Great Entrepreneurs is pleased to announce The Top 50 Generative AI Entrepreneurs of 2025. These founders and leaders are advancing the field at a time when generative AI is no longer just experimental—it’s foundational. From enterprise-grade AI agents and RAG-based search infrastructure to personalized content creation and AI-driven drug discovery, their work spans virtually every sector, including healthcare, finance, education, marketing, and national security. As organizations race to deploy secure, scalable, and impactful AI solutions, these entrepreneurs are developing the platforms, models, and tools that make it possible.
The market size for generative AI is projected to reach $66.9 billion in 2025, reflecting the accelerating demand for intelligent systems that can augment human decision-making, automate workflows, and unlock entirely new business models. This year’s awardees are not just building companies—they are reimagining how knowledge is created, shared, and acted upon.
Among this year’s awardees, Daniela Amodei, President and Co-Founder of Anthropic, is recognized for leading the development of Claude and advancing research in reliable, interpretable generative AI systems. May Habib, Co-Founder and CEO of Writer, has scaled one of the fastest-growing generative AI platforms for enterprise, helping major organizations deploy secure, transformative AI applications. Sean McClain, Founder and CEO of Absci, is driving innovation in drug discovery through a generative AI platform that integrates high-throughput wet-lab data to create new biologics faster.
This year’s awardees were selected through a methodical process and careful consideration of each candidate’s career track record and industry contributions. Please join us in celebrating The Top 50 Generative AI Entrepreneurs of 2025.
1. Alexandr Wang
CEO and Founder, Scale AI
Alexandr Wang is the Founder and CEO of Scale AI, a company that provides infrastructure and tools to support the development of generative AI models. The Scale Generative AI Platform helps enterprises customize base models using their proprietary data, with tools for data collection, curation, annotation, and model evaluation. Through capabilities in reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), model alignment, safety, and evaluation, Scale supports the training and refinement of advanced language and generative models.
Wang brings 11 years of experience to his current role and first got his start in 2014 as a software engineer at Addepar. From there, he went on to Quora, before eventually rising to algorithm developer at Hudson River Trading, his most recent position prior to joining Scale AI.
Wang graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science.
2. May Habib
Co-Founder and CEO, Writer
May Habib is CEO and Co-Founder of Writer, a full-stack generative AI platform delivering transformative ROI for the world’s leading enterprises. Writer empowers hundreds of customers like Vanguard, Intuit, L'Oreal, Mars, Salesforce, Ally Bank, Franklin Templeton, and Accenture to deploy secure and reliable AI applications and agents that transform mission-critical workflows.
May is an expert in natural language processing and AI-driven language generation. She has led Writer to become one of the world’s fastest-growing generative AI companies. Founded in 2020, Writer has raised over $326 million at a valuation of $1.9 billion.
May holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University. She is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
3. Dmytro Lider
Co-Founder, Grammarly
Dmytro Lider is the Co-Founder of Grammarly, an AI writing assistance company used by over 40 million individuals and 50,000 organizations worldwide. Grammarly helps users generate and refine written content, supporting clear and effective communication while maintaining a focus on security and privacy. Its tools are widely adopted across industries, including by the majority of Fortune 500 companies.
As the Head of Language Technology, Lider is focused on research strategy and technical product management of Grammarly’s natural language analysis engine. Previously, Lider worked as a software engineer and a Project Lead for MyDropBox, a plagiarism-detection company, which was acquired by Blackboard Inc.
Lider earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in software engineering from the National Aviation University in Kyiv, Ukraine.
4. Hovhannes Avoyan
Founder and CEO, Picsart
Hovhannes Avoyan is the Founder and CEO of Picsart, a platform offering accessible creative tools for users of all skill levels. He founded the company in 2011 with the goal of empowering people, beginning with his daughter, to express themselves creatively. Today, Picsart supports a global community by helping users turn ideas into content quickly and intuitively, combining ease of use with powerful editing capabilities.
Previously, Avoyan was an advisor at Krisp and before that, CEO and Founder at Sourcio. Earlier in his career he worked at CEDIT as a CEO and Founder.
Avoyan holds a master’s degree from the American University of Armenia and an bachelor’s degree in computer science from the State Engineering University of Armenia.
5. Daniela Amodei
President and Co-Founder, Anthropic
Daniela Amodei is the President and Co-Founder of Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company focused on developing reliable and interpretable AI systems. Anthropic’s first product, Claude, is an AI assistant built for a wide range of tasks, and the company’s research includes natural language processing, reinforcement learning, code generation, and AI alignment.
Amodei began her career in global health and politics, contributing to a congressional campaign in Pennsylvania and later working as a communications manager for Representative Matt Cartwright. She joined Stripe in 2013 as an early employee and moved to OpenAI in 2018, where she served as Vice President of Safety and Policy before co-founding Anthropic in 2020 with her brother.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
6. Aravind Srinivas
Co-Founder and CEO, Perplexity
Aravind Srinivas is the Co-Founder and CEO of Perplexity, a company developing a conversational answer engine designed to provide direct, factual responses to user questions. Perplexity aims to make information more accessible and transparent by combining search with generative AI. The company is backed by a group of prominent investors and technologists and is focused on building a knowledge-centric platform for exploring and understanding information.
Srinivas first got his start in 2021 as a research scientist at OpenAI. He holds a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley and both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
7. Jonathan Ellis
Co-Founder, DataStax
Jonathan Ellis is a Co-founder of DataStax, a company providing an AI Platform as a Service that helps developers build scalable generative AI applications. The platform features a visual development interface for managing complex logic flows and includes pre-built integrations to streamline testing with real data.
Before founding DataStax, Ellis served as Project Chair of Apache Cassandra for six years, where he played a key role in growing the project and its community into a widely adopted open-source technology. Earlier in his career, he developed a large-scale object storage system for Mozy, using Reed-Solomon encoding to support petabyte-scale data and high-throughput performance.
Ellis holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brigham Young University.
8. Afif Khoury
Founder and CEO, SOCi
Afif Khoury is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SOCi and has worked in technology, law, and venture capital for over 25 years. His career spans roles as a scientist, attorney, investor, and founder of multiple startups, including SOCi. Khoury is focused on evolving software from a traditional tool into a collaborative partner, and under his leadership, SOCi has developed its Genius AI platform and suite of Genius Agents—an AI-powered system designed to support the needs of local marketing teams at scale.
Khoury holds a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and genetics from UC San Diego and a JD from the Northwestern University School of Law.
Afif Khoury's Insight
"SOCi’s mission is to redefine the relationship marketers have with software—from a tool they use to a partner that does the work for them. The future belongs to businesses that embrace AI not as a tool, but as an extension of their workforce, unlocking efficiency and innovation at an unprecedented scale."
9. Benu Aggarwal
President and Founder, Milestone
Benu Aggarwal is the President and Founder of Milestone, a company that helps over 2,000 businesses drive online leads and customer acquisition through its AI-first Digital Experience Platform. Milestone’s offerings include an SEO-first CMS, location pages, local listings, schema platform, events calendar software, analytics tools, an AI content studio, AI agents, and performance marketing services. The company serves clients across hospitality, retail, finance, healthcare, and automotive industries, supporting sustained digital growth.
Aggarwal is a seasoned tech executive and entrepreneur with over 29 years of experience in building and scaling martech and SaaS platforms. She founded Milestone as a solo venture and has grown it into a global digital marketing and technology company without private investment. Her expertise includes leading product development, scaling operations across geographies, and establishing global centers of excellence.
She is known for driving transformational change, fostering high-performance teams, and leveraging disruptive technologies such as AI and search to address complex business challenges. In addition to her leadership role, Aggarwal serves on nonprofit boards and advises startups in the tech sector.
Aggarwal holds an MBA in HR and marketing from the Institute of Management Studies (IMS) Ghaziabad – Business School.
10. Aarti Joshi
Co-Founder and CEO, Modak
Aarti Joshi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Modak, a solutions company that empowers enterprises to effectively manage and utilize their data landscape. It provides cutting-edge technology, cloud-agnostic software, and services designed to accelerate data migration initiatives. By leveraging machine learning techniques, including GenAI, for advanced data preparation, it transforms how structured and unstructured data is consumed, analyzed, and shared.
Joshi has close to 20 years of experience in the IT services industry and has worked across geographies in multi-cultural teams. She has extensively worked on technology projects involving data analytics, big data, data warehousing, and cloud migration. At Modak, she is involved in putting teams, processes, and technology together to deliver petabyte-scale data engineering projects for clients. Under her leadership, Modak has grown tenfold.
Joshi is on the Board of Governors of an autonomous college in Hyderabad. She is also a board member of an NGO in Hyderabad. She has been a speaker and panel member at many events and summits. She is passionate about subjects ranging from technology, women in tech, entrepreneurship, product development, and strategy, and has been a regular speaker at workshops and conferences.
Before joining Modak, Joshi was an MTM at Toastmasters International and before that a software engineer at First Data Corporation. Earlier in her career she worked with The Automotive Research Association of India as a research engineer.
Joshi is an alumnus of ISB 10K women and holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics and telecommunication from Pune University.
11. Clement Delangue
Co-Founder and CEO, Hugging Face
Clement Delangue is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hugging Face. Hugging Face, a platform where the machine learning community collaborates on models, datasets, and applications.
Delangue brings 15 years of experience to his current role. Before joining Hugging Face, he was CMO at mention and before that a co-founder and CEO at VideoNot.es. Earlier in his career he worked with eBay FR/UK as an innovation team member.
Delangue graduated from ESCP Business School with a master’s degree in management.
12. Dmitriy Karpman
CTO and Co-Founder, Hive
Dmitriy Karpman is the CTO and Co-Founder of Hive, an AI company focused on intelligent automation. Hive provides cloud-based AI solutions for content understanding, search, and generation, supporting use cases such as content moderation, brand protection, sponsorship measurement, and ad targeting. Its portfolio includes pre-trained models and turnkey software that serve billions of API requests each month and are used by a wide range of global organizations.
Before Hive, Karpman co-founded Kiwi, a mobile Q&A social platform powered by AI. He has held roles as a Graduate Research Assistant at Stanford University and worked at organizations including Google, the Center for Geospatial Intelligence, the University of Missouri, and Washington University in St. Louis.
Karpman holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, and statistics from the University of Missouri and is currently pursuing a PhD in computer science at Stanford University.
13. Jayneel Patel
Founder and CEO, OpenXcell
Jayneel Patel is the Founder and CEO of OpenXcell, a software development company established in 2009. OpenXcell specializes in AI strategy, custom LLMs, web and mobile app development, data engineering, and blockchain technologies. With a global team of over 500 professionals, the company has delivered more than 1,000 solutions across industries.
Patel brings over 15 years of experience in software and product development, with a background spanning consultation, design, management, business development, and innovation. His leadership has been central to OpenXcell’s growth and continued focus on emerging technologies.
Patel first got his start in 2015 as a co-founder at Orderhive. He graduated from Ahmedabad Institute Of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
14. Gaurav Dhillon
Founder and CEO, Snaplogic
Gaurav Dhillon began his professional career 33 years ago. Today, he is the Founder and CEO of Snaplogic. SnapLogic helps enterprises integrate systems, unify data, and apply generative AI to streamline business operations. As organizations shift systems and data to the cloud, SnapLogic supports automation, data accessibility, and AI-enhanced workflows without the complexity of traditional integration methods. Its platform is designed to simplify technology stacks and enable the development of AI-powered digital tools and services.
Dhillon first got his start in 1992 as Co-Founder and CEO at Informatica Corp, before eventually founding and serving as Chairman at jaman.com, his most recent position prior to joining Snaplogic.
15. Chetan Dube
Founder and CEO, Amelia
Chetan Dube has served as the President and CEO of Amelia, an IPsoft Company, since its founding in 1998. Under his leadership, the company has developed enterprise AI agent software that combines conversational and generative AI to automate tasks and support customer interactions across industries including healthcare, financial services, and insurance. Amelia’s technology powers voice and chat operations for several Fortune Global 500 companies, including Telefónica, BBVA, and BNP Paribas. The company was recently acquired by SoundHound AI.
Prior to joining Amelia, Dube served as an assistant professor at New York University, where his research was focused on deterministic finite-state computing engines. Dube is a widely recognized speaker on autonomics, cognitive computing, and the future impact of a digital workforce.
16. Tim Shi
Co-Founder and CTO, Cresta
Tim Shi is the Co-Founder and CTO of Cresta, a company that uses generative AI to improve agent performance in contact centers. Cresta delivers real-time guidance to sales and service agents by analyzing conversations and surfacing insights based on top performer behaviors. The platform also enables managers to monitor conversations and develop personalized coaching plans to support ongoing improvement. Cresta originated from research at the Stanford AI Lab and is backed by Greylock Partners, Sequoia, and Andreessen Horowitz.
Before founding Cresta, Shi held roles at OpenAI as a member of technical staff, at DJI Research as a deep learning researcher, and at Dropbox as a software engineer specializing in machine learning.
Shi is currently pursuing a PhD in artificial intelligence at Stanford University. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from Tsinghua University and participated in an exchange program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
17. Al Lalji
Founder and CEO, Smartek21
Al Lalji is the Founder and CEO of SmarTek21, a company that develops generative AI solutions for data ecosystems and conversational interfaces. Founded in 2006, SmarTek21 focuses on digital integration and data governance, combining human expertise with advanced AI to address complex business challenges and enhance customer interactions.
Lalji has over 22 years of experience in technology management and consulting with Fortune 500 and entrepreneurial firms. Lalji has helped take software products and services to market for one of the largest software companies in the world. His experience spans operations, software development, and customer support to sales and marketing.
Lalji first got his start as a financial analyst at Microsoft. From there, he went on to ATT Wireless, before eventually rising to CEO at IntelliTek.ai, IntelliTek Health, his most recent position prior to joining Smartek21.
Lalji holds a master’s degree in information systems and a bachelor’s degree in business from Pepperdine University.
18. Sri Ambati
CEO and Co-Founder, H2O.Ai
Sri Ambati is the Founder and CEO of H2O.ai, an open-source generative AI and machine learning platform provider. He founded the company in 2012 with the goal of making AI accessible to organizations and individuals worldwide. H2O.ai serves over 20,000 organizations, offering cloud-based products that simplify the use of advanced AI, including contributions from top data scientists and Kaggle Masters. The company’s mission includes supporting responsible and impactful AI applications across industries.
Ambati has also been involved in social impact initiatives, most notably leading the o2forindia.org project, which provided oxygen concentrators to over 200 public health organizations in rural India during the COVID-19 Delta wave. His focus on using AI for positive global outcomes continues to shape H2O.ai’s direction and partnerships.
Prior to H2O.ai, Ambati co-founded the big data analytics company Platfora (acquired by Workday) and held engineering leadership roles at DataStax and Azul Systems. He has conducted academic sabbaticals in theoretical neuroscience at Stanford University and UC Berkeley and holds a master’s degree in math and computer science from the University of Memphis.
19. Alex Zhavoronkov
Founder and CEO, Insilico Medicine
Alex Zhavoronkov is the Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage biotechnology company applying generative AI to drug discovery and biomarker development. Insilico connects biology, chemistry, and clinical trial analysis through advanced AI platforms that leverage deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other machine learning techniques. The company focuses on developing new therapies for cancer, fibrosis, immune conditions, central nervous system disorders, infectious and autoimmune diseases, and aging-related illnesses.
Zhavoronkov has a combined background in biomedicine and computer science. He founded Insilico in 2014 and has since led efforts to apply AI across target identification, signaling pathway modeling, and molecular generation. In 2016, he was among the first to apply Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and Reinforcement Learning to drug discovery. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles at ATI Technologies, NeuroGNeuroinformatics, and the Biogerontology Research Foundation.
He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and three books, and serves on editorial boards for journals including Trends in Molecular Medicine, Aging Research Reviews, and npj Aging. He co-chairs the Annual Aging Research, Drug Discovery and AI Forum and is an adjunct professor of artificial intelligence at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.
Zhavoronkov holds a PhD in physics from Lomonosov Moscow State University, a master’s degree in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, a bachelor’s degrees in computer science, finance, and management of information systems from Queen's University.
20. Alex Vratskides
Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Persado
Alex Vratskides is the CEO and Co-Founder of Persado, a leading provider of AI-powered content generation solutions for marketing founded in 2012. Persado is used by eight of the top 10 U.S. banks and many well-known brands across financial services, travel, and retail to increase productivity and optimize messages for personalization, performance, and legal compliance. Content generated by Persado outperforms copy generated by humans alone or other models 96% of the time, improving customer engagement by over 40%, on average.
Throughout his career, Alex's experience and leadership have focused on developing and delivering technology-driven, client-centric business solutions, and on driving profitable revenue growth. Prior to founding Persado, Alex co-founded Upstream and served as the company’s CEO from 2004 to 2012.
21. Brian Rieger
Co-Founder and COO, Labelbox
Brian Rieger is the Co-Founder and COO of Labelbox, a training data platform designed to support the development of artificial intelligence. Labelbox provides tools and services for creating high-quality labeled data, helping AI teams accelerate innovation with greater control and efficiency. Its platform is used by leading AI labs and enterprises to power the next generation of generative AI applications.
An aerospace engineer, data scientist, and software developer, Brian Rieger’s experience includes co-founding an aerospace company that placed hardware on the International Space Station. Before co-founding Labelbox, he worked as a data scientist at World Fuel Services and as an aerodynamics engineer at Boeing. Earlier in his career, he co-founded Infinity Aerospace.
Rieger graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering.
22. Alvin Hung
Founder and Executive Chairman, Vyond
Alvin Hung is the Executive Chairman and Founder of Vyond, an online platform for creating professional animated and AI-powered videos. Founded in 2007 without venture capital, Vyond has grown into a multi-million dollar business with teams in Hong Kong, Taipei, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The platform offers a range of video styles—from animated to photorealistic—and supports content creation in over 70 languages. With customizable features and an intuitive interface, Vyond is designed to help businesses produce engaging and impactful videos.
Hung began his career in 1997 as a development manager at Oracle. From there, he went on to Net Strategy Inc., before eventually rising to adviser at Wing Han Manufacturing, his most recent position prior to joining Vyond.
Hung holds bachelor’s degrees in computer science and economics from Columbia University.
23. Anil Jason
Co-Founder, QuillBot
Anil Jason is the Co-Founder of QuillBot, a writing assistance platform launched in 2017 to support English language learners in improving their writing skills. Together with Scribbr and LanguageTool, QuillBot is part of a suite of tools that now serve over 56 million users worldwide, offering AI-powered support to enhance written communication across languages and cultures. These tools provide efficient and accessible writing assistance, helping users express themselves more clearly and effectively.
Prior to his current role, Jason worked as a software developer at IntelliWheels, Inc., where he focused on the Abacus project, a website allowing users to customize wheelchairs while providing information on modifications.
Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an associate’s degree in arts from the School for Advanced Studies North.
24. Oleg Rogynskyy
Founder and CEO, People.Ai
Oleg Rogynskyy is the Founder and CEO of People.ai, a sales-focused AI company that provides go-to-market teams with data-driven insights aimed at improving efficiency and revenue performance. Under his leadership, People.ai has developed a proprietary data set and generative AI tools tailored for revenue operations, drawing on nearly a decade of development in the field. Rogynskyy is an experienced entrepreneur with expertise in data science, machine learning, and text analytics, and has led multiple startups from early stages to scale.
Rogynskyy graduated from Boston University.
25. Itai Zlotnik
CCO and Co-Founder, Tomorrow.io
Itai Zlotnik is the CCO and Co-Founder of Tomorrow.io, a weather and climate resilience platform that helps organizations manage operational risk related to weather. The company combines generative AI, space-based technology, and proprietary modeling to deliver weather intelligence for customers including JetBlue, the United States Air Force, and Uber. Its services range from early warning systems to climate adaptation tools, supporting organizations in improving decision-making and maintaining operational continuity.
Zlotnik has 21 years of experience and began his career in 2004. Before co-founding Tomorrow.io, he worked as a software development engineer at Apple and was a teaching assistant in computer organization at Tel Aviv University. Earlier in his career, he served as a special tactics officer in the Israel Defense Forces.
Zlotnik holds a degree in electrical engineering from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Itai Zlotnik's Insight
"Why do we so often accept limits on technology, being prepared, and on solving problems that matter most? The biggest breakthroughs happen when we refuse to settle and build with purpose. A perfect weather forecast means nothing if it doesn’t reach the right people at the right time, in the right context. That’s why we’ve invested heavily in the most advanced generative AI, innovating on proprietary data from space to empower businesses, communities, and governments to stay ahead of disruption. Resilience isn’t just about reacting, it’s about leading."
26. Krishna Rangasayee
Founder and CEO, SiMa.ai
Krishna Rangasayee is the Founder and CEO of SiMa.ai. Previously, Krishna was COO of Groq and at Xilinx for 18 years, where he held multiple senior leadership roles including Senior Vice President and GM of the overall business, and Executive Vice President of global sales.
While at Xilinx, Krishna grew the business to $2.5 billion in revenue at 70% gross margin while creating the foundation for over 10 quarters of sustained sequential growth and market share expansion. Prior to Xilinx, he held various engineering and business roles at Altera Corporation and Cypress Semiconductor. He holds over 25 international patents and has served on the board of directors of public and private companies.
27. Luigi Ricciardi
Founder, Typeface
Luigi Ricciardi is the Founder of Typeface, a generative AI application designed to accelerate personalized content creation for businesses. Typeface combines speed with brand consistency, enabling enterprises to produce high-quality, on-brand content more efficiently.
Ricciardi brings over 35 years of experience across design, digital marketing, and social media. He has a background in graphic design and has developed expertise in strategic marketing, SEO, targeted advertising, and online engagement. Based in Manhattan, he draws on his multicultural background and global experiences to bring a creative and culturally aware approach to branding and content strategy.
Ricciardi began his career in 1990 as an assistant designer at C.G.A. Uniform. He later held roles at Design Development Concepts and worked as a fashion designer, denim designer, and trend consultant at his namesake brand before founding Typeface.
Ricciardi graduated from Istituto Statale d'Arte with a master’s degree in graphic arts, advertising, and photography.
28. Rafael Umann
CEO and Founder, Azion
Rafael Umann is the CEO and Founder of Azion, a global edge computing platform that helps organizations build and run modern applications across distributed environments. Azion provides the infrastructure and tools businesses need to support application development, deployment, and performance at scale.
Umann is a serial entrepreneur, computer scientist, and energetic leader with over 20 years of experience in deep-tech. He founded an ISP at the age of 13, which was acquired four years later, and became the lead engineer behind Linux embedded systems and device drivers that powered one of the largest point-to-point wireless networks in the world. He later co-founded a London-based online marketplace similar to Airbnb, leading the company to rapid growth and a successful outcome. Prior to Azion, he was a key systems engineer at Terra Networks and a contributor to several open-source projects.
Umann holds a BBA from Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC-RS) and completed an extension program in sales and marketing at Columbia University.
Umann is an active LP in VC funds and startup incubators.
29. Sean McClain
Founder and CEO, Absci
Sean McClain is the Founder and CEO of Absci, a data-first generative AI drug creation company with a mission to create better biologics for patients, faster.
Sean built Absci from a basement lab to a publicly traded company and continues to strive towards his vision to create therapeutics at the click of a button. Under his leadership, Absci scaled to over 200 employees, raised over $530 million in capital, established a growing number of industry-leading partnerships, developed an internal portfolio of AI discovered drug assets, and built an integrated drug creation platform that merges generative AI models with proprietary high-throughput wet-lab data.
Sean is a graduate of the University of Arizona and serves as a board member for the Oregon Translational Research and Development Institute, and Life Science Washington.
30. David Karandish
Founder and CEO, Capacity
David Karandish is Founder and CEO of Capacity, an enterprise SaaS company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Capacity is a support automation platform that uses AI to deflect emails, calls, and tickets so internal and external support teams can focus on higher-value tasks.
Prior to starting Capacity, David was the CEO of Answers Corp. He and his business partner Chris Sims started the parent company of Answers in 2006 and sold it to a private equity firm in 2014 for $960 million.
David sits on the boards of Create a Loop, a computer science education non-profit that teaches kids to code, and Prepare.ai, a non-profit providing educational resources and strategic guidance about AI to individuals, communities, and companies. David was also an early investor and board member at Nerdy, an on-demand, real-time learning platform in the ed tech space.
31. Edo Liberty
Founder and CEO, Pinecone
Edo Liberty is the Founder and CEO of Pinecone, a company focused on building the infrastructure for knowledge-based AI applications. Pinecone’s vector database enables accurate, secure, and scalable AI systems, helping developers build and deploy AI products more efficiently. With over 5,000 customers across various industries, the platform is designed to support high-performance search and retrieval in AI workflows.
Liberty has led Pinecone’s growth across offices in New York, San Francisco, and Tel Aviv. The company is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, ICONIQ Growth, Menlo Ventures, and Wing Venture Capital.
Liberty brings 16 years of experience to his current role and first got his start in 2009 as a research scientist at Yahoo!, before eventually rising to director of research, head of Amazon AI Labs at Amazon Web Services, his most recent position prior to joining Pinecone.
Liberty graduated from Yale University with a PhD in computer science and from Tel Aviv University with a bachelor’s degree in physics and computer science.
32. Anshul Khandelwal
Co-Founder, CTO and SVP Product, InVideo
Anshul Khandelwal is the Co-Founder, CTO, and SVP of Product at InVideo, a platform that uses AI tools to simplify video creation and editing without requiring technical expertise. He has a background in both technology and entrepreneurship, with experience leading engineering teams and developing innovative solutions across industries.
Prior to InVideo, Khandelwal founded fnp.dev and TwoBeards Consulting Pvt Ltd, among other ventures. Throughout his career, he has focused on applying emerging technologies to drive product development and operational efficiency. He holds a degree from the Indian Statistical Institute.
33. Igor Jablokov
Founder and Chairman, Pryon
Igor Jablokov is the Founder and Chairman of Pryon, a company focused on enterprise-grade AI solutions that combine advanced retrieval engines with large language models. Pryon’s RAG Suite enables retrieval-augmented generation, delivering accurate and verifiable answers by securely extracting information from diverse content types—including audio, images, text, and video—across multiple data sources. The platform is designed for quick deployment, accessible via API, and supports both cloud and on-premises environments.
Before joining Pryon, Jablokov was a CEO at Yap. Earlier in his career he worked with IBM as a research engineer.
Igor holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina.
34. Oz Etzioni
CEO and Co-Founder, Clinch
Oz Etzioni is the CEO and Co-Founder of Clinch, an AI-powered technology company that brings efficiency, productivity, and intelligence to omnichannel advertising. Under his leadership, Clinch has pioneered Generative AI in advertising, helping brands and agencies plan, execute, and optimize omnichannel campaigns.
With a background in user experience, design, and innovation, Etzioni founded Clinch to meet the rising demand for data-driven creative automation in programmatic advertising. Clinch’s Flight Control platform uses AI to streamline campaign activation, automate creative production, and enhance real-time personalization across CTV, social, display, in-app, and DOOH. Its latest innovation, Copilot, integrates GenAI-powered strategy, intelligent automation, and predictive insights, redefining self-serve advertising.
Previously, Etzioni led user experience and innovation at MRM (McCann WorldGroup), designing digital campaigns for Fortune 500 brands like ExxonMobil, Verizon, and General Motors.
Etzioni holds a design degree from Parsons, The New School, and studied industrial design at Elisava in Barcelona. He is also a former Israeli Air Force officer.
Oz Etzioni's Insight
"The real power of Generative AI is in removing friction—freeing people from tedious tasks so they can focus on what drives real impact. It’s not just about speed or scale, but about enabling better decisions, more experimentation, and smarter execution. The future belongs to those who apply AI in meaningful, measurable ways that enhance both creativity and efficiency."
35. Adeel Khan
Founder and CEO, Magicschool AI
Adeel Khan is the Founder and CEO of Magicschool AI, a generative AI platform in education, empowering over four million educators with AI-driven support to reduce burnout and enhance efficiency. Committed to responsible and safe AI use, Magischool creates transformative learning experiences that equip students with the skills they need for the future of work.
Khan first got his start in 2010 as a special education and English teacher at Teach for America. From there, he went on to KIPP Metro Atlanta, before eventually rising to Managing Director of Schools at DSST Public Schools, his most recent position prior to founding Magicschool AI.
Khan graduated from Columbia University with a master's degree in educational leadership and administration and from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and information systems.
36. Alain Kaeser
Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Yseop
Alain Kaeser is the Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Yseop, a company specializing in generative AI solutions for regulated industries. Yseop develops AI-powered content automation tools, with a focus on scientific writing and natural language generation (NLG). Its platform combines symbolic AI, machine learning, and large language models (LLMs) to support complex, enterprise-level writing tasks with an emphasis on scalability, security, and human-centric design.
Kaeser has nearly four decades of experience in computer science and AI. His early work in NLG began in 1985 with a software program that supported financial decision-making through language generation, which earned a CPA Golden Disk award. This success led him to explore broader applications of AI, eventually founding Yseop to expand the use of NLG in fields such as marketing, sales, and life sciences.
Before founding Yseop, Kaeser was a founder at Cognitive Relation and Kaeser Consultants. He also served as a Professor of Computer Science at the École Normale Supérieure. He holds a diploma in mathematics from the École Normale Supérieure of Cachan and a postgraduate degree in computer science from the University of Paris VI.
37. John Cottongim
Co-Founder and CTO, Roots Automation
John Cottongim is the Co-Founder and COO of Roots Automation Inc., an Automation-as-a-Service company focused on delivering intelligent automation at scale. Roots Automation serves the insurance industry with an Agentic AI platform designed to automate complex processes with over 98% accuracy.
Using pre-trained, insurance-specific AI models, the platform enables rapid deployment and handles large volumes of unstructured data, allowing subject matter experts to focus on higher-value work. Cottongim oversees the company’s efforts to create a more efficient and capable digital workforce.
Prior to Roots Automation, he led the Enterprise Automation Hub at Mars Incorporated and managed AIG’s automation program for Life, Retirement, and Global Business Services. Earlier in his career, he led Lean Transformation initiatives globally, focusing on process improvement and organizational change.
Cottongim is a CFA charterholder, Certified Scrum Product Owner, and holds a Lean Competency System Level 2a certificate from Cardiff University. He earned an MBA from New York University and holds bachelor’s degrees in finance and accounting from Villanova University.
38. George Sivulka
Founder and CEO, Hebbia
George Sivulka is the Founder and CEO of Hebbia, a company he launched in 2020. Hebbia is an AI platform designed for knowledge-intensive work, serving clients in finance, law, and across the Fortune 500. The platform uses AI agents to break down complex tasks into actionable steps, enabling users to extract, structure, and analyze large volumes of documents. By integrating generative AI into workflows, Hebbia supports full-scale automation for high-value knowledge tasks.
Sivulka holds a master’s degree in applied physics and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Stanford University.
39. Deon Nicholas
Founder, President and Executive Chairman, Forethought
Deon Nicholas is the Founder, President, and Executive Chairman of Forethought, a company developing generative AI solutions for customer support. Forethought’s AI agents are trained on organization-specific data to help resolve issues, prioritize support tickets, and assist agents with relevant information. Designed to integrate into existing workflows, the platform continuously learns to provide more accurate and contextual responses, aiming to streamline and improve the customer support experience.
Before joining Forethought, Nicholas was a software engineer at Pure Storage and before that a software engineer at Dropbox.
Nicholas graduated from University of Waterloo with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and combinatorics/optimization.
40. Max Gladysh
Co-Founder, BotsCrew
Max Gladysh is the Co-Founder of BotsCrew, a leading provider of AI Agents that help businesses automate interactions, streamline operations, and drive growth. With a strong background in AI and deep expertise in go-to-market strategy, Max has been instrumental in shaping BotsCrew into a globally recognized company delivering cutting-edge AI solutions.
A pioneer in Conversational AI, Max built his first AI chatbot in 2016. Today, his company specializes in developing AI-powered Agents that go beyond traditional chatbots—capable of handling complex workflows, delivering personalized customer support, and integrating seamlessly with enterprise systems.
Under his leadership, BotsCrew has helped Fortune 500 companies, healthcare providers, and e-commerce brands leverage AI Agents to enhance customer experiences and drive efficiency.
41. Kylan Gibbs
CEO and Co-Founder, Inworld AI
Kylan Gibbs is the CEO and Co-Founder of Inworld AI, a company at the intersection of AI, gaming, and entertainment focused on creating immersive worlds and experiences. Inworld uses advanced technology to support interactive storytelling and enhance creative development.
Before co-founding Inworld, Gibbs worked on AI research, machine learning, and generative language models at Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, and Bain & Company. Kylan studied at the University of Cambridge and McGill University.
42. Rukesh Reddy
Founder and CEO, Deccan AI
Rukesh Reddy is the Founder and CEO of Deccan AI, a company that develops generative AI solutions by combining human expertise with customized AI tools. Deccan AI supports organizations across industries in automating complex processes and improving customer experiences. Its services draw on talent in machine learning, software development, and related fields to help clients scale and implement AI more effectively.
Previously, Reddy was Head of Growth, digital wealth business at 360 ONE Wealth and before that a general manager at Citi. Earlier in his career he worked with Godrej as a factory operations manager.
Reddy earned an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.
Rukesh Reddy's Insight
"I believe strongly in ‘Right to win’. Ideas are many. What is it that makes YOU uniquely positioned to execute well and win?"
43. Melanie Fellay
CEO and Co-Founder, Spekit
Melanie Fellay is the CEO and Co-Founder of Spekit, an AI-powered enablement platform designed to support sales teams by surfacing relevant answers, content, and training directly within its workflows. The platform aims to improve productivity and efficiency by integrating seamlessly into the tools sales reps already use, offering real-time access to playbooks, case studies, coaching, and process guidance.
Prior to Spekit, Fellay served as Chief of Staff at RealtyShares and worked as a finance and cost consultant at Surna Inc. Earlier in her career, she was a recitation leader for business statistics at the University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of Colorado Boulder.
44. Dave Ditzel
Founder and CTO, Esperanto Technologies
Dave Ditzel is the Founder and CTO of Esperanto Technologies. He first joined the company in 2022. Esperanto Technologies develops AI inference and HPC solutions built on RISC-V, the open instruction set standard. By leveraging an innovative low-power approach, Esperanto delivers exceptional value with highly efficient, scalable performance for AI and high-performance computing applications.
Previously, Ditzel was Vice President of Hybrid Parallel Computing at Intel and before that, Founder and CEO at Transmeta Corporation. Earlier in his career he worked with AT&T Bell Labs as a member of the technical staff.
Ditzel holds a master’s degree in computer architecture from University of California, Berkeley.
45. Surojit Chatterjee
Founder and CEO, Ema
Surojit Chatterjee is the Founder and CEO of Ema. Ema provides enterprise-grade agentic AI solutions, enabling organizations to build and deploy AI employees that adapt and scale with minimal lead time. Designed to replace fragmented co-pilot tools, Ema offers secure and compliant AI systems that can be deployed both on-cloud and on-premises.
Chatterjee has 26 years of experience and began his career as a software developer at IBM. From there, he went on to Oracle Corporation, before eventually rising to Chief Product Officer at Coinbase, his most recent position prior to joining Ema.
Chatterjee holds an MBA in marketing and finance from the MIT Sloan School of Management, a master’s degree in computer science from the University at Buffalo, and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
Surojit Chatterjee's Insight
"My mission with Ema is to transform enterprises by empowering every employee to work more efficiently through simple-to-activate, accurate AI agents. Having built a successful career at Google and Coinbase, I'm now dedicated to bringing AI agents to organizations of all sizes, enabling teams to focus on their most strategic and highest-value projects."
46. Dominik Kovacs
Founder and CEO, Colossyan
Dominik Kovacs is the CEO and Founder of Colossyan, an AI video platform designed for workplace learning. He launched the company in 2020, initially serving as Chief Product Officer. Colossyan is an AI video platform for workplace learning, enabling teams to create professional-quality video content with the help of AI avatars and text-to-speech narration. The platform supports increased video engagement while reducing production time and costs by up to 80%, and is used by companies such as Paramount Pictures, Vodafone, and Continental.
Previously, Kovacs was a Co-Founder at Defudger. Earlier in his career he worked with Interdum IVS as a software engineer. Kovacs holds a bachelor’s degree in general engineering in cybersystems from the Technical University of Denmark and a bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence from The University of Hong Kong.
Dominik Kovacs's Insight
"Entrepreneurship is about embracing uncertainty, making bold decisions, and continuously adapting. Building Colossyan has been a journey of learning – refining our vision, evolving with the technology, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with generative AI. The ability to shape how people communicate and learn with AI is an exciting challenge, and I’m grateful to be part of it."
47. Ofer Klein
Co-Founder and CEO, Reco
Ofer Klein is the Co-Founder and CEO of Reco, a company that helps security teams identify and prioritize risk in SaaS environments. Reco analyzes user personas, actions, interactions, and relationships to detect misconfigurations, over-permissioned users, compromised accounts, and risky behavior. This continuous analysis, powered by the Reco Knowledge Graph, gives security teams a comprehensive view of their environment and enables faster, more targeted responses. Reco also supports rapid SaaS integration through a low-code/no-code approach.
Prior to founding Reco, Klein was SVP of Market Development at Ordergroove. He previously founded and led kwik.me, a smart end-to-end IoT platform focused on simplifying complex processes. Earlier in his career, he served as Director of Advanced Programs at Elbit Systems Ltd.
Klein holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering as well as an MBA in management of technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation from Tel Aviv University.
48. Edo Segal
Founder and CEO, Touchcast
Edo Segal is the Founder and CEO of Touchcast. For the past 20 years, Segal has pioneered the intersection of artificial intelligence and communications. He founded Touchcast in 2012. Touchcast is leading the “Generative Web” revolution by providing a turnkey, full-stack solution to for creating, publishing and distributing conversational, multimodal generative experiences, transforming how companies communicate, educate, support and sell.
Segal founded multiple companies, including Kinsa, Brainboost, Screencaster, and Relegence. He also worked as a VP of emerging platforms at AOL
49. Alex Levin
Co-Founder and CEO, Regal
Alex Levin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Regal Voice, a company focused on building generative AI agents to enhance customer experiences across support, sales, and operations. Regal enables businesses to create, test, deploy, and monitor autonomous AI agents that integrate with first-party customer data for more personalized interactions. Its tools also support A/B testing to optimize the balance between AI agents and human agents, without the need for engineering support. Levin leads the company’s customer success, sales, and marketing teams.
Before founding Regal Voice, Levin worked as a product manager at Personal and Thomson Reuters, and later joined Handy as an early employee. Following Handy’s acquisition by ANGI, he led growth initiatives at the combined company. He holds a bachelor’s in psychology from Harvard University.
50. Maria Chmir
Founder and CEO, Rask AI
Maria Chmir is the CEO and Founder of Rask AI, a localization tool that allows content creators to translate their videos into multiple languages efficiently. With text-to-voice and voice cloning technologies, Rask AI can add a professional-quality voiceover to videos without the need for recording or hiring a voice actor.
Prior to her current role, Chmir was CEO and Founder of Brask, a global AI content company specializing in generative AI technology. Chmir also co-founded Dowell, a video customization service using deepfake technology.
Before venturing into the AI industry, Chmir worked as the Chief Marketing Manager and Product Owner at Everypixel, where she led a team in developing a video customization and personalization service. Chmir also gained experience as a New Business Manager at Voskhod, where she focused on business development and strategic planning.
Additionally, Chmir founded Grain in Brain, an events generator in the Urals region, and MADS, an educational institution focusing on creative and conceptual thinking. Throughout her career, Chmir has demonstrated strong leadership skills, innovation, and a keen interest in leveraging technology to improve content creation and customization.
Chmir holds a bachelor's degree in sociology and a master’s degree in strategic marketing from South Ural State University.
