tom: Thanks, Gal.

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Alysa Hutnik, Chief Privacy and Data Security Architect @ Ketch

We are delighted to share our new episode of the {Closed} Session podcast with guest Alyssa Hutnik. Alyssa looms large in the privacy world, and she’s been thinking deeply about the intersections of data, technology and the law for nearly two decades. She’s also the Chief Privacy and Data Security Architect at Ketch, a super{set} company, as well as a lawyer. Hope you enjoy the episode!

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The Information: "TikTok Is Not the Enemy"

Tom writes a nuanced take on the TikTok controversy and outlines ethical data principles that will restore people’s sense of trust and offer them true control over how and when they grant permission for use of their data.

read more

boombox.io Raises $7M to Build Out Creator Platform for Music Makers

super{set} startup studio portfolio company’s seed funding round was led by Forerunner Ventures with participation from Ulu Ventures Raise will enable boombox.io to accelerate product development on the way to becoming the winning creator platform for musicians globally

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Building the Creator Platform for Music Makers at Boombox.io

On the heels of boombox.io's $7M seed fundraise led by Forerunner, Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya sit down with boombox co-founders India Lossman and Max Mathieu for a special episode straight from super{summit} 2023 in New Orleans!

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From Chords, to Code, to Chords Again: The Story Behind Boombox.io

super{set} founding general partner Tom Chavez wasn’t always set on a life of engineering and entrepreneurship – music was his first love. For a time, he was determined to make a career out of it. With boombox.io, Tom has combined the best of both worlds into a product that inspires and delights both the engineer and the musician.

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Horizontal Scaling at super{summit}

Vivek gives us the rundown on what the hive is buzzing about after super{summit} 2023: how to 'horizontally scale' yourself.

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Generative AI + Creative Work with Big Technology's Alex Kantrowitz

Alex Kantrowitz, journalist and author of Big Technology, joins Tom and Vivek in the studio to discuss his road to journalism, ad tech, and the business and ethical considerations of generative AI.

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Jamming with Habu’s Matt Kilmartin on Partnership Strategy

Discover how Habu, a trailblazer in data clean room technology, utilizes strategic partnerships with giants like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS to expand its market reach and foster the potential of an emerging category. Learn from CEO Matt Kilmartin's insights on how collaboration is the secret sauce that brings innovation to life.

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MIT Professor Rama Ramakrishnan on How ChatGPT Works

MIT Professor Rama Ramakrishnan joins Vivek on the pod to delve into the evolution of Generative AI and ChatGPT, as well as his own journey as an entrepreneur turned business school professor.

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Pivots and Possibilities

Discover how lessons from law enforcement shape a thriving tech career. Ketch Sr. Business Development Representative Brenda Flores shares a bold career pivot in our latest "Pass the Mic" story.

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The Future of Work and Talent in Tech

Does it matter where you go to college? Should the SAT be abolished? Do you have to have a degree in computer science to work in tech? What are the differences between higher education in the US and in India? Why did Tom and Vivek ban Harvard and Stanford degrees from working at their first company?

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AI Alignment with Brian Christian of 'The Alignment Problem'

What does ‘AI alignment mean? Can philosophy help make AI less biased? How does reinforcement learning influence AI's unpredictability? How does AI's ‘frame problem’ affect its ability to understand objects? What role does human feedback play in machine learning and AI fine-tuning?

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Hold Fast: Game-Changing Wisdom from Seamus Blackley

Creator of the XBox and serial entrepreneur Seamus Blackley joined Tom Chavez on stage at the 2023 super{summit} in New Orleans, Louisiana, for a free-ranging conversation covering the intersection of creativity and technology, recovering back from setbacks to reach new heights, and a pragmatic reflection on the role of fear and regret in entrepreneurship.

read more

An Intro to Product-Led Growth from MarkovML

Want to grow your product organically? This blog post breaks down understanding costs, setting up starter plans, and pricing premium features using MarkovML as an example. Learn how to engage new users and encourage upgrades, enhancing user experience and fueling growth through actionable insights.

read more

Building Tech on a Moving Regulatory Target

In an interview with Ketch co-founder Max Anderson, the focus is on data privacy laws and AI's role. Anderson discusses the global privacy landscape, highlighting Ketch's approach to helping businesses navigate regulations. The conversation also emphasizes data dignity and Ketch's unique role in the AI revolution.

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AI Hot Takes: Deepfakes, The Big Stakes, and What to Make

Is AI our salvation or is it going to kill us all? Tom and Vivek roam widely on others’ takes about artificial intelligence, adding their insight and experience to the mix. Along the way they consider Descartes, Ray Kurzweil, Salt Bae, Marc Andreessen among others. If you are looking for a down to earth conversation that tempers the extremes at either end of the debate, this is the one you’ve been waiting for.

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Lessons from the Startup Circus

super{set} Technical Lead and resident front-end engineering expert Sagar Jhobalia recaps lessons from participating in multiple product and team build-outs in our startup studio. Based on a decade of experience, Sagar emphasizes the importance of assembling the right engineering team, setting expectations, and strategically planning MVPs for early wins in the fast-paced startup environment.

read more

Navigating the Startup Journey from Launch to Finish Line

Are you a launcher, or a finisher? The balance of conviction, a guiding vision, and the right team to execute it all make the difference between entrepreneurial success and failure. Tom Chavez delves into his journey as a first-time CEO and the invaluable guidance he received from a key mentor.

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Understanding The AI “Alignment Problem”

Vivek Vaidya recaps his conversation with AI researcher and author of "The Alignment Problem" Brian Christian at the 2023 super{summit}.

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High-Velocity Personal Growth

What's the price you put on personal growth? In his most recent note to founders, super{set} Founding General Partner Vivek Vaidya outlines 7 points of advice for startup interviews and negotiations. Vivek explains his compensation philosophy and the balance between cash and the investment in personal and career growth a startup can bring. Here’s the mindset you need to reach your zenith at a startup.

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Harvard Computer Scientist James Mickens on The Ethical Tech Project

Are we walking a tightrope with AI, jeopardizing humanity's ethical core? Is AI more than just algorithms, acting as a mirror to our moral values? And when machine learning grapples with ethical dilemmas, who ultimately bears the responsibility? Harvard's Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, James Mickens, joins Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya on "The {Closed} Session."

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How Boombox Nurtures Customer Collaboration for Success

In a conversation with boombox's co-founder India Lossman, the discussion pivots to the art of fostering customer collaboration in music creation. Lossman unveils how artist-driven feedback shapes boombox's innovative platform, with a glimpse into AI's empowering potential. Understand the synergy between technology and user insights as they redefine the independent music landscape.

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ActiveFence Acquires super{set} Company Spectrum Labs

ActiveFence, the leading technology solution for Trust and Safety intelligence, management and content moderation, today announced its successful acquisition of Spectrum Labs, a pioneer in text-based Contextual AI Content Moderation.

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How Engineers Should Talk to Customers with Empathy

Do you get an uneasy feeling anytime you get added to a customer call? Do you ever struggle to respond to a frustrated customer? Peter Wang, Product lead at Ketch, discusses how customer feedback can help drive product development, and how engineers can use customer insights to create better products. Learn best practices for collecting and interpreting customer feedback.

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Tech Crunch: Answering AI’s biggest questions requires an interdisciplinary approach

Tom Chavez, writing in TechCrunch, calls for new approaches to the problems of Ethical AI: "We have to build a more responsible future where companies are trusted stewards of people’s data and where AI-driven innovation is synonymous with good. In the past, legal teams carried the water on issues like privacy, but the brightest among them recognize they can’t solve problems of ethical data use in the age of AI by themselves."

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Spectrum Co-founders Launch Nurdle AI

Justin Davis and Josh Newman, Co-founders of Spectrum Labs (acquired) launch Nurdle to get AI into production faster, cheaper & easier.

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Spotlight Series: Gal Vered, Co-founder of Checksum.ai

The {Closed} Session Spotlight Series showcases a different co-founder from the super{set} portfolio every episode. Up first: Gal Vered is co-founder and Head of Product at Checksum (checksum.ai), end to end test automation leveraging AI to test every corner of your app.

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The Product Mindset for Engineers

Ever find yourself scratching your head about product management decisions? Join India Lossman, co-founder of boombox.io, as she unpacks the product mindset for engineers. Unravel the art of synergy between PMs and engineers and delve into strategies to enhance collaboration and craft products that users will adore.

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Why Headlamp Health is Bringing Precision to Mental Health

Co-founder of Headlamp Health, Andrew Marshak, describes the frustratingly ambiguous state of mental health diagnoses - and the path forward for making mental health a precision science.

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Marketing in the Age of AI with Rex Briggs

How is AI steering the future of marketing strategy? With the convergence of AI and marketing tactics, Rex Briggs paints a compelling picture of what's possible: AI agents that revolutionize user interactions, and generative techniques that craft persuasive content. Drawing from his deep expertise in marketing measurement, Rex joins Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya to explore the cutting-edge of AI-driven marketing strategies. Listen for insights on harnessing AI's potential in modern marketing.

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Tom Chavez in Huffpost Personal for Hispanic Heritage Month

Writing in the Huffington Post: "My Mom Sent Me And My 4 Siblings To Harvard. Here's The 1 Thing I Tell People About Success."

read more

Developer tools that are worth their while: KEDA and Boundary in action

Running cloud platforms efficiently while keeping them secure can be challenging. In this blog post, learn how two of super{set}’s portfolio companies, MarkovML and Kapstan, are leveraging tools like KEDA for event-driven scale and Boundary for access management to remove friction for developers. Get insights into real-world use cases about optimizing resource usage and security without compromising productivity.

read more

Watch: Sandeep Bhandari Fireside Chat

Sandeep Bhandari, Former Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Risk Officer at buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Affirm, joins Vivek Vaidya, Founding General Partner of super{set}, in conversation.

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Spotlight Series: Andrew Marshak, Co-founder of Headlamp Health

The {Closed} Session Spotlight Series showcases a different co-founder from the super{set} portfolio every episode. Up now: Andrew Marshak is Co-founder and Head of Product at Headlamp Health (Headlamp.com), a healthtech company bringing greater precision to mental health care.

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Philosophy, Data, and AI Ethics with NYT Best-selling Author + Data Scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

From unpacking Google search patterns to understanding the philosophical underpinnings of big data, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz offers a unique lens. As the NYT Best-selling author of “Everybody Lies” and a renowned data scientist, he delves into the ways data mirrors societal nuances and the vast implications for tech and its intertwining with everyday life.

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Forbes: 5 Startup Studio Misconceptions

It's still early for the startup studio asset class - and we hear misconceptions about the studio model every day, ranging from the basic confusion of accelerators versus studios to downright incorrect assumptions on our deep commitment to the build-out of every company. Read Tom Chavez' latest in Forbes.

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Ringside Tales from Serial Startup Champion Omar Tawakol

Like Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed, the fiercest competitors can sometimes become friends. Omar Tawakol is a prime example. As the founder and CEO of BlueKai, he went head-to-head with Tom, Vivek, and the 'Krux mafia' for dominance in the Data Management Platform arena. A serial entrepreneur with roots in New York and Egypt, Omar eventually steered BlueKai to a successful acquisition by Oracle before creating Voicea, which Cisco acquired. Today, he's pioneering a new venture called Rembrand (rembrand.com), which innovates in product placement through generative fusion AI.

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Spotlight Series: Lindsey Meyl, Co-founder of RevAmp

The {Closed} Session Spotlight Series showcases a different co-founder from the super{set} portfolio in every episode. Today's guest is Lindsey Meyl, Co-founder at RevAmp (rev-amp.ai), a "Datadog for RevOps" platform that offers observability across the revenue engine, monitoring performance, flagging when something is amiss, and determining the root cause of how to fix it.

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Why Proprietary Data Is the Linchpin of AI Disruption

Read Vivek Vaidya's latest in CDO Magazine and learn why in this new AI landscape, those who harness the potential of proprietary data and foster a culture of collaboration will lead the way—those who don't risk obsolescence.

read more

MedCity News: It’s Time for the Tech Revolution to Come to Mental Health Diagnoses

Headlamp Health co-founder Andrew Marshak writes in the MedCity News that "We need to take inspiration from the progress in oncology over the last few decades and challenge ourselves to adapt its successful playbook to mental illness. It’s time for precision psychiatry."

read more

What Consumers Think of AI and Their Privacy

Everyone’s talking about AI - so The Ethical Tech Project decided to listen. Joining forces with programmatic privacy and data+AI governance platform Ketch, The Ethical Tech Project surveyed a representative sample of 2,500 U.S. consumers and asked them about AI, the companies leveraging AI, and their sentiment and expectations around AI and privacy. On the latest episode of The {Closed} Session, get an inside look at the survey results in a deep-dive conversation with the team at The Ethical Tech Project.

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Why the AI Revolution Will Be Data-Centric

Pankaj Rajan, co-founder of MarkovML, joins super{set} Chief Commercial Officer Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) to discuss the role of data in gaining a competitive advantage in the AI revolution. Learn the difference between optimizing models and optimizing data in machine learning applications, and why effective collaboration will make or break the next-gen AI applications being created in businesses.

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Data Eats the World

The wheel. Electricity. The automobile. These are technologies that had a disproportionate impact on the merits of their first practical use-case; but beyond that, because they enabled so much in terms of subsequent innovation, economic historians call them “general-purpose technologies” or GPTs...

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super{set} Fund II: $90 million to intensify our serial focus on data+ai company building

Announcing super{set} Fund II

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Lessons from the Startup Circus

super{set} Technical Lead and resident front-end engineering expert Sagar Jhobalia recaps lessons from participating in multiple product and team build-outs in our startup studio. Based on a decade of experience, Sagar emphasizes the importance of assembling the right engineering team, setting expectations, and strategically planning MVPs for early wins in the fast-paced startup environment.

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The super{set} Entrepreneurial Guild

Has someone looking to make a key hire ever told you that they are after “coachability”? Take a look at the Google ngram for “coachability” — off like a rocket ship since the Dot Com bubble, and it’s not even a real word! Coaching is everywhere in Silicon Valley...

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Not Just On Veterans Day

This post was written by Ketch Developer Advocate, Ryan Overton, as part of our #PassTheMic series.

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Four Tips for a Distributed Workforce

This month we pass the mic to Sagar Gaur, Software Engineer at super{set} MLOps company MarkovML, who shares with us his tips for working within a global startup with teams in San Francisco and Bengaluru, India

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High-Velocity Personal Growth

What's the price you put on personal growth? In his most recent note to founders, super{set} Founding General Partner Vivek Vaidya outlines 7 points of advice for startup interviews and negotiations. Vivek explains his compensation philosophy and the balance between cash and the investment in personal and career growth a startup can bring. Here’s the mindset you need to reach your zenith at a startup.

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Good Ideas, Good Luck

Coming up with new company ideas is easy: we take the day off, go to the park, and let the thoughts arrive like butterflies. Maybe we grab a coconut from that guy for a little buzz. While this describes a pleasant day in San Francisco, it couldn’t be further from the truth of what we do at super{set}. If only we could pull great ideas out of thin air. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way.

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Pivots and Possibilities

Discover how lessons from law enforcement shape a thriving tech career. Ketch Sr. Business Development Representative Brenda Flores shares a bold career pivot in our latest "Pass the Mic" story.

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Too Dumb to Quit

The decision to start a company – or to join an early stage one – is an act of the gut. On good days, I see it as a quasi-spiritual commitment. On bad days, I see it as sheer irrationality. Whichever it is, you’ll be happier if you acknowledge and calmly accept the lunacy of it all...

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7 Ways to Turn an Internship Into a Job at a Startup

Chris Fellowes, super{set} interned turned full time employee at super{set} portfolio company Kapstan, gives his 7 recommendations for how to turn an internship into a job at a startup.

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Detecting Software Bugs with AI

Gal Vered is co-founder and Head of Product at Checksum (checksum.ai), an innovative company that provides end-to-end test automation that leverages AI to test every corner of an app. He sat down with Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) to discuss the exciting problem that Checksum is solving with AI and what Gal likes best about working in super{set}'s startup studio model.

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Diamonds in the Rough

Obsessive intensity. Pack animal nature. Homegrown hero vibes. Unyielding grit. A chip on the shoulder. That's who we look for to join exceptional teams.

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Jamming with Habu’s Matt Kilmartin on Partnership Strategy

Discover how Habu, a trailblazer in data clean room technology, utilizes strategic partnerships with giants like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS to expand its market reach and foster the potential of an emerging category. Learn from CEO Matt Kilmartin's insights on how collaboration is the secret sauce that brings innovation to life.

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Overheard @ super{summit}

Vivek Vaidya's takeaways from the inaugural super{summit}

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Building Tech on a Moving Regulatory Target

In an interview with Ketch co-founder Max Anderson, the focus is on data privacy laws and AI's role. Anderson discusses the global privacy landscape, highlighting Ketch's approach to helping businesses navigate regulations. The conversation also emphasizes data dignity and Ketch's unique role in the AI revolution.

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Building Fast, Scaling Globally

Harshil Vyas joined the super{set} Hive (i.e., portfolio companies community) in March 2023 as Co-Founder of Kapstan and employee number one in India. We jumped on a Zoom recently to talk about accelerated timelines, globally distributed workforces, and what is unique about the super{set} model.

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From Suitcases to Startups: Why Immigrants Innovate

How are immigrants like entrepreneurs? Peter Wang of Ketch arrived in the U.S. at age 7 with two suitcases and a box. Read his story in the latest "Pass The Mic."

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How Engineers Should Talk to Customers with Empathy

Do you get an uneasy feeling anytime you get added to a customer call? Do you ever struggle to respond to a frustrated customer? Peter Wang, Product lead at Ketch, discusses how customer feedback can help drive product development, and how engineers can use customer insights to create better products. Learn best practices for collecting and interpreting customer feedback.

read more

Forbes: Why The Biden-Xi Talks Should Put A Microscope On San Francisco

The prettifying and securing of downtown San Francisco, where super{set} is headquartered, should be the norm - not just for special state visits from the world's dictators. Here are 3 things the city of San Francisco should be doing all year round to make the city better to live, work, and invest in. Read Tom Chavez' latest in Forbes.

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The Four Types of Startup Opportunities

In our last post, we discussed how data is the new general-purpose technology and that is why at super{set} we form data-driven companies from scratch. But new technologies are a promise, not a sudden phase change.

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Why CTOs Should Care About Gross Margins, Cost-to-Serve, and Product Management

Why should a tech exec care about profit and loss? Aren’t our jobs to make the product great, and someone else can figure out how to make the numbers add up? That was my attitude for a long time until I finally appreciated the significance of gross margins for SaaS businesses during the early part of my tenure as the CTO of Krux.

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Forbes: 5 Startup Studio Misconceptions

It's still early for the startup studio asset class - and we hear misconceptions about the studio model every day, ranging from the basic confusion of accelerators versus studios to downright incorrect assumptions on our deep commitment to the build-out of every company. Read Tom Chavez' latest in Forbes.

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CalMatters: Why visa reforms benefit not just California’s tech sector but the economy overall

Vivek Vaidya writes that America needs more H-1B workers. Common sense reforms to the program will even the playing field for startups, not Big Tech, to bring innovative talent to American's shores.

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VCs Write Investment Memos, We Write Solution Memos

When a VC decides to invest in a company, they write up a document called the “Investment Memo” to convince their partners that the decision is sound. This document is a thorough analysis of the startup...

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The Information: "TikTok Is Not the Enemy"

Tom writes a nuanced take on the TikTok controversy and outlines ethical data principles that will restore people’s sense of trust and offer them true control over how and when they grant permission for use of their data.

read more

Q&A with Accel Founder Arthur Patterson

Arthur Patterson, founder of venture capital firm Accel, sits down for a fireside chat with super{set} founding partner Tom Chavez as part of our biweekly super{set} Community Call. Arthur and Tom cover venture investing, company-building, and even some personal stories from their history together.

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The Balancing Act For Women in Tech

This post was written by Ketch Sales Director, Sheridan Rice, as part of our #PassTheMic series.

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Infrastructure Headaches - Where’s the Tylenol?

Head of Infrastructure at Ketch, and Kapstan Advisor, Anton Winter explains a few of the infrastructure and DevOps headaches he encounters every day.

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Why I Left Google To Co-found with super{set}

Gal Vered of Checksum explains his rationale for leaving Google to co-found a super{set} company.

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Hold Fast: Game-Changing Wisdom from Seamus Blackley

Creator of the XBox and serial entrepreneur Seamus Blackley joined Tom Chavez on stage at the 2023 super{summit} in New Orleans, Louisiana, for a free-ranging conversation covering the intersection of creativity and technology, recovering back from setbacks to reach new heights, and a pragmatic reflection on the role of fear and regret in entrepreneurship.

read more

super{set} Celebrates First Exit: LiveRamp to Acquire Data Collaboration Software Startup Habu for $200M

LiveRamp Enters Into Definitive Agreement to Acquire Habu, Reinforcing super{set}'s Unique Company Building Model of Founding, Funding, and Scaling Data+AI Businesses

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Tom Chavez in Huffpost Personal for Hispanic Heritage Month

Writing in the Huffington Post: "My Mom Sent Me And My 4 Siblings To Harvard. Here's The 1 Thing I Tell People About Success."

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Why I'm Joining super{set} as Chief Commercial Officer

Announcing Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) as super{set}’s Chief Commercial Officer: jsd tells us in his own words why he's joining super{set}

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Podcast: Tom Chavez on How AI Startups Can Show Us What’s Next in Marketing

Tom Chavez joins the "Decoding AI for Marketing" podcast published by MMA Global and hosted by well-respected international marketing & AI experts Greg Stuart (CEO, Author, Investor, Speaker) and Rex Briggs (Founder/CEO, Inventor, Author, Speaker).

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Horizontal Scaling at super{summit}

Vivek gives us the rundown on what the hive is buzzing about after super{summit} 2023: how to 'horizontally scale' yourself.

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Why I'm Co-founding @ super{set}

Pankaj Rajan, co-founder at MarkovML, describes his Big Tech and startup experience and his journey to starting a company at super{set}.

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We don’t critique, we found and build.

The super{set} studio model for early-stage venture It is still early days for the startup studio model. We know this because at super{set} we still get questions from experienced operators and investors. One investor that we’ve known for years recently asked us: “you have a fund — aren’t you just a venture capital firm with a different label?”

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Jeremy Klein on Leading super{set}'s Data-Driven $90 Million Fund II

Jeremy Klein is a general partner at super{set}. Jeremy helped build super{set} from day one alongside Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya, designing super{set}’s structure, recruiting co-founders, and laying the plans for a scalable buildout. super{set} recently announced the closing of its $90 million Fund II. He sat down with Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) to provide insights into the strategic timing and vision behind launching Fund II, his professional journey from a legal expert to an integral part of super{set}'s fabric, and how his unique background and approach have been instrumental in building super{set} and recruiting top-tier co-founders.

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boombox.io Raises $7M to Build Out Creator Platform for Music Makers

super{set} startup studio portfolio company’s seed funding round was led by Forerunner Ventures with participation from Ulu Ventures Raise will enable boombox.io to accelerate product development on the way to becoming the winning creator platform for musicians globally

read more

Founder and Father: A Balancing Act

Making It Work With Young Kids & Young Companies

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Developer tools that are worth their while: KEDA and Boundary in action

Running cloud platforms efficiently while keeping them secure can be challenging. In this blog post, learn how two of super{set}’s portfolio companies, MarkovML and Kapstan, are leveraging tools like KEDA for event-driven scale and Boundary for access management to remove friction for developers. Get insights into real-world use cases about optimizing resource usage and security without compromising productivity.

read more

The Information: The People OpenAI Should Consider for Its New Board

Tom Chavez writes in The Information that "OpenAI’s board needs a data ethicist, a philosopher of mind, a neuroscientist, a computer scientist with interdisciplinary expertise and a political strategist."

read more

Silicon Valley’s Greatest Untapped Resource: Moms

This post was written by MarkovML Co-Founder, Lindsey Meyl, as part of our #PassTheMic series.

read more

An Intro to Product-Led Growth from MarkovML

Want to grow your product organically? This blog post breaks down understanding costs, setting up starter plans, and pricing premium features using MarkovML as an example. Learn how to engage new users and encourage upgrades, enhancing user experience and fueling growth through actionable insights.

read more

From Watsonville To The Moon

This post was written by Habu software engineer, Martín Vargas-Vega, as part of our new #PassTheMic series.

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ActiveFence Acquires super{set} Company Spectrum Labs

ActiveFence, the leading technology solution for Trust and Safety intelligence, management and content moderation, today announced its successful acquisition of Spectrum Labs, a pioneer in text-based Contextual AI Content Moderation.

read more

super{set}’s Spectrum Detoxifies The Online Space

We are living in a time of extraordinary concern about the negative consequences of online platforms and social media. We worry about the damage interactive technologies cause to society; about the impact to our mental health; and about the way that these platforms and their practices play to our most destructive impulses. Too often, the experiences we have online serve only to polarize, divide, and amplify the worst of human nature.

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Why Head of Product is Our First Co-Founder

At super{set}, we stand side-by-side and pick up the shovel with our co-founders. Our first outside co-founder at a super{set} company is usually a Head of Product. Let’s unpack each portion of that title....

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From Chords, to Code, to Chords Again: The Story Behind Boombox.io

super{set} founding general partner Tom Chavez wasn’t always set on a life of engineering and entrepreneurship – music was his first love. For a time, he was determined to make a career out of it. With boombox.io, Tom has combined the best of both worlds into a product that inspires and delights both the engineer and the musician.

read more

Why the AI Revolution Will Be Data-Centric

Pankaj Rajan, co-founder of MarkovML, joins super{set} Chief Commercial Officer Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) to discuss the role of data in gaining a competitive advantage in the AI revolution. Learn the difference between optimizing models and optimizing data in machine learning applications, and why effective collaboration will make or break the next-gen AI applications being created in businesses.

read more

Navigating the Startup Journey from Launch to Finish Line

Are you a launcher, or a finisher? The balance of conviction, a guiding vision, and the right team to execute it all make the difference between entrepreneurial success and failure. Tom Chavez delves into his journey as a first-time CEO and the invaluable guidance he received from a key mentor.

read more

Tech Crunch: Answering AI’s biggest questions requires an interdisciplinary approach

Tom Chavez, writing in TechCrunch, calls for new approaches to the problems of Ethical AI: "We have to build a more responsible future where companies are trusted stewards of people’s data and where AI-driven innovation is synonymous with good. In the past, legal teams carried the water on issues like privacy, but the brightest among them recognize they can’t solve problems of ethical data use in the age of AI by themselves."

read more

Spectrum Co-founders Launch Nurdle AI

Justin Davis and Josh Newman, Co-founders of Spectrum Labs (acquired) launch Nurdle to get AI into production faster, cheaper & easier.

read more

Why Headlamp Health is Bringing Precision to Mental Health

Co-founder of Headlamp Health, Andrew Marshak, describes the frustratingly ambiguous state of mental health diagnoses - and the path forward for making mental health a precision science.

read more

Why Proprietary Data Is the Linchpin of AI Disruption

Read Vivek Vaidya's latest in CDO Magazine and learn why in this new AI landscape, those who harness the potential of proprietary data and foster a culture of collaboration will lead the way—those who don't risk obsolescence.

read more

Redefining Customer Experience in Data-Driven Tech Startups

Ted Flanagan, Chief Customer Officer at super{set}-founded Habu, sat down with Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) to provide insights into how Habu's strategies in customer experience set it apart in the data collaboration market. Learn how customer experience strategies helped Habu land a $200 million after being acquired by LiveRamp in January 2024.

read more

MedCity News: It’s Time for the Tech Revolution to Come to Mental Health Diagnoses

Headlamp Health co-founder Andrew Marshak writes in the MedCity News that "We need to take inspiration from the progress in oncology over the last few decades and challenge ourselves to adapt its successful playbook to mental illness. It’s time for precision psychiatry."

read more

Understanding The AI “Alignment Problem”

Vivek Vaidya recaps his conversation with AI researcher and author of "The Alignment Problem" Brian Christian at the 2023 super{summit}.

read more

How To Avoid Observability MELTdown

o11y - What is it? Why is it important? What are the tools you need? More importantly - how can you adopt an observability mindset? Habu Software Architect Siddharth Sharma reports from his session at super{summit} 2022.

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Former Salesforce SVP of Marketing Strategy and Innovation Jon Suarez-Davis “JSD” Appointed Chief Commercial Officer at super{set}

The Move Accelerates the Rapidly Growing Startup Studio’s Mission to Lead the Next Generation of AI and Data-Driven Market Innovation and Success

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The RevOps Bowtie Data Problem

Go-to-market has entered a new operating environment. Enter: RevOps. We dig into the next solution space for super{set}, analyzing the paradigm shift in GTM and the data challenges a new class of company must solve.

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Watch: Sandeep Bhandari Fireside Chat

Sandeep Bhandari, Former Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Risk Officer at buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Affirm, joins Vivek Vaidya, Founding General Partner of super{set}, in conversation.

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Tech Crunch: Boutique startup studio super{set} gets another $90 million to co-found data and AI companies

Startup studio super{set} has a fresh exit under its belt with the sale of marketing company Habu to LiveRamp for $200 million in January. Now, super{set} is adding another $90 million to its coffers as it doubles down on its strategy of building enterprise startups.

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How I Learned to Stop Optimizing and Love the Startup Ride

Reflections after a summer as an engineering intern at super{set}

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How Boombox Nurtures Customer Collaboration for Success

In a conversation with boombox's co-founder India Lossman, the discussion pivots to the art of fostering customer collaboration in music creation. Lossman unveils how artist-driven feedback shapes boombox's innovative platform, with a glimpse into AI's empowering potential. Understand the synergy between technology and user insights as they redefine the independent music landscape.

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When Inference Meets Engineering

Othmane Rifki, Principal Applied Scientist at super{set} company Spectrum Labs, reports from the session he led at super{summit} 2022: "When Inference Meets Engineering." Using super{set} companies as examples, Othmane reveals the 3 ways that data science can benefit from engineering workflows to deliver business value.

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The Era of Easy $ Is Over

The era of easy money - or at least, easy returns for VCs - is over. Tom Chavez is calling for VCs to show up in-person at August board meetings, get off the sidelines, and start adding real value and hands-on support for founders.

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Forbes: Why A Collaborative Approach Trumps "Lone Genius" In Company-Building

Off the heels of super{set}'s first exit - the acquisition of data collaboration company Habu by LiveRamp for $200 Million - Tom Chavez writes how the super{set} approach to collaboration in company building leads to successful outcomes.

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The Product Mindset for Engineers

Ever find yourself scratching your head about product management decisions? Join India Lossman, co-founder of boombox.io, as she unpacks the product mindset for engineers. Unravel the art of synergy between PMs and engineers and delve into strategies to enhance collaboration and craft products that users will adore.

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