Venture with Grace

Jenny Xiao is a Partner at Leonis Capital, a research-driven venture capital firm backing technical founders and emerging talent at the earliest stages of AI. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~She brings a rare combination of AI research, economics, and investing experience, having previously worked as an early researcher at OpenAI and as a researcher at Epoch AI. Jenny holds a Ph.D. in AI and economics from Columbia University, where her research explored the intersection of technology, economics, and artificial intelligence. Before joining Leonis, she was an early employee at OpenAI and left shortly after ChatGPT’s rapid rise to build a research-driven investment platform with her partner, Jay Zhao. At Leonis, she focuses on identifying and supporting AI-native companies at the seed and pre-seed stages, including investments in companies such as Viktor AI, MaintainX, Motion, Spline, and Bud. Her research has been featured in Nature, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg, and she has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. She also serves as an independent trustee of the Corgi ETF Trust.Topics How Jenny’s experience at OpenAI and in AI research shapes the way she evaluates technical founders and emerging AI companies What the next generation of AI-native companies is building at the seed and pre-seed stages. Lessons from building a research-driven venture firm focused on identifying exceptional technical talent #ArtificialIntelligence #VentureCapital #AIInvesting #Startups #FutureOfAI

Paul Tatum is Executive Vice President of Solution Engineering for Global Public Sector at Salesforce, where he leads teams helping governments around the world modernize their missions and operations with Salesforce’s PaaS and SaaS offerings. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~He has spent more than 12 years at Salesforce, previously serving as SVP and VP of Solution Engineering across public sector and broader markets. Before Salesforce, Paul held more than four years of leadership roles at Oracle and more than 14 years at Sun Microsystems, where he served as Director of Sun Federal Systems Engineering. His work focuses on helping governments, nonprofits, and educational institutions become more responsive and efficient through cloud technology, data, and agentic AI.Topics How governments are adopting agentic AI to modernize services and improve operational efficiency Building trusted AI systems for citizens, employees, and public-sector organizations The evolution of enterprise technology from cloud platforms to AI-powered government #ArtificialIntelligence #AgenticAI #GovTech #EnterpriseAI #Salesforce

Ashley Kramer is the Chief Revenue Officer at ElevenLabs, where she leads the company’s global revenue function and partnership ecosystem as it expands AI-powered voice and agent technology across the enterprise.~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~She previously served as Vice President of Enterprise at OpenAI from 2025 to 2026, leading enterprise sales during a period when enterprise revenue surpassed consumer revenue and OpenAI’s technology saw broad adoption among Fortune 100 companies. Before OpenAI, Ashley spent more than three years at GitLab in executive leadership roles spanning revenue, strategy, marketing, technology, and product. She also held senior roles at Alteryx and Tableau. At ElevenLabs, AI agents now handle more than 15 million conversations each week, while enterprise customers account for 55% of the company’s revenue.Topics Scaling enterprise AI adoption from early experimentation to business-critical use cases Building AI agents for natural, personalized interactions across customers, languages, and industries Lessons from leading enterprise growth at OpenAI, GitLab, and ElevenLabs #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #EnterpriseAI #AIAgents #VoiceAI

Ryan Gibson is a Partner and VP of Finance at Eclipse Capital, where he invests at the formation, Seed, and Series A stages in companies reinventing physical industries through hardware, software, and AI. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~He previously co-founded Kojo, a construction supply chain SaaS company that has served more than $4 billion in construction material volume and raised more than $90 million. As CTO, he built products used by hundreds of contractors across the U.S. Earlier, he worked as an investor at 8VC and built hardware at world-class organizations. At Eclipse, he has helped launch companies including Bedrock Robotics, focused on autonomous systems for heavy construction machinery.Topics How AI, robotics, and automation are reshaping construction and other physical industries Building and investing in physical technology companies from formation through early-stage growth Lessons from scaling Kojo and applying an operator’s perspective to venture investing #ArtificialIntelligence #PhysicalAI #Robotics #ConstructionTech #VentureCapital

Barr Moses is the CEO & co-founder of Monte Carlo, the agent trust platform. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~Under Barr’s leadership, Monte Carlo has empowered the world’s most innovative organizations to accelerate their AI transformation, from piloting human-guided agents to deploying fully autonomous operations at enterprise scale. The company is backed by leading Silicon Valley investors, including Accel, GGV Capital, ICONIQ Growth, and Redpoint Ventures. She has been named a Top 25 Data Management & Analytics Executive of 2025, a 2024 top Woman in AI by VentureBeat, and a 2023 Datanami Person to Watch. Building Monte Carlo’s agent trust platform and the infrastructure enterprises needs The emerging challenges of agent observability, reliability, and trust across business-critical workflows Lessons from building emerging AI infrastructure, data, and application companies #ArtificialIntelligence #AgenticAI #AIInfrastructure #DataEngineering #EnterpriseAI