TechCrunch was proud to host SambaNova Systems at Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco. Here’s an overview of their partner session on the Builders Stage.
We’re entering an era of pervasive AI; it’s transforming every aspect of how we do business, for every employee, in every department, and across every industry. But AI is complex — the right path isn’t obvious. Where do you start? Buy or build? Large models or small? And what about the chip shortage? In this Disrupt 2023 partner session, the panel discussed the high-stakes battle for a competitive edge, and how the right AI strategy could decide the winners.
Speakers
Rodrigo Liang, Co-Founder and CEO, SambaNova Systems
Rodrigo Liang is SambaNova’s co-founder and chief executive officer leading the company’s vision for a new era of pervasive AI built on full-stack, purpose-built AI platforms. Prior to SambaNova, Rodrigo led the hardware engineering team at Oracle, where he was responsible for the design and development of state-of-the-art processors and ASICs for its enterprise servers.
Dave Munichiello, General Partner, GV
GV general partner Dave Munichiello leads the firm’s digital investing team, spanning its consumer, enterprise, and frontier practice areas. He prioritizes time spent building long-term relationships with technologists who peak in curiosity, drive, and vision. Dave is himself deeply curious about data platforms, data science, developer tools, infrastructure, and enterprise software. His investments include BugSnag (sold to SmartBear), Cockroach, CoreOS (sold to Red Hat), Determined AI (sold to HPE), GitLab (IPO Nasdaq: GTLB), Jet.com (sold to Walmart), Lattice.io (sold to Apple), Modular, Pixie (sold to NewRelic), Plaid, Redpanda, SambaNova, Segment (sold to Twilio), Slack (IPO, then sold to Salesforce), Snorkel, Upbound, and Wonder.
Before GV, Dave built and led enterprise software product, sales, and operations teams for highly technical products under pressure in rapidly changing markets. As an early executive at Kiva Systems, he helped grow its enterprise-enabling robotics and software platform from pre-PMF to $120 million in annual revenue before it was purchased by Amazon and became Amazon Robotics. Dave is a combat veteran and former paratrooper who served as a captain in the U.S. military’s most elite units before his startup career. Dave’s military leadership roles ranged from running an Air Force technology organization to serving as an aide-de-camp to the four-star general running U.S. and NATO Air Forces, to deploying with elite special operations teams worldwide, ensuring they were enabled by the world’s most advanced technologies. Dave holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS from Emory University in mathematics and computer science.
