Zoom: https://go.illinois.edu/DatabricksPerplexityandLaudeFoundersVisit
Abstract:
Pete Sonsini and Andy Konwinski will host a fireside chat. Andy will share the story of his transition from PhD to startup founder and his continued work at the intersection of research and real-world impact.
Bios:
Pete Sonsini is a venture capitalist, technologist, and co-founder of Laude Ventures. He partners with deeply technical founders at the earliest stages, with an investment portfolio that includes multiple pre-revenue startups that have since evolved into multi-billion dollar companies. He was previously a general partner at NEA, where he steered the firm’s software team for nearly two decades, leading early investments in Databricks, Anyscale, Instabase, Upstart, and Perplexity. He currently sits on multiple boards, including Databricks, Anyscale, and Perplexity.
Andy Konwinski is a co-founder of Databricks, Perplexity, and Laude Ventures. His work stands at the intersection of research and real-world impact in artificial intelligence, data, and software infrastructure. At Databricks he most recently ran AI Product and he continues to serve as President of Perplexity. He got his PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley, where he contributed to Apache Hadoop and co-created Apache Mesos and Apache Spark. He co-teaches the PhD seminar on “Research to Startups” at Berkeley.