Скачать или смотреть From Business Problem to Fundable AI Startup

1/ In this session, Vu Ha, Technical Director of AI2 Incubator, with Nate Bek, Senior Associate of Ascend Ventures, shared how research ideas become fundable AI startups.

2/ Vu supports founders from idea to funding across customer discovery, prototyping, signing early customers and design partners, early hiring, and fundraising.

3/ As Semantic Scholar’s first engineer, Vu learned to think bigger. Ambitious user goals often prove not ambitious enough as AI capabilities accelerate.

4/ Strong day-one companies start with real problems. Founders lead with customer discovery, deep domain understanding, and team building around validated pain points.

5/ Stay calm and focus on the last mile of UX. Vu tracks rapid AI developments and distills what matters so founders can keep attention on customers.

6/ At pre-seed, do not build or fine-tune your own models. Prioritize problem validation, proofs of concept, and conversations with early adopters.

7/ Fine-tuning can wait until at least Series A or B. Models evolve quickly, scaffolding becomes obsolete, and pre-seed resources are limited.

8/ True technical depth comes from prompt and context engineering, resilient scaffolding, and great execution on UX and go-to-market, not from simply wrapping an API.

9/ Use advancing model capabilities to transform user experience while remaining anchored to what users need, not to headline chasing.

10/ AI2 secured $200M of compute for startups. Abundant GPUs are not a mandate to over-engineer. Use just enough to reach MVP and traction.

11/ Differentiation rarely comes from the model alone. Own a specific customer segment, deliver intuitive workflows, acquire customers quickly, and scale revenue with the right GTM.

12/ Unlike short accelerators, AI2 works with founders 12–18 months to reach design partnerships, pilots, and clear customer pull before raising seed.

13/ Advice to technical founders. Be open-minded beyond familiar domains. Use AI to learn new industries quickly, then pair that with domain experts and real customer conversations. Curiosity is the prerequisite.

14/ Parting guidance. Apply AI across the founder journey from idea generation to synthetic and real customer discovery to reach ICP and MVP faster. Think bigger, obsess over users, and keep stage-appropriate focus.