Ishani Ummat
Madrona Ventures Invests in Vilya to Develop AI-Designed Macrocycle Drugs Using IPD Tools
Madrona announces its investment in Vilya, which uses AI and computational protein design tools from David Baker’s Institute for Protein Design to generate novel macrocycle drugs that aim to combine oral dosing and high bioavailability with large binding surfaces to target diseases like cancer, inflammation, and neurodegeneration.
IA40 Spotlight: Cresta Co-founder and CEO Zayd Enam on Using AI to Empower People to be More Productive
We've all struggled with call center experiences. Madrona's Ishani Ummat talks with Cresta Co-founder and CEO Zayd Enam about the unique angle Cresta takes to leverage AI to drive a better customer experience in real time. The two dive into the important topic of how AI can be used to help empower people to be more productive. we hear the story of why Zayd dropped out of his Ph.D. program to pursue launching his own company based on what he explains as the "schlep blindness" of contact centers. He also discusses the unique way he landed his first customer, which…
Cresta CEO Zayd Enam Discusses AI for Contact-Center Productivity, Leaving Ph.D. and Landing Intuit as First Customer
Ishani Ummat interviews Cresta AI co-founder and CEO Zayd Enam about using AI to boost contact-center worker productivity, covering his decision to leave a Ph.D., Cresta’s modular approach, and landing Intuit as an early customer. The conversation highlights Cresta’s real-time AI-driven productivity suite and practical deployment strategy for modern contact centers.
RunwayML CEO Cristobal Valenzuela on turning an NYU research project into a web‑based ML video editor after $35M Series B
Madrona investor Ishani Ummat interviews RunwayML co‑founder and CEO Cristobal Valenzuela about the company's origins as an NYU research project, its web‑based, ML-powered real‑time video editing tools, and its goal to 'leapfrog' the video‑editing industry after a $35 million Series B in December. The episode is part of a Madrona series spotlighting IA40 winners.
