Making and Breaking Things: The Founder Mentality and Building in Emerging Markets with Nova and Postpay’s Tariq Sheikh

Real-Time World Models, Explained by a Founder Building Them

In October 2024, Alberto Taiuti was trying to solve a 3D asset problem and ran into a wall. The labeled data didn't exist. What he realized next reshaped the trajectory of his company. In this episode, Josh Liss (Head of Media & Entertainment at Nebius) sits down with Alberto Taiuti, CEO and Co-founder of Reactor, the developer platform for world models. They unpack what real-time world models actually are, why they're fundamentally different from the AI video tools most people have encountered, and why he believes the era of prompting is already winding down. Drawing on his background at Apple, where he worked on the Vision Pro, Alberto makes the case that interactive video changes what a developer platform has to be, why video models already understand 3D space (even though no one trained them to), and how shows, ads, and even software interfaces could be generated live, per user, in real time. 0:00 - Intro teaser: writing code, not prompts 0:25 - Guest intro & Reactor overview 0:47 - What is a world model? 2:19 - World models are regressive like LLMs 5:21 - Alberto's background & origin story 8:08 - The "aha" moment that changed everything 9:58 - How world models will impact media & entertainment 12:48 - "We only hire unreasonable people" — hiring philosophy 13:54 - Building in stealth: lessons from Apple 17:48 - GTA San Andreas shaped his entire career What You'll Learn What a world model is, in plain language, and how it differs from standard AI video generation. Alberto's philosophy for building in stealth mode and how that impacts his team Why Alberto believes interactive, real-time video brings code back to the center of AI development. The insight about video models and 3D that became the foundation of Reactor. Reactor's hiring philosophy and why "unreasonable" is the highest compliment at the company. Alberto's three-year prediction for how applications themselves get built.

Building Across Internet Eras with Scott Kveton, Serial Entrepreneur, CEO & Co-founder of CaseMark

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups [https://www.nebius.com/startups] 🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast [https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast] In this episode, we sit down with Scott Kveton—serial entrepreneur, Co-founder and CEO of CaseMark, and Co-founder of the Association for AI in Legal (A4L)—to explore what it means to build across multiple generations of the internet. With over 20 years of experience spanning Web1, Web2, Web3, and now AI, Scott has built and scaled companies at internet scale, with three successful exits and just as many hard-earned failures. From an early career at Amazon to co-founding Urban Airship and contributing to foundational technologies like OpenID and OAuth, his journey offers a front-row seat to the evolution of modern software. Now, with CaseMark, Scott is focused on transforming the legal industry through AI—building a “litigation lifecycle” platform designed to help attorneys make sense of complex cases from intake to resolution. We dive into Scott’s philosophy on building high-performance teams, why he believes companies should operate like clockwork—not culture—and how founders can stay focused on execution and stakeholder value. Along the way, we explore lessons from decades of building, scaling, and adapting through every major wave of the internet. 👤 About the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kveton/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kveton/] Twitter/X: https://x.com/kveton Company website: https://casemark.com/ 🚀  About Nebius for Startups Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth. Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster. 👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups [https://www.nebius.com/startups] 🌐 About Nebius Website: https://www.nebius.com [https://www.nebius.com] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius [https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius] X: https://x.com/nebiusai [https://x.com/nebiusai]

Making and Breaking Things: The Founder Mentality and Building in Emerging Markets with Nova and Postpay’s Tariq Sheikh

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups [https://www.nebius.com/startups] 🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast [https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast] In this episode we sit down with Tariq Sheikh, Co-founder and CEO of Nova, a contract intelligence platform transforming how teams manage and analyze business documents. A self-described “third culture kid,” Tariq’s journey spans numerous countries across both Africa and Europe, stints in consulting, gold trading, and defense, and finally a series of successes scaling tech startups. He previously founded Postpay, the leading buy now, pay later provider in the Middle East, scaling the company from a handful of employees to over 100 in just six months and raising over $65M along the way. Tariq shares how a constant lack of stability shaped his founder mentality—driving him to keep building, breaking, and pushing forward without getting too comfortable. We dive into what it takes to build in emerging markets, the realities of hypergrowth, and the nonstop firefighting that defines the founder journey. Tariq also reflects on how having had little time to pause and celebrate the wins is shaping how he’s building today. 👤 About the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shkhtar/ Company website: https://nova-doc.com/ 🚀  About Nebius for Startups Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth. Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster. 👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups [https://www.nebius.com/startups] 🌐 About Nebius Website: https://www.nebius.com [https://www.nebius.com] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius [https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius] X: https://x.com/nebiusai [https://x.com/nebiusai]

From Operator to Investor: Going Deep on the AI Landscape with Accel’s Sam Fold

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups [https://www.nebius.com/startups] 🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast [https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast] At Slush 2025 in Helsinki, we sat down with Accel’s Sam Folds to unpack the breakneck pace of today’s AI startup landscape. From identifying emerging investment opportunities to how his technical background in gaming with Blizzard and as VP of Engineering at Checkout.com contributes to his perspective in VC. Sam shares how founders can better anticipate where the market is heading and why the next wave of startups is going deeper—targeting niche, verticalized problems with AI and what’s ahead and the challenges facing compute-intensive startups in today’s AI era. 👤 About the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samfold X (Twitter): https://x.com/SamFold Company website: https://www.accel.com/ 🚀  About Nebius for Startups Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth. Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster. 👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups [https://www.nebius.com/startups] 🌐 About Nebius Website: https://www.nebius.com [https://www.nebius.com] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius [https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius] X: https://x.com/nebiusai [https://x.com/nebiusai]

Revolutionizing Healthcare and Small Business Efficiency with AI: Insights from Abridge co-founder Zachary Lipton

🚀 Apply to Nebius for Startups: https://www.nebius.com/startups [https://www.nebius.com/startups] 🎧 Explore more episodes: https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast [https://www.nebius.com/startups/podcast] In this episode, we explore cutting-edge technological advancements with leaders from Abridge. Zach, an AI researcher and co-founder of Abridge, shares the company's mission to enhance human connections in healthcare by developing AI solutions that alleviate doctors' administrative burdens. He elaborates on the innovative use of AI in clinical settings to streamline documentation, improve patient-doctor interactions, and optimize healthcare practices. Zach shed light on the importance of efficient AI integration, the future potential of their technologies, and the continual advancements happening in the AI space. 👤 About the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharylipton [https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharylipton]  X (Twitter): https://x.com/zacharylipton [https://x.com/zacharylipton]  Personal Website: https://www.zacharylipton.com/ [https://www.zacharylipton.com/]  🚀  About Nebius for Startups Nebius for Startups partners with leading AI founders building for scale—providing GPU credits, hands-on engineering support, and a global ecosystem to accelerate growth. Reduce infrastructure bottlenecks, avoid scaling missteps, and move faster. 👉 Apply now: https://www.nebius.com/startups [https://www.nebius.com/startups] 🌐 About Nebius Website: https://www.nebius.com [https://www.nebius.com] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius [https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebius] X: https://x.com/nebiusai [https://x.com/nebiusai]