Carina Hong is CEO of Axiom Math, where they're building a self-improving superintelligent reasoner, starting with an AI mathematician. She's a Rhodes Scholar, first-gen college grad and mathematics prodigy who earned dual degrees in mathematics and physics from MIT in 3 years. And a joint JD/PhD at Stanford. They just raised a $64M seed round from B Capital, Greycroft, Madrona, and Menlo Ventures. 

Carina's favorite books: Proofs from THE BOOK (Author: Martin Aigner, Günter M. Ziegler)

(00:02) Intro
(00:38) What self-improving mathematical superintelligence means
(04:04) Proofs as programs: Lean and the data gap
(06:36) How AI proves: human-style vs. Lean-style reasoning
(10:43) Carina’s journey: from Olympiad problem-solver to theory-builder
(14:47) The engine room: data, infra, and building a math knowledge graph
(17:42) Verifying results: compile checks vs. LLM judges
(18:56) Self-improvement loops: skills libraries, memory, and conjecture↔prover curricula
(21:30) Synthetic data & auto-formalization strategy
(24:00) Benchmarks that matter: miniF2F, CombiBench, miniCTX v2
(26:24) Why combinatorics is uniquely hard for AI
(31:13) Compute footprint & scaling philosophy
(32:20) In-house Lean tooling and productization path
(33:57) Early use cases: formal verification in hardware/software
(36:19) Team blueprint: AI, programming languages, and math
(37:35) Scaling laws, efficiency, and bottlenecks
(38:26) If Axiom works: what becomes cheaper/faster for the world
(40:22) Rapid Fire Round

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Where to find Carina Hong: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carina-hong/

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Where to find Prateek Joshi: 

Research column: https://www.infrastartups.com
Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com 
Website: https://prateekj.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Mukund Jha is CEO of Emergent, an agentic vibe-coding platform. They've raised $23M from Lightspeed, Y Combinator, Together Fund, and Prosus. He was previously the cofounder and CTO of Dunzo, a hugely popular ecommerce company in India.

Mukund's favorite books: The Hard Thing About Hard Things (Author: Ben Horowitz)

(00:01) Intro
(00:07) State of vibe-coding and where we are today
(01:42) Emergent in plain English: what the product delivers
(03:07) From prototype to traction: the first 90 days
(06:03) What changed in the last 24 months (models + infra)
(08:13) Early infra bets that enabled speed
(12:07) Precision vs. control: editing and debugging without code
(14:21) One-click to production: the unglamorous infra behind it
(15:55) Points of failure across prompt → plan → code → test → deploy
(17:53) Models division of labor: planning, codegen, tests, commits
(20:05) What “reasoning” means and how they evaluate it
(22:13) Context & memory strategy (beyond naive RAG)
(24:22) Representing large codebases so agents don’t hallucinate structure
(27:03) Orchestration walkthrough: adding SSO end-to-end
(29:40) Agent coordination protocols (how agents talk)
(31:05) Debugging long-running agents and trace observability
(32:37) Company-building lessons from Dunzo to Emergent
(36:10) Philosophy: offloading decisions to models
(36:57) Rapid Fire Round

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Where to find Mukund Jha: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mukund-jha-a1596413/

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Where to find Prateek Joshi: 

Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com 
Website: https://prateekj.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Stefano Ermon is the cofounder of Inception Labs and an associate professor at Stanford. Inception is developing a new type of AI models called Diffusion LLMs.

Stefano's favorite book: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (Author: Italo Calvino)

(00:01) Introduction
(00:38) What are autoregressive LLMs and how do they work
(02:28) How diffusion LLMs rethink generation
(04:02) The ceiling of autoregressive LLMs: cost, latency, reliability
(06:19) Why diffusion LLMs are commercially viable now
(09:12) Parallel refinement: how diffusion models generate text
(12:05) Understanding diffusion steps and efficiency
(13:49) Hardest engineering challenges at Inception
(15:23) From research to production: the power of data
(16:24) Where diffusion LLMs still lag behind
(18:18) Evaluations and benchmarks for diffusion LLMs
(20:20) Developer experience and OpenAI-compatible API
(21:47) Economics and GPU efficiency
(23:38) Hardware and runtime stack
(24:58) Competition and the evolving diffusion LLM landscape
(27:01) Where diffusion will win first — coding and agentic systems
(30:13) How diffusion changes infra, serving, and hardware design
(33:04) What’s next at Inception: reasoning and multimodality
(35:20) Rapid Fire Round

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Where to find Stefano Ermon: 

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

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Where to find Prateek Joshi: 

Research column: https://www.infrastartups.com
Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com 
Website: https://prateekj.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Idan Plotnik is the CEO of Apiiro, an application security platform built for the AI era. They've raised $135M in funding from investors like Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and General Catalyst.

Idan's favorite books: Zero to IPO (Author: Frederic Kerrest)

(00:01) Introduction 
(00:07) How LLMs Generate Code
(02:11) Rise of Vibe Coding: Opportunities and Risks
(05:24) Debugging and Security in Vibe Coding
(09:13) Vulnerabilities Introduced by AI Code Assistants
(12:20) Security Basics for Builders Using AI and Cloud Platforms
(15:44) Security by Design and Organizational Standards
(18:08) Making Security Dead Simple: The Appiro Approach
(22:28) Winning Developer Trust Through UX and Integration
(26:59) Biggest Technical and GTM Challenges in Building Appiro
(33:55) Rapid Fire Round

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Where to find Idan Plotnik: 

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

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Where to find Prateek Joshi: 

Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com 
Website: https://prateekj.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Astasia Myers is a GP at Felicis, an iconic VC firm with investments in companies like Shopify, Canva, Adyen, Notion, Mercor, Plaid, Supabase, Flexport, and more. 

Astasia's favorite books: God's Bankers (Author: Gerald Posner)

(00:01) Introduction
(00:26) Astasia’s Infra Thesis
(03:59) Golden Age of Infra & Innovators Network
(06:22) RL Environments & AI Agents
(08:57) Disruption Opportunities: Data & Observability
(11:31) Where to Find Infra Founders
(16:31) Early Signals & Thesis-Driven Investing
(18:01) Picking & Decision-Making Process
(20:11) Red Flags in Infra Investing
(22:20) References & Diligence
(24:35) Proof of Usage & Production Signals
(26:24) Building Edge as an Investor
(28:01) How Felicis Helps Founders Post-Investment
(30:05) Consensus vs. Contrarian Views in Infra
(32:09) Tourist Traps in Infra Investing
(34:43) GTM & Sales Motion in Infra
(37:25) Pricing Strategies for Infra Startups
(40:09) Ecosystem vs. Core Product Focus
(42:15) Lessons from Outlier vs. Good Companies
(44:30) Infra Wedges to Fund Today
(45:23) Commoditized but Promising Categories
(47:06) Exciting AI Advancements
(48:21) Rapid Fire Round

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Where to find Astasia Myers: 

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

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Where to find Prateek Joshi: 

Website: https://prateekj.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi
Research column: https://infrastartups.com 

Spiros Xanthos is the CEO of Resolve AI, a platform to put AI on-call for humans. He previously started Log Insight that was acquired by VMware. And started Omnition that was acquired by Splunk. He also helped start OpenTelemetry. They've raised $35M from amazing investors such as Greylock.

Spiros's favorite books: 
- Zero to One (Author: Peter Thiel)
- Build (Author: Tony Fadell)

(00:01) Introduction & Setting the Stage
(00:42) AI’s Impact on Software Engineering
(02:55) What Reliability Means in Software
(04:34) Resolve AI Explained in Plain English
(06:33) Real-World Example of Resolve in Action
(08:28) Early Customers & Lessons from Company Building
(11:40) OpenTelemetry & The Open Source Journey
(16:55) Positioning a Developer Tool in a Crowded Market
(18:58) Philosophy of Product Building
(21:06) Cultural Norms: What to Keep and What to Change
(24:33) Radical Transparency & Team Dynamics
(26:50) Recruiting for Resilience in Early Team Members
(28:59) Future of AI in Software Engineering
(31:25) Resolve AI Roadmap & Expansion Plans
(33:28) Exciting AI Advancements on the Horizon
(35:17) Rapid Fire Round

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Where to find Spiros Xanthos: 

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

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Where to find Prateek Joshi: 

Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com 
Website: https://prateekj.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Nick Schrock is the founder of Dagster Labs, a data platform that helps you build, schedule, and monitor reliable data pipelines. They've raised $49M in funding from investors such as Sequoia, Index, Amplify, Slow, and 8VC. He is also the cocreator of the popular query language GraphQL. 

Nick's favorite books: The Great CEO Within (Author: Matt Mochary)

(00:01) Introduction and Welcome
(00:39) The Origins of GraphQL at Facebook
(05:24) Explaining Data Orchestration in Plain English
(09:03) What Dagster Is and Why It Matters
(12:37) Assets vs. Tasks: A New Philosophy
(16:51) Balancing Open Source and Commercial Features
(22:18) Growing the Early Open Source Community
(25:26) Signals of Community Health
(27:59) Landing the First 10 Customers
(32:25) Culture Shift: From Engineering-Heavy to Go-to-Market
(37:49) Mistakes DevTool Founders Often Make
(41:21) Selective Micromanagement and Leadership Style
(44:36) Rapid Fire Round

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Where to find Nick Schrock: 

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

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Where to find Prateek Joshi: 

Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com 
Website: https://prateekj.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Rehan Jalil is the CEO of Securiti, a platform that enables the safe use of data and generative AI. They've raised $156M in funding from investors such as General Catalyst, Mayfield, and others. He was previously the CEO of Elastica, which was acquired for $280M by Bluecoat. Before that, he was the CEO of WiChorus, which was acquired by Tellabs for $180M.

Rehan's favorite books: Good to Great (Author: Jim Collins)

(00:00) Introduction 
(02:14) Founding Securiti and the Evolution of Data Privacy
(06:08) Why Data Security Needs a Unified Platform
(09:32) Scaling Challenges and Product Decisions
(13:17) The Role of AI in Data Security
(17:20) Navigating the Enterprise Sales Motion
(21:56) Go-to-Market Lessons from Elastica to Securiti
(25:43) Competing in a Crowded DSPM Market
(29:00) Shifting Buyer Personas and GenAI Adoption
(32:11) Rapid Fire Round

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Where to find Rehan Jalil: 

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

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Where to find Prateek Joshi: 

Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com 
Website: https://prateekj.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Alberto Rizzoli is the CEO of V7 Labs, an AI agent platform to automate knowledge work. They've raised a total of $43M in funding from Radical Ventures, Temasek, Air Street Capital, and others. 

Alberto's favorite books: Sapiens (Author: Yuval Noah Harari)

(00:01) Introduction and What V7 Labs Does
(01:23) The Founding Insight and Early MVP
(04:54) Getting the First Five Customers
(07:01) Darwin vs. Go: Product Differentiation
(10:16) Infrastructure and Chaining Models at V7
(12:34) Product Philosophy: Killing Your Darlings
(15:56) Surprising User Behavior and Composability
(17:32) Human-in-the-Loop vs. Fully Autonomous
(19:38) Identifying High-PMF Sub-Verticals
(22:37) Positioning V7 in a Crowded Agent Market
(26:33) Advice for Founders Post-Pre-Seed
(29:22) Exciting AI Trends: MCP and AI-to-AI Communication
(31:18) Rapid Fire Round

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Where to find Alberto Rizzoli: 

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

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Where to find Prateek Joshi: 

Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com 
Website: https://prateekj.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Dave Selinger is the CEO of Deep Sentinel, an AI-powered video surveillance system. They have raised $38M in funding from Intel Capital, Shasta Ventures, and others. Prior to this, he was the cofounder and CTO of Redfin. And he was also the cofounder of RichRelevance. 

Dave's favorite books: 
- The Speed of Trust (Author: Stephen Covey)
- Snow Crash (Author: Neal Stephenson)

(00:01) – Origin Story: A Near-Miss and the Broken Security Market
(04:22) – What Deep Sentinel Does and Why It Works
(06:23) – Benefits of Vertical Integration in Security Tech
(10:20) – How Deep Sentinel Tackles False Positives with AI
(14:06) – Balancing Escalation Risk and Deterrence
(17:06) – How Deep Sentinel Processes and Uses Its Data
(19:36) – Positioning Deep Sentinel in the Competitive Landscape
(21:12) – Go-to-Market Learnings for Hardware-Software Companies
(23:39) – Residential vs. Commercial Security: A Comparison
(26:41) – Regulation and Public Sentiment Around Security AI
(29:03) – Insurance, Security, and Incentive Alignment
(31:23) – Company Building and Lessons from 20 Years of Founding
(39:26) – The Role of Distillation and LLMs in Deep Sentinel’s Future
(42:27) – Rapid Fire Round

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Where to find Dave Selinger: 

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

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Where to find Prateek Joshi: 

Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com 
Website: https://prateekj.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite 
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi