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Actionable
Takeaways

Adapt to Market Changes:

Be ready to pivot your product focus based on market demand shifts, as seen with Deep Infra’s shift to large language models.

Simplify Product Offering:

Make it easy for customers to get started with your product by offering straightforward, pay-as-you-go solutions, reducing barriers to entry.

Focus on Cost Efficiency:

Build a highly integrated solution and maintain a strong technical team to deliver value at lower costs compared to competitors.

Leverage Open Source:

Utilize open source models to give customers more control and flexibility, differentiating from proprietary offerings.

Continuous Innovation:

Stay excited and invested in the fast-paced advancements in your field, and continuously look for new opportunities and technologies to integrate.

Conversation
Highlights

 

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech’s most innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Nikola Borisov, CEO & Co-Founder of Deep Infra, an AI company that has raised $9 Million in funding.

Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:

  • Inception and Focus: Deep Infra was founded in September 2022, focusing on hosting top open source AI models and providing them through a simple API.
  • Market Demand Shift: The company pivoted focus to large language models after the release of ChatGPT, driven by increased demand in the AI space.
  • Customer Base: Currently, most customers are startups integrating AI into their products, with medium and large enterprises slower to adopt.
  • Competitive Edge: Deep Infra differentiates by offering cost-effective, easy-to-use access to open source AI models, allowing customers to fine-tune models as needed.
  • AI Market Dynamics: Nikola sees the AI field as healthy and innovative, with continuous releases of new models from major players like Microsoft and Meta.
  • Fundraising Insights: Fundraising is a necessary part of the entrepreneurial journey, requiring the ability to attract smart investors aligned with the company’s vision.

 

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