TechCrunch was proud to host Samsung Next at Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco. Here’s an overview of their partner session on the Builders Stage.
In the dynamic world of AI entrepreneurship, cautionary tales and strategic advice go hand-in-hand. In this Disrupt 2023 session with Samsung Next, two pioneering early-stage founders and a seasoned investor discuss and explore what it takes to build in today’s frenzied AI environment, how to discern signals from noise, how to find elusive product-market fit, and how to manage investor and team expectations along the way.
Speakers
Brendon Kim, MD and Head of Investments, Samsung Next
Brendon oversees Samsung Next’s investments made in early-stage founders building in the technology areas of AI, blockchain, fintech, health tech, infrastructure, and media tech. He has over 20 years experience investing in early-stage technology companies and previously served as a founding general partner of Altos Ventures, where he was an early investor in Roblox and Coupang. Prior to Altos Ventures, he was a strategy and management consultant in the media, consumer and technology industries.
Vaikkunth Mugunthan, Co-founder and CEO, DynamoFL
Vaikkunth Mugunthan is the CEO and co-founder of DynamoFL. He spearheads the AI/ML research team at DynamoFL and is an expert in privacy-preserving machine learning. Vaikkunth received his SM and PhD in computer science from MIT.
Yana Welinder, Co-founder and CEO, Kraftful
Yana Welinder is CEO and founder of Kraftful, an AI assistant that helps product teams build better products by listening to users at scale. Before starting Kraftful, she led product teams at multiple tech companies and personally experienced the challenge of trying to involve millions of users in the product development process. At Kraftful, she built a team of Meta, Slack, and IFTTT alumni, backed by Y Combinator, Google, Samsung, and other exceptional investors and entrepreneurs. Yana is also a Stanford fellow and has been invited to give talks at the White House, the UN Internet Governance Forum, Yale, NYU, and many product events and podcasts over the years.
