Darian Shirazi from Gradient Ventures - Empathy, Curiosity, and the Immigrant Mindset

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Miguel Armaza interviews Darian Shirazi, General Partner at Gradient Ventures, an early-stage venture fund focused on AI and data-rich companies, with Google as its major LP.
Prior to Gradient, Darian founded and sold Radius, a B2B Customer Data Platform. He is also an early investor in companies including Lyft, Udemy, Carbon Health, Palantir, and Niva. Fun fact, he was Facebook’s first intern back when the company had only 10 people.
We discuss:

• Joining Facebook as its first intern and working directly for Mark Zuckerberg. Why is Mark such a special tech leader?
• Gradient’s three different strategies to invest in AI
• Why the evolution of AI will be exponential and not linear
• The incredible story of how Darian’s family had to escape Iran and rebuilt itself into one of the strongest tech families in the US… and a lot more!

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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
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