This might be the most insane AI founder story you’ll hear all year.

Dropped out of high school.

Met the Queen of England. 👑

Helped pivot Instabase by building a transformer before it was cool.

Now? He’s building a foundation model for the human mind — and raised from a16z, Menlo, and Benchmark.

🎙️ We sat down with Daniel Reid Cahn, cofounder & CEO of Slingshot AI, to unpack how he’s using AI to reinvent mental health — without replacing human therapists.

🔍 What we cover:

• Why the future of therapy isn’t GPT wrappers — it's foundation models for psychology
• How Daniel raised millions pre-PMF from top-tier VCs
• Why LLMs are perfectly suited (and dangerously close) to handling our deepest thoughts
• What it really takes to hire top-tier AI and psych talent
• Building a bi-continental company across the US & UK from Day 1
• Why AI therapy could compete with psychedelics — and what keeps Daniel up at night
• The truth about defensibility in AI today: data, distribution… or something else?

💡 Plus:

His founder playbook, ethical design principles, investor tactics, and what he’d do if launching from scratch today.

This is not your average AI story.

It’s raw, smart, and brutally honest.

🎧 Listen now

🔁 Repost if it makes you think. Trust me — this one will.