Lessons for early-stage AI founders from Pryon CEO Igor Jablokov

In 2007, Igor Jablokov spoke into a flip phone on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt where his words were transcribed by the first cloud-based speech recognition engine and then repeated by the world’s first cloud-based, text-to-speech engine.

At the time, he was secretly working with Apple on a prototype of Siri.

Five years later, Amazon purchased the company he co-founded so it could acquire the technology that became the kernel of Alexa.

Today, Igor is CEO and founder of Pryon, a service that aims to reduce “knowledge friction” by letting users directly and securely interrogate unstructured data. The company likens the technology to “a superpowered reference librarian.”

He joined me on the podcast to talk about the evolution and challenges of building AI technologies and companies, different phases of startup growth, and how AI is transforming enterprise software procurement. 

Igor also offered some insights on the current AI hype cycle and shared some personal anecdotes and observations about achieving enduring entrepreneurial success in the AI domain.

“Tech is as perishable as fruits and vegetables you can procure from Trader Joe's,” said Igor.

“It's good on the day you get it, but two or three days later, you can't grab that kiwi anymore. It's already a soggy thing and you need to put it in the compost.”

Runtime: 42:55

(2:42) “We were their first AI-related acquisition that birthed what many people know as Alexa.” 

(6:44) What happens when you can’t commercialize the technology you’ve created?

(9:11) How Pryon originated the concept of “knowledge friction.”

(14:33) Igor deconstructs the three main types of founders working in AI today.

(18:38) Where he thinks we are in the current AI hype cycle.

(21:14) “Before ChatGPT, it was a desert and very few of us survive in the desert with a small amount of water.”

(23:06) Inside Pryon’s September 2023 $100M Series B round.

(25:26) Why early-stage AI startups have a major advantage over legacy tech companies.

(28:07) Founders need “practical experience in an industry that eventually you're going to be a part of.”

(35:00) “Tech is as perishable as fruits and vegetables you can procure from Trader Joe's.”

(38:58) Questions Igor would ask the CEO if he was interviewing for a role with a startup.

Thanks for listening!

– Walter.