BUILDERS

  AidKit is revolutionizing how emergency aid and government benefits reach people in need. Having distributed over $350 million to more than 500,000 individuals and small businesses, the company is addressing critical inefficiencies in government aid systems during a time of unprecedented policy upheaval. In this episode of Category Visionaries, CEO Brittany Christenson shares how AidKit is build...

Samotics is pioneering a revolutionary approach to industrial asset monitoring, delivering condition, performance, and energy efficiency insights for hard-to-reach industrial equipment without requiring sensors to be installed on the machines themselves. Founded by Simon Jagers , the company has developed Electrical Signature Analysis (ESA) technology that monitors over 10,000 machines by analyzin...

Cloudastructure has raised over $57 million to transform video surveillance from a passive recording tool into an active crime prevention platform. What started as a solution born from a laptop theft in a South of Market office has evolved into an AI-powered service that protects multifamily properties across the country. In this episode of Category Visionaries, we spoke with Rick Bentley , founde...

  Rhumbix is pioneering the field workforce management category in construction, transforming how contractors capture real-time data from job sites. With $46 million in funding raised, the company has evolved from a wearables IoT startup to becoming a leading mobile-first SaaS platform serving mid-market and enterprise construction companies. In this episode of Category Visionaries, we sat down wi...

Troy Helming is building the future of infrastructure with EarthGrid , a company developing an underground super grid network of tunnels across North America using revolutionary plasma torch technology. As a serial entrepreneur who founded two unicorns in the renewable energy space, Troy brings decades of experience in wind and solar power to solving one of the most critical infrastructure challen...

Minoa is pioneering the value intelligence category, helping B2B companies transform how they sell by connecting product capabilities to customer outcomes. With $2.7 million in funding, the platform enables go-to-market teams to build personalized business cases at scale and move beyond feature-selling to value-based selling. In this episode of Category Visionaries, I sat down with Max Elster , CE...

Carmen Li spent decades in financial services across trading floors and data companies before spotting a massive inefficiency in the AI/compute economy. After managing global data partnerships at Bloomberg, she witnessed AI startups struggling with unpredictable compute costs that could swing their margins from healthy profits to devastating losses overnight. Drawing parallels to how airlines hedg...

Spot AI is pioneering the transformation from traditional video surveillance to intelligent video AI agents that can monitor, analyze, and respond to events in the physical world. With $93 million in funding, the company has evolved from providing simple camera management to building AI security guards and operational agents that can process hundreds of video feeds simultaneously, take autonomous...

Climate change isn't just an environmental issue—it's a market opportunity waiting to be captured. Invert , a carbon reduction and removal company, has raised $26 million to transform how companies think about nature-based investments. Starting from a villa in Antigua during COVID lockdowns, co-founder and CEO Andre Fernandez has built a business that's helping companies put nature on their balanc...

Anagram is pioneering a new approach to security awareness that treats employees as assets rather than liabilities. With $10 million in funding, the company is reimagining how organizations address their most significant security vulnerability: human error. In this episode of Category Visionaries, we spoke with Harley Sugarman , Founder and CEO of Anagram , about his journey from venture capitalis...

Craig Letton has transformed the beverage industry's approach to marketing with hyble , a martech platform that has grown from under $1 million to nearly $20 million in annual revenue in just seven years. With only $8 million raised across three funding rounds, hyble has achieved remarkable capital efficiency while expanding from Scotland to become a global player serving major beverage companies...

Realtime Robotics is transforming manufacturing through AI-powered robotics automation, having raised $70 million to build a SaaS platform that enables system integrators to deploy robotic solutions in half the time with half the labor. In this episode of Category Visionaries, we sat down with Peter Howard , CEO of Realtime Robotics , to explore his journey from multiple successful IPOs to tacklin...

  Persana AI is transforming how B2B teams handle go-to-market operations by unifying fragmented data sources and deploying intelligent agents to automate complex workflows. With $2.3 million in funding and a growing community of 6,000 sales professionals, Persana has evolved from a simple email personalization tool to a comprehensive agentic platform that helps companies identify, reach, and conv...

Ethos is revolutionizing training and education with their adaptive readiness platform, which transforms passive learning materials into interactive, engaging lessons. With over $34 million in funding, Ethos has expanded from elite athletics to serving 40+ Department of Defense customers across Air Force, Space Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, while also developing a substantial commercial presence....

Atlas Invest is revolutionizing real estate financing as a marketplace connecting borrowers with institutional investors. With $13 million in funding, the platform provides an alternative to inefficient traditional lending models by offering borrowers quick, simple financing while enabling investors to access what Tal calls "the holy grail of asset classes" - real estate-backed bridge loans. In th...

SuperAnnotate is revolutionizing how companies manage their AI training data with a comprehensive infrastructure platform. Having raised over $53 million in funding, SuperAnnotate has evolved from a specialized algorithm for autonomous vehicles to a centralized data hub that enables enterprises to collaborate with multiple service providers and internal teams. In this episode of Category Visionari...

Regal AI is revolutionizing the contact center landscape with its voice AI agent platform that's transforming how businesses communicate with customers. With $82 million in funding, Regal has positioned itself at the forefront of the AI revolution in customer service. In this episode of Category Visionaries, I spoke with Alex Levin , CEO and Co-Founder of Regal AI , about the company's journey fro...

Safire is pioneering advanced electrification solutions for defense applications, transforming how military operations are powered in austere environments. With $11 Million in funding and over $7 million in government contracts secured just this year, Safire is developing revolutionary technology to make batteries safer and more efficient for defense applications. In this episode of Category Visio...

Cloverleaf AI is revolutionizing how companies access and leverage public government meeting data, turning hours of meandering discussions into actionable sales intelligence. With $3.5 million in funding, the govtech startup helps enterprises identify early-stage opportunities in state and local government contracts by applying AI to analyze thousands of public meetings. In this episode of Categor...

Dandelion Energy is revolutionizing residential heating and cooling through geothermal technology, transforming what was once a luxury product into a mainstream, accessible solution for homeowners across America. In this episode of Category Visionaries, I spoke with Kathy Hannun , Founder and CTO of Dandelion Energy , who spun the company out of Google X after recognizing geothermal's potential to...

Intenseye is revolutionizing industrial safety by connecting to existing camera systems in manufacturing facilities and using AI to detect unsafe conditions in real-time. Having raised $93 million to date, the company has developed a platform that runs over 120 AI models analyzing 50+ safety use cases at manufacturing sites globally. In this episode of Category Visionaries, we spoke with Sercan Es...

Katmai is reinventing remote work through its innovative virtual office platform that creates spontaneous, natural interaction in a digital environment. With over $30 million in funding, Katmai has developed proprietary 3D audio-video technology that allows teams to work together in a virtual space that mimics the benefits of physical offices while maintaining the flexibility of remote work. In th...

Tilled has pioneered "PayFac as a Service," creating a new category in the payments space that allows vertical software companies to embed payments within their platforms without becoming registered payment facilitators themselves. With over $40 million in funding, Tilled offers an alternative to industry giants like Stripe, providing better economics while maintaining high-quality developer tools...

Bot Auto is redefining the autonomous driving industry with a pragmatic, economics-first approach. With over $45 million in funding, the company is positioning itself as a trucking company that leverages autonomous technology, rather than a technology vendor selling autonomous systems. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, I spoke with Dr. Xiaodi Hou , CEO of Bot Auto , who shared his decad...

Transcend is fundamentally changing how engineers design our world's essential infrastructure through their generative design platform. With $35 million in funding, including investment from industry giant Autodesk, Transcend is automating and optimizing the planning and conceptual design phases for infrastructure projects that typically cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. In this episod...