AI-Native

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast

In this episode we sit down with Tariq Sheikh, Co-founder and CEO of Nova, a contract intelligence platform transforming how teams manage and analyze business documents.

A self-described “third culture kid,” Tariq’s journey spans numerous countries across both Africa and Europe, stints in consulting, gold trading, and defense, and finally a series of successes scaling tech startups. He previously founded Postpay, the leading buy now, pay later provider in the Middle East, scaling the company from a handful of employees to over 100 in just six months and raising over $65M along the way.

Tariq shares how a constant lack of stability shaped his founder mentality—driving him to keep building, breaking, and pushing forward without getting too comfortable. We dive into what it takes to build in emerging markets, the realities of hypergrowth, and the nonstop firefighting that defines the founder journey. Tariq also reflects on how having had little time to pause and celebrate the wins is shaping how he’s building today.

👤 About the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shkhtar/

Company website: https://nova-doc.com/

🚀  About Nebius for Startups

Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster.

👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🌐 About Nebius

Website: https://www.nebius.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius

X: https://x.com/nebiusai

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast

At Slush 2025 in Helsinki, we sat down with Accel’s Sam Folds to unpack the breakneck pace of today’s AI startup landscape. From identifying emerging investment opportunities to how his technical background in gaming with Blizzard and as VP of Engineering at Checkout.com contributes to his perspective in VC. Sam shares how founders can better anticipate where the market is heading and why the next wave of startups is going deeper—targeting niche, verticalized problems with AI and what’s ahead and the challenges facing compute-intensive startups in today’s AI era.

👤 About the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samfold

X (Twitter): https://x.com/SamFold

Company website: https://www.accel.com/

🚀  About Nebius for Startups

Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster.

👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🌐 About Nebius

Website: https://www.nebius.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius

X: https://x.com/nebiusai

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast

In this episode, we explore cutting-edge technological advancements with leaders from Abridge. Zach, an AI researcher and co-founder of Abridge, shares the company's mission to enhance human connections in healthcare by developing AI solutions that alleviate doctors' administrative burdens. He elaborates on the innovative use of AI in clinical settings to streamline documentation, improve patient-doctor interactions, and optimize healthcare practices. Zach shed light on the importance of efficient AI integration, the future potential of their technologies, and the continual advancements happening in the AI space.

👤 About the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharylipton 

X (Twitter): https://x.com/zacharylipton 

Personal Website: https://www.zacharylipton.com/ 

🚀  About Nebius for Startups

Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster.

👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🌐 About Nebius

Website: https://www.nebius.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius

X: https://x.com/nebiusai

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast

In this insightful episode, Rong Yan, the CTO of HeyGen, discusses the groundbreaking technology behind AI video generation and its potential to revolutionize video storytelling. Rong shares insights on HeyGen’s aim to make video creation accessible without the need for cameras, the challenges in developing realistic AI avatars, and the company’s commitment to privacy and safety. Furthermore, he addresses how AI could enhance multimedia communication and make video a more interactive and personalized experience. 

The conversation also explores how HeyGen's innovations could shift content creation, making it easier for non-professionals to generate engaging video content.

👤 About the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rong-yan-2004692

X (Twitter): https://x.com/HeyGen 

Comapny Website: https://www.heygen.com/

🚀  About Nebius for Startups

Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster.

👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🌐 About Nebius

Website: https://www.nebius.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius

X: https://x.com/nebiusai

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast

Xuedong Huang is the Chief Technology Officer at Zoom. A leader in the AI revolution, he is currently spearheading the development of the Zoom AI Companion and its mission to transform how the world gets work done.

What happens when your meeting software starts acting like a high-level executive assistant? In this episode, Xuedong breaks down the evolution of AI Companion 3.0 and its shift toward "Conversation to Completion" (C2C), a philosophy focused on turning meeting notes into finished tasks.

👤 About the Guest

X (Twitter): https://x.com/xdh (or @xdh)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xdhuang

🚀  About Nebius for Startups

Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster.

👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🌐 About Nebius

Website: https://www.nebius.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius

X: https://x.com/nebiusai

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast

Join us as we dive into the transformative world of Motion, a company delivering 'AI and business in a box' solutions to SMBs and mid-market enterprises. In this episode, we discuss how Motion is automating workflows, bridging the gap between small businesses and Fortune 500 capabilities, and the journey behind their rapid scale-up. Learn from their founder about the importance of stability, future plans for new product launches, and the enduring role of human decision-making in the age of AI.

👤 About the Guest

Find out more:

Harry Qi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Motion (usemotion.com or motion.app), an AI-powered productivity platform.

X (Twitter): https://x.com/harryqi666 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harryqi/

Motion on X: https://x.com/useMotion 

🚀  About Nebius for Startups

Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster.

👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🌐 About Nebius

Website: https://www.nebius.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius

X: https://x.com/nebiusai

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast

Grant Lee is the founder of Gamma. A former consultant who started his career in the advisory world, Grant previously worked at the startup Optimizely before deciding to tackle the universal frustration of manual slide formatting.

In this conversation, Grant dives into why the traditional way of building presentations felt "broken" and how he’s building an "anti-PowerPoint" to fix it. The discussion covers the launch of Gamma 3.0, including: The AI Design Agent, A new API and their collaborative business model.

Grant also shares his vision for the future of visual communication, moving beyond standard slides into microsites, social media assets, and data visualization. Finally, we touch on the "magical" camaraderie of the Silicon Valley builder community and why no founder has to build alone.

👤 About the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantslee/

X (Twitter): https://x.com/thisisgrantlee

Company website: https://gamma.app/

🚀  About Nebius for Startups

Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster.

👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🌐 About Nebius

Website: https://www.nebius.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius

X: https://x.com/nebiusai

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast

Alex is the founder of Higgsfield AI and a veteran of the social media space, having previously seen his company acquired by Snap.

In this episode, we explore how Higgsfield AI is filling the gap between a creative idea and a finished video. Alex breaks down why they are moving away from simple text boxes to create more user-friendly interfaces that allow anyone to express themselves on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. We also discuss the technical "aha" moment behind world models and why Alex believes AI-generated personalities are the next frontier of art.

👤 About the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amashrabov/ 

X (Twitter): https://x.com/alexmashrabov (or @alexmashrabov)

Company website: https://higgsfield.ai/

🚀  About Nebius for Startups

Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster.

👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🌐 About Nebius

Website: https://www.nebius.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius

X: https://x.com/nebiusai

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast

Marc Boroditsky is a seasoned leader and ex-founder who has successfully built and scaled multiple companies. He currently holds a senior leadership position at Nebius, where he leverages his extensive background in enterprise sales and infrastructure to help the next generation of founders navigate the complexities of growth.

In this episode, Marc dives deep into the mindset required to scale a startup in today’s competitive landscape. Marc also shares why founders should prioritize finding partners who invest in their success rather than just vendors who provide a service.

The discussion explores:

• The Enterprise Shift: Why the sales cycle jumps from a single buyer to a dozen stakeholders, and how to navigate those "veto" risks.
• Knowledge as Currency: How founders can open doors to CTOs by offering their unique domain expertise instead of just a sales pitch.
• The FOMO Factor: A refreshing take on imposter syndrome, revealing that even top-tier tech executives are worried about what they might be missing.

Whether you are in stealth mode or ready to hit growth mode, this conversation is packed with "words of wisdom" for mastering the human side of tech.

👤 About the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcboroditsky

🚀  About Nebius for Startups

Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster.

👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🌐 About Nebius

Website: https://www.nebius.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius

X: https://x.com/nebiusai

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast

In this episode, we sit down with Amit Zavery, the President, Chief Product Officer, and Chief Operating Officer at ServiceNow, who shares insights on the integration of AI into ServiceNow's platform. Amit discusses the importance of AI being a seamless part of the system, not a separate entity. He speaks on the strategic partnerships and the ecosystem-building approach ServiceNow adopts to ensure efficiency and scalability for enterprises and startups alike.

Amit also highlights the need for integrated, secure, and customer-centric AI solutions, and he lays out a forward-looking perspective on how AI adoption can mature by 2026.

The conversation touches upon infrastructure needs, inferencing, and compute efficiency, emphasizing how ServiceNow works to provide cost-effective solutions for its clients.

👤 About the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amitzavery

X: https://x.com/azavery

Company Website: https://www.servicenow.com/

🚀  About Nebius for Startups

Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster.

👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups

🌐 About Nebius

Website: https://www.nebius.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius

X: https://x.com/nebiusai