Code Story | Startup Podcast for CTOs, CEOs and Technical Founders

Andrey Kudievskiy has always been fascinated by technology, and when asked about himself, he identifies as an entrepreneur. He has been a software engineer, database developer, administrator and then jumped accidentally into management. Outside of his professional life, he is marred with two daughters. He enjoys running long distance. He has officially run 5 marathons, and unofficially, he has joined many more along the way.

Right after he graduated from University, Andrey saw a fantastic level of talent in developing countries. At the same time, he noticed the amount of profitable opportunity in the United States - and decided to build a business that joined the two.

This is the creation story of Distillery.

Sponsors

• PropelAuth
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://distillery.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/akudievskiy/

Today, we are kicking off a new series entitled Minting Unicorns - Blockchain, AI and Dubai, sponsored by the City of Dubai. 

Dubai is the new global center of gravity, connecting the world in a way few places can. As a hub for trade, tourism, innovation, and finance, Dubai offers the ideal environment for startups and scale-ups to thrive. Entrepreneurs find a home here, whether in health-tech, fintech, AI, or renewable energy, supported by SME-focused programs that empower high-potential companies to scale globally. From flexible regulations to tax incentives, world-class infrastructure to access to global investors managing $1 trillion, Dubai understands what businesses need to scale fast. 

In today’s episode, we are speaking with Sonia Gokhale, Co-founder at VentureSouq, to understand how venture capital is thriving within all that Dubai has to offer.

• Questions: 

1. Tell me and my audience a little bit about you.
2. What is VentureSouq? What is your thesis as a venture fund?
3. Why focus on Fintech and ClimateTech?
4. How would you describe the tech and startup environment in Dubai?
5. You are a MENA based venture fund, what drove you to start here? Is this where you are physically based as well?
6. Dubai is increasingly being seen as a global fintech and ClimateTech hub. Can you explain how Dubai's startup ecosystem supports these sectors, and what advantages this offers for US-based investors looking to expand into the MENA region?
7. How does the DIFC, the AI Campus or the Blockchain center contributing to success of the startups you invest in? 
8. What percentage of your portfolio is based in MENA?
9. Can you give me an example or tell me a story of success coming out of VentureSouq? How did VentureSouq fuel that success?
10. What advice would you give to the U.S.-based startups considering Dubai for expansion?

Links

• https://www.venturesouq.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-seth-gokhale-b0906014/
• https://blockchaincenter.ae/
• https://dubaiaicampus.com/
• https://www.difc.ae/ 
• https://www.investindubai.gov.ae/en/why-dubai/d33-agenda

Josh Levine lives in Brooklyn, NY. He started programming when he was 6 years old, when his Dad brought home an Apple 2. He realized that though there wasn't enough legos in the world to support his creativity, he could get enough RAM. Growing up, he had a deep relationship with chess, setting up his own chess program. In fact, he states that he learned everything he knows about programming - by programming chess. Outside of tech, he is married with 2 kids. He loves karaoke, and is a musician, with his music online under the name Heavy Pennies.

In 2011, Josh joined an amazing online game website, when they started supporting his favorite game variant. Ten years later, he researched this company and their technology to see how it worked. He applied for one of the jobs, got rejected, but then quickly got a call from the CEO, who liked his application.

This is Josh's creation story at Chess.com.

Sponsors

• PropelAuth
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.chess.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/levinester/

Daniel Loreto grew up in Venezuela, but moved around a lot and lived in 6 different countries. He is married with 2 kids, ages 8 and 5, which keeps him busy. Being based out of Austin, TX, he and his family like to spend time outdoors, on Lake Austin and Lake Travis. When it comes to food, he enjoys good sushi and eating healthy. And nowadays, he sticks to nonfiction reading, in order to learn something.

As part of running an team, Daniel had to create a platform engineering squad to support the development process. What nagged him about this was that he felt like he was recreating the wheel, having done this many times before. He figured someone should solve these problem by building products to make cloud dev delightful.

This is the creation story of Jetify.

Sponsors

• PropelAuth
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.jetify.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielloreto/

Today, we are kicking off a new series entitled Minting Unicorns - Blockchain, AI and Dubai, sponsored by the City of Dubai. 

Dubai is the new global center of gravity, connecting the world in a way few places can. As a hub for trade, tourism, innovation, and finance, Dubai offers the ideal environment for startups and scale-ups to thrive. Entrepreneurs find a home here, whether in health-tech, fintech, AI, or renewable energy, supported by SME-focused programs that empower high-potential companies to scale globally. From flexible regulations to tax incentives, world-class infrastructure to access to global investors managing $1 trillion, Dubai understands what businesses need to scale fast. 

In this episode, we are speaking with Raakin Iqbal (aka Rock N Roll), CEO & Co-founder of Nucleus AI. Raakin is not only going to tell us about how Nucleus is building pre-AGI, but also how the ecosystem in Dubai is supporting their growth and success. 

• Questions: 

1. What is Nucleus AI? What do you do? 
2. Nucleus AI is often described as a Pre-AGI platform. Could you explain how this sets you apart from other AI solutions currently available in the market? 
3. I am interested in how your system manages to "comprehend operational intricacies" instead of simply automating tasks.
4. How does your company’s approach to advanced AI strategies align with organizations like OpenAI, Anthropic and DeepMind? Can you name some proof-of-concepts to illustrate to this end?
5. What is the difference between Generative AI and AGI in your view, and why is Nucleus AI focusing on AGI?
6. Talk to us about the biggest challenges and opportunities in the development of AGI, and how is Nucleus AI approaching them?
7. Could you share some concrete examples of how your platform has enhanced efficiency for enterprises and government bodies within Dubai?
8. Dr. Marwan of the Dubai Blockchain Center spoke about the convergence of blockchain and AI. How do you foresee this synergy advancing within Dubai and potentially on a global scale? What role do you see Nucleus AI playing in the broader AI and blockchain ecosystem of Dubai?
9. How does Nucleus AI play a role as a possible use case using advanced AI for H.H. Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's 0 Bureaucracy Government Vision?
10. How would you describe Dubai’s ecosystem for artificial intelligence and machine learning innovation and product development?
11. With Dubai’s advanced AI initiatives like the AI Campus and other licensing programs- how has Nucleus AI benefited from this environment esp. in your pursuit of AGI? 
12. What advice would you give to the U.S.-based AI startups considering Dubai for expansion?

Links

• https://www.besocial.ai/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/raakiniqbal/
• https://blockchaincenter.ae/
• https://dubaiaicampus.com/
• https://www.difc.ae/ 
• https://www.investindubai.gov.ae/en/why-dubai/d33-agenda
• 
  

Nick Mistry lives in the suburbs of Maryland, outside of Washington, DC. He has always been fascinated by cyber security, but most of all, its intersection with emerging technology. Outside of tech, he enjoys reading about human nature, through biographies of past leaders. He highly recommends the book Founding Brothers, which highlights the start of the US. He also enjoys spending time with his family outdoors, especially during the fall in the Northeast.

Around the time of the log4j exploit, Nick found himself troubled by the fact that people did not know if these exploits were included in their software. He spent months diving deep into this issue and talking with people in the industry, and eventually he connected with a prior colleague, working on this very concept. 

This is the creation story of Lineaje.

Sponsors

• PropelAuth
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.lineaje.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmistry/

Shaunak Roy spent 10 years in the tech industry before deciding to be a tech entrepreneur. In undergraduate, he studied mechanical engineering and eventually came to the states for his masters. Outside of running a company, he has 2 daughters and enjoys playing games and observing their patterns of learning, which applies to his current venture.

Throughout his life, Shaunak has always been fascinated by learning. When looking into building his own startup, he noticed that there wasn't a learning platform built around the mechanics of social media, and community.

This is the creation story of Yellowdig.

Sponsors

• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.yellowdig.co/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunak-roy-65231b/

Jon Perl is originally from Virgina, growing up on a computer. Mom is an architect and Dad is an electrical engineer. Jon picked up programming at his first job, when he automated a companies manifest creation. He has been passionate about programming ever since. Now, he lives in Seattle with his wife, young family, and dog. He enjoys all that Seattle offers, including the touristy stuff, and finding places for his daughter to pick up leaves.

At his previous company, Jon observed a failure in systems that required his customers to fall back to manual processes. The pain of this situation led him and his current co-founders to have a strong desire - to make sure something like this never happened again.

This is the creation story of QA Wolf.

Sponsors

• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.qawolf.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/perljon/

Nigel Smart is from Britain, but currently lives in Belgium. He has a PhD in mathematics, but headed into the world of cryptography early on. He has started a few companies in the past, both of which have successfully exited, one to Coinbase. But outside of technology, he loves to cycle and attend concerts. When asked about food, he said he loves all food - as long as it doesn't include eggplant.

Very early on, Nigel got involved with one of his current ventures. As an advisor, he stated to spend more and more time with the company, supporting it through its many iterations in building next level encryption for application builders - and doing so through open source.

This is the creation story of Zama.

Sponsors

• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.zama.ai/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigel-smart-3196b85/

Michael Louis grew up in South Africa, spending the first 25 years of his life there. From a young age, and being surrounded by an entrepreneurial family, he was always curious. He got into robotics and coding early, and stayed competitive and active as he grew up. Outside of tech, he loves to play squash, workout in CrossFit, run, and do anything where he has an opponent. Also, per South Africa culture, he enjoys spending time with friends at any social event involving drinking.

Michael built a successful eCommerce company, where you could order different items from stores and have them delivered. Because the margins in eCommerce are low, he and his team wanted to figure out how they could optimize their operation using machine learning. The tools out there weren't ideal, and the process was hard - but they did revolutionize their operation. Post exit, he decided to build a solution that made this optimization process easier.

This is the creation story of Cerebrium.

Sponsors

• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.cerebrium.ai/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-louis-94104a113/