MosaicML’s Naveen Rao on building an edge in AI infrastructure

MosaicML’s Naveen Rao on building an edge in AI infrastructure

Author: Unusual Ventures November 27, 2023 Duration: 43:41

MosaicML is the developer of open source infrastructure for training LLMs. The company was acquired by Databricks for $1.3 billion in July 2023. and has gone from 0 to over $30M in revenue this year in just 6 months.

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde and Wei Lien Dang chat with Naveen Rao, co-founder of MosaicML and now the head of Generative AI at Databricks

Join us as we discuss:

00:00 Preview: Future of foundation model companies

2:16 How Naveen’s previous experiences led to MosaicML

7:29 The core insight behind the founding of MosaicML

9:52 MosaicML’s approach to building an end-to-end platform

12:09 Why MosaicML focused on open models and LLMs

14:25 Why most foundation model companies will fail

15:52 How MosaicML found early adopters

18:14 Early use cases for MosaicML’s product

21:27 Impact of early feedback on MosaicML’s product roadmap

25:21 Why Naveen decided to move ahead with the Databricks acquisition

31:44 How Naveen sees the AI ecosystem evolving

34:08 Regulation of AI and the importance of open source

41:15 Advice for founding building AI infrastructure


Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor.


Wei Lien Dang is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures and leads investments in infrastructure software, security, and developer tool.  Wei was a co-founder of StackRox, a cloud-native security company prior to its acquisition by Red Hat.


Naveen Rao is the co-founder of MosaicML (now a Databricks company) and currently the head of Generative AI at Databricks


Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Further reading from Unusual Ventures:

Starting an open source company

Open source customer development 



Behind every so-called overnight success in software, there's a long, often messy journey of finding exactly what customers need and how to deliver it. That's the central theme explored in Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast. This series is built for those in the trenches of early-stage software companies, from founders just starting out to leaders tasked with building something from nothing. Each episode moves beyond theory, offering grounded conversations with people who have actually navigated these challenges. You'll hear them unpack the real work of identifying a true market need, the nuances of early hiring decisions, and the practical steps of crafting a go-to-market strategy. Fundraising, often a opaque process, gets broken down into more understandable components. The focus remains consistently on the actionable and the specific, providing a kind of audio manual for the foundational phase of a business. Tune in for a candid look at the less-glamorous, critical work that separates an idea from a viable company, all brought to you by Unusual Ventures. This podcast serves as a resource for turning those initial concepts into a sustainable operation, one hard-won lesson at a time.
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Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast
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