Campus To Capital

What does one of the world’s leading computer vision researchers think comes after ChatGPT?Our new episode with Prof. Dr. Daniel Cremers is out.Daniel holds the Chair of Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence at TU Munich, has received Germany’s most prestigious research award, the Leibniz Prize, and his work has been cited more than 90,000 times.We talked about spatial intelligence, why navigating the physical world remains such a difficult challenge for AI, and what it takes to build machines that can actually understand their surroundings.Through his work with Artisense and SE3 Labs, Daniel also knows what happens when research meets customers. His advice to technical founders: don’t fall in love with your technology before understanding what someone is willing to buy.And why does he believe Munich can produce a $100 billion physical AI company?We got into that too.Thanks a lot Daniel for joining us!!EP36 of Campus To Capital is out now. Watch or listen to the full conversation.

#35 Douglas Solberg - How Much of a Hotel Can AI Actually Run? Inside the YC-Backed Startup ZaplarOur new episode with Douglas Solberg is out.Douglas and his team are building Zaplar, a full-stack AI solution to rethink the software hotels run on, from bookings to guest communication and housekeeping.We talked about his story of getting into YC, how he met his co-founders, and what it takes to turn a team full of technical talent into a business. How do you figure out the business model, win your first customers and convince hotel owners to take a chance on you?We also got into his background, the difficult decisions along the way and finding people you want to build with for the long term.Thanks a lot Douglas for joining us!!EP35 is live everywhere now!

What if you could download someone’s expertise as easily as you add a song to your playlist?Our new episode with Fede de Ponte is out.Fede joined us to talk about Getedge and the idea behind it: packaging human expertise into skills that AI agents can use, with creators getting paid when their knowledge helps someone else.Which would have been useful before Julius spent six hours teaching an agent how to edit our interviews.We talked about what these skills actually look like, how Fede uses them in his own work, and where handing things over to an agent starts to get uncomfortable. From editing a podcast to handling your messages, how much would you trust it to do?We also got into his path through BCG, knowing when to move on from a company, and the difference between talking about building in San Francisco and actually going.His answer to how he made the move: “Very simple. I booked a flight.”Thanks a lot Fede for joining us!!EP34 is live everywhere now!

Six weeks for a prototype?“What the f*** are you talking about?”Our new episode with Falco Schneider is out.When an experienced engineer told him a prototyping iteration would take six weeks, Falco’s response was simple: “I know nothing about this and I made this in one week.”That pretty much sets the tone for this conversation.We talked about teaching yourself to build, what AI changes about hardware development, and why Falco believes experience can sometimes make you underestimate how fast things can move.We also got into his time at the Merantix Hacker Room, building in San Francisco, what might come after keyboards and screens and why you shouldn’t take every founder’s fundraising story at face value.And yes, there’s a “F*** all that” moment. Followed by a point worth hearing: build something you actually want to exist, instead of copying whatever the person next to you is building.Thanks a lot Falco for joining us!!EP33 is live everywhere now!

Can you sell a used electric car across Europe without the buyer ever seeing it?Our new episode with Florian Reister, Founder & CEO of Aampere, is out.Aampere is building a European marketplace for used electric cars, connecting private sellers with dealers across borders. Since starting in 2022, the company has grown to several thousand cars sold per year and recently raised €4.2m.We talked about how you actually price a used EV, why battery data matters and why a car sitting in Germany might be worth significantly more to a dealer somewhere else in Europe.We also got into Aampere’s early days, including selling €50k worth of cars per month through WhatsApp before they had a proper platform, how Florian thinks about competing with players like AUTO1, mobile.de and AutoScout24, and why he believes technical moats are disappearing in the age of AI.Thanks a lot Florian for joining us!!EP32 is live everywhere now!PS: For everyone tuning in on YouTube: we’ve started adding fact checks and visuals to our episodes and are working on improving the production quality step by step. Let us know what you think!