Today is Sunday, March 4th, 2018 and it feels like the night before the first day of school. Tomorrow morning at 9am, we kick off Zeroth.AI’s 3rd cohort. This time it’s different. I’m not a founder going through the program. I’m not a mentor who comes in and helps with their generous free time. I am a full-time partner who joined the fight with every single startup and founder that we have backed. I don’t take this responsibility lightly. This one is gonna be special for me.
I have a fun(ny) relationship with Zeroth. I first met tak_lo, the founder, back in 2014 in London. He played a big role in bringing me from Silicon Valley to participate in the Techstars London program where he was a Director. In getting to know him those first three months, I learned he was both crazy and one of the most caring human beings in the startup world. Something he engrained deeply into the Zeroth culture.
He has your back when things looked grim and the whole world was against you. He gave you the strength to fight. Every. Single. Day. He didn’t have to and that certainly wasn’t in his job description. But he was there right alongside you as if he was part of the team. That was instrumental in catalyzing Good Audience to work with over 3,000 brands in the following years.
Crazy Tak brings the crazy to Zeroth
In the summer of 2016, Tak called me and said he was starting an AI accelerator in Hong Kong. Again, I thought he was crazy. Why in the world would Asia be a good place to build an AI startup? But every single week he kept calling about his ideas for applying AI to social media. I spent a few late nights tinkering and developed a chatbot. I roped in Shannon to help. And someone paid us a $5/monthly subscription because they found it actually useful. Zeroth knows how to spot things a bit into the future.
A few months later, I moved my whole life from San Francisco to Hong Kong with only a $20K check in hand from Zeroth. I said to them, “So we are gonna grow the AI community in Asia and we’re gonna start from Hong Kong of all places?” They said yes. I signed the papers and I was in the first cohort of Zeroth with Rocco.AI.
Being in an accelerator a second time allowed me a different view into the startup journey. I was a second time founder, but the majority of my peers were starting their first business. It was exciting to be on the journey with my friends as they launched their products, raise their seed round, close enterprise clients, and get the press that they deserved. I had a sense of satisfaction in providing the help/advice/mentorship whenever they asked for it. Seeing all their problems even just one time before allowed me to help them solve it quickly.
I was kinda sad when the the first cohort, #Z01, ended. But Zeroth invited me to stick around and hang out with the second cohort, #Z02. The same thing happened. I made even more friends from all over Asia, and got to be on even more journeys where I could play a role in helping founders get to the next stage. Again, I was kinda sad when the cohort was over and everyone went back home. But all the friendships maintained.
Zeroth with another crazy idea
You start to get the picture. Zeroth is fearless in trying new things. I’ve been playing in crypto and blockchain for a while and they asked me if there was anything Zeroth companies should be looking at. So I called my friend Rahul Vishwakarma from #Z01 to work on Raven Protocol to provide cost-efficient and faster training of deep neural networks. The goal was to give this power to all 23 portfolio companies of #Z01 and #Z02 so they can train to their hearts desire without having to worry about hefty server fees.
When diving deeper into this project, we discovered some of the brightest minds in AI who were building things for the community too. So, I led Zeroth’s investment in SingularityNET and Ocean Protocol. I had a vision to build out an entire AI ecosystem (data, computing resources, algorithms) where any early stage founders can plug into and build their startup as cost-efficient as possible. Zeroth was crazy enough to give me both the support and autonomy to go out there and do this. No asking for permission. No lengthy due diligence process. All pure conviction.
Joining as a partner
At this point, having a conversation with Tak about being a partner at Zeroth.AI was just a formality. Going to war with founders is something I’ve already been doing since the inception of Zeroth. I’ve always been an entrepreneur and I always will be an entrepreneur. As a partner, I’m excited help every single person in the Zeroth family.
Good luck #Z03! This is gonna be fun. This is gonna be exciting. I am honored to be part of your journeys 🙏🙏🙏.
—Sherman
