Episode 374 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Dave Blundin, serial entrepreneur & investor.

Dave’s track record is legendary as one of the top entrepreneurs and investors in the Boston tech scene.

He’s co-founded 23 companies… and many have been incredibly successful:

* DataSage - acquired by Vignette for over $1B in today’s dollars

* EverQuote - which went public

* Vestmark - manages over $2 trillion in assets

Companies like CourseAdvisor, Jobcase, Autotegrity, LeadKarma were all acquired.

Plus he’s invested in CarGurus, TripAdvisor… and he is the Founder & General Partner of Link Ventures and he’s also the founder of the startup incubator, Cogo Labs.

One might think that after all of this success, Dave would downshift and relax… but it is the exact opposite. He has been waiting for this moment since he was 14 years old and that is the current platform shift to AI.

He studied AI at MIT back in 1984 and pioneered quantizing neural networks as early as 1992. Needless to say… his time is now and he believes that it has the potential to be the greatest thing that ever happened to humanity. He wants to savor the moment and work to train and build faster, better, & smarter AI.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:43 Dave Blundin's Journey Begins

08:27 Founding DataSage and Early Innovations

15:55 Meeting Jeff Bezos & Building Personalization at Amazon

18:18 DataSage Acquisition by Vignette

20:59 Founding Story of Vestmark & Its Scale

27:39 Link Ventures & Cogo Labs - Building Consumer Companies at Scale

32:31 Story of EverQuote to IPO

35:04 The Best Friend Method for Investing

36:33 AI & The Importance of Chip Manufacturing

41:45 The AI Revolution & Opportunities

44:11 Liquid AI: General-Purpose AI Systems at Every Scale

47:45 Boston's Talent Density & MIT's Advantage

53:44 Personal Insights and Hobbies

57:40 Podcast & Book Recommendations

Episode Sponsor:

As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.