Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share How Elorian AI pulled off a $300M pre-seed valuation with Andrew Dai
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
How Elorian AI pulled off a $300M pre-seed valuation with Andrew Dai
Building an AI startup is one thing. Raising one of the largest seed rounds of the year before launching a product is something else entirely.
In this episode of Build Mode, host and Startup Battlefield lead Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Andrew Dai, founder and CEO of Elorian and former Google DeepMind researcher, to unpack how his company raised a $55 million seed round at a $300 million valuation before generating revenue or releasing a product.
Andrew shares what investors saw in Elorian's vision for visual AI, how he approached fundraising after leaving Google DeepMind, and why choosing the right investors mattered more than maximizing valuation. He also offers practical advice for founders building in AI, explains why today's fundraising environment rewards clear storytelling over technical jargon, and shares what surprised him most as a first-time founder.
They get into:
How Elorian raised a $55 million seed round before launching a product
Why visual AI is one of the next major frontiers in artificial intelligence
What investors look for when backing frontier AI startups
Why the highest valuation isn't always the best fundraising outcome
How to pitch highly technical products to non-technical investors
What founders should look for when choosing venture capital partners
How to hire top AI talent away from Big Tech
Why moving quickly matters more than ever in today's AI race
How founders can build defensible AI companies as technology evolves
Andrew's advice for first-time founders raising venture capital
Subscribe to Build Mode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And watch the full videos on YouTube. New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday.
Chapters:
00:00 Meet Andrew Dai: From DeepMind to Building Elorian
01:48 Why Visual AI Is the Next Frontier
04:50 Raising a $55M Seed With No Revenue
08:46 Landing Nvidia, Jeff Dean, and Top AI Investors
12:17 Managing the Pressure of a $300M Valuation
14:40 How AI Founders Should Pitch Investors
20:47 Hiring, Scaling, and Building a Frontier AI Company
27:00 Turning Down Bigger Offers & Advice for Future Founders
Hosted by Isabelle Johannessen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.
View all episodes
By TechCrunch
4.3
2323 ratings
Building an AI startup is one thing. Raising one of the largest seed rounds of the year before launching a product is something else entirely.
In this episode of Build Mode, host and Startup Battlefield lead Isabelle Johannesen sits down with Andrew Dai, founder and CEO of Elorian and former Google DeepMind researcher, to unpack how his company raised a $55 million seed round at a $300 million valuation before generating revenue or releasing a product.
Andrew shares what investors saw in Elorian's vision for visual AI, how he approached fundraising after leaving Google DeepMind, and why choosing the right investors mattered more than maximizing valuation. He also offers practical advice for founders building in AI, explains why today's fundraising environment rewards clear storytelling over technical jargon, and shares what surprised him most as a first-time founder.
They get into:
How Elorian raised a $55 million seed round before launching a product
Why visual AI is one of the next major frontiers in artificial intelligence
What investors look for when backing frontier AI startups
Why the highest valuation isn't always the best fundraising outcome
How to pitch highly technical products to non-technical investors
What founders should look for when choosing venture capital partners
How to hire top AI talent away from Big Tech
Why moving quickly matters more than ever in today's AI race
How founders can build defensible AI companies as technology evolves
Andrew's advice for first-time founders raising venture capital
Subscribe to Build Mode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And watch the full videos on YouTube. New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday.
Chapters:
00:00 Meet Andrew Dai: From DeepMind to Building Elorian
01:48 Why Visual AI Is the Next Frontier
04:50 Raising a $55M Seed With No Revenue
08:46 Landing Nvidia, Jeff Dean, and Top AI Investors
12:17 Managing the Pressure of a $300M Valuation
14:40 How AI Founders Should Pitch Investors
20:47 Hiring, Scaling, and Building a Frontier AI Company
27:00 Turning Down Bigger Offers & Advice for Future Founders
Hosted by Isabelle Johannessen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.
More shows like Build Mode
View all
This Week in Startups
1,290 Listeners
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
537 Listeners
The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
175 Listeners
Acquired
4,863 Listeners
The a16z Show
1,093 Listeners
Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
2,354 Listeners
Founders
2,171 Listeners
Equity
341 Listeners
Masters of Scale
3,976 Listeners
Y Combinator Startup Podcast
228 Listeners
Practical AI
208 Listeners
My First Million
2,654 Listeners
ACQ2 by Acquired
292 Listeners
The Logan Bartlett Show
187 Listeners
The Startup Ideas Podcast
214 Listeners
Chain Reaction
25 Listeners
The TechCrunch Podcast
5 Listeners
The TechCrunch Live Podcast
3 Listeners