Decentralized Data Foundry for AI | Rowan Stone, CEO of Sapien
Description
Rowan Stone is the CEO of Sapien, a decentralized data foundry where AI models can access verified human expertise worldwide. They've raised raised a $10.5M round led by Variant. He's also the co-creator of Coinbase's layer 2 network called Base.
Rowan's favorite book: Outlive (Author: Peter Attia)
(00:01 ) Introduction
(01:09 ) The Flaws in Centralized Data Models
(04:10 ) Mechanism of Knowledge Transfer and Expert Incentives
(07:08 ) Supply, Demand, and Market Dynamics for Training Data
(10:22 ) Chain of Thought Reasoning and 3D/4D Data Use Cases
(12:22 ) Building the MVP: What Worked and What Didn’t
(15:17 ) Acquiring the First Five Customers
(17:59 ) What They Got Right and What They’d Change
(20:15 ) How to Scale from Early Customers: Advice to Founders
(22:02 ) Data Infrastructure Opportunities in 2025
(25:57 ) Designing AI-Native Databases
(28:04 ) Biggest Startup Challenge: Messaging and Clarity
(30:22 ) Future of Data Collection Mechanisms (2 to 5 Years Out)
(32:07 ) Autonomous Vehicles and Demand for 4D Data
(35:33 ) Emerging AI Use Cases: Memory, Wearables, and Robotics
(36:19 ) Rapid Fire Round
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Where to find Rowan Stone:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rowan-stone/
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Where to find Prateek Joshi:
Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com
Website: https://prateekj.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19
X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi
United States
