June 14, 2024 • 5 mins
In 2016, NZ Herald ran the headline: ‘Is Soumil Singh New Zealand’s smartest teen?’
Singh was Hamilton Boys High School’s Dux – now he’s a Harvard grad, with a $6 million A.I start-up in New York City.
Singh told Heather du Plessis-Allan “The landscape for investing in tech start-ups is good – and so’s AI.”
He said “I had the itch to go to Harvard since I was a kid.”
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eight years ago, So mil Sing was Hamilton High School
ducks and a herald headline asked whether he might actually
be New Zealand's smartest teenager. He just turned down ten
of the world's top universities and decided to go to
univer to Harvard in the end. Fast forward to today,
he's living in New York. He already has one startup
under his belt, and he's about to launch a second.
So mil Sing is with us now.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
He soml, Hey, how's it going? Very well?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you? No tell me what you reckon? Do you reckon?
This startup is the winner?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Look early days. Still, that's always the hope, that's always
the intention with these things. You know, we're in the
space that's growing, rapidly evolving, and that often creates the
right kind of volatility to really drive a lot of value.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
The space that's growing is AI.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Isn't it AI in all forms? Yep? So in our
case it's the content creation side. And if you look
at almost every sector, there's some really convincing narrative for
how these new foundation models are going to really impact
impact space.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So what does your business? So from the sounds of things,
if I was to use it. I would type into
AI kind of like a promotional video that I'd like
it to create, and it would create one up to
is it five minutes long for me?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So right now, a little less than five minutes. It's
really sort of targets towards short form content most of
the time ninety seconds or less. And in terms of
what it does, it really depends on who you are
as the user. So there are two kinds of users
that we that we serve. The first as the individual
content creator. So somebody who's you know, a YouTuber or
even sort of a TikToker can use the software to write,
(01:30):
as you said, a text prompt and produce really any
kind of video that may or may not be promotional
in nature. And that's sort of the individual creator use case.
And then secondly, for businesses and is what we're sort
of rolling out at the moment over the next month
or so, you would use this to create short from
content that promotes your products, and you would use this,
you know, to post organic content on TikTok YouTube, you know,
(01:53):
wherever you've previously struggled to have a heights of through
both content. Yeah, so that's that sort of the high
level picture.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, so you managed to get somebody to part with
six million dollars to plug into this, which suggests that
that there are people out there who think this is
a winner.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Right. Yeah. I think the landscape right now for investing
in you know, tech startups is pretty good, and an
AI as well is also really great. You know, we
see a lot of fundraising activity much bigger than this
in the space too, for you know, new startups creating
foundation models. So I'm very fortunate to be in the
you know, we're we're in a great position from sort
(02:26):
of capital perspective. Yeah, it's just really exciting.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
What happened to your last startup? Did that go well?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So that was sort of a year long sort of stint.
We were building bike sharing software for companies in America
that operate micromobility systems, and we thought that was really
promising direction. But that was sort of in the middle
of COVID, and COVID essentially shut down the customers that
we were serving and piloting with, and so at that
(02:55):
stage we had sort of part ways with that unfortunately,
which is a strange first experience.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I was probably quite normal for an entrepreneur. How did
you get from Hamilton to where you are right now?
What's the secret source? Do you reckon?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I wonder this sometimes I'm not I'm not too sure.
I had the itch to go to Harvard for some
reason from when I was a kid. I think my
dad probably mentioned the name, and somewhere in my mind
I just thought I really wanted to go there. I
didn't really think it was possible. And then you know,
I met some great people a little bit later into
my high school career who gave me some good advice
about you know, going going to the States, how you
(03:33):
can kind of apply. And that's when I realized, like, oh,
I have the profile to potentially pull this off. And
you know that's that's how that happened. And then you know,
from there things just compound. There are really great opportunities
where I went, and you know that sort of helped
me go to you know, Silicon Valley, raised capital, build
a team, and you know, ultimately build this company. So yeah,
it's it's it's a it's unclear exactly what the secret sources.
(03:54):
Maybe it was my my my parents sort of somehow
subliminally messaging me when I was when I was young.
I'm too sure.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
A week of the education system in New Zealand a
very hard time. Are we giving it too hard a
time if it's able to send somebody to Harvard?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I don't know. I think that wasn't really how I
thought about it. I think it was more that, you know,
my my parents are doctor as my older brother he
went to you know, Otago University to study medicine. And
I felt like a lot of my friends wanted to
do medicine, but I didn't. And it was almost as
though I needed to create my own narrative. And I
think that just drove a lot of this activity for
(04:32):
me to partner their disease. Well, I think that's more
what it was. Yeah, And what.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You're telling me is a family of high achievers, which
is why you're a high achiever to mate beast of
luck with them. And I really hope you do super
well and become incredibly wealthy and then we can trade
on your name. Somul Singh, founder of Unfazed dot Ai,
which is the startup for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.
Listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on high Hard Radio.
Eight years ago, So mil Sing was Hamilton High School
ducks and a herald headline asked whether he might actually
be New Zealand's smartest teenager. He just turned down ten
of the world's top universities and decided to go to
univer to Harvard in the end. Fast forward to today,
he's living in New York. He already has one startup
under his belt, and he's about to launch a second.
So mil Sing is with us now.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
He soml, Hey, how's it going? Very well?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you? No tell me what you reckon? Do you reckon?
This startup is the winner?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Look early days. Still, that's always the hope, that's always
the intention with these things. You know, we're in the
space that's growing, rapidly evolving, and that often creates the
right kind of volatility to really drive a lot of value.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
The space that's growing is AI.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Isn't it AI in all forms? Yep? So in our
case it's the content creation side. And if you look
at almost every sector, there's some really convincing narrative for
how these new foundation models are going to really impact
impact space.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So what does your business? So from the sounds of things,
if I was to use it. I would type into
AI kind of like a promotional video that I'd like
it to create, and it would create one up to
is it five minutes long for me?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So right now, a little less than five minutes. It's
really sort of targets towards short form content most of
the time ninety seconds or less. And in terms of
what it does, it really depends on who you are
as the user. So there are two kinds of users
that we that we serve. The first as the individual
content creator. So somebody who's you know, a YouTuber or
even sort of a TikToker can use the software to write,
(01:30):
as you said, a text prompt and produce really any
kind of video that may or may not be promotional
in nature. And that's sort of the individual creator use case.
And then secondly, for businesses and is what we're sort
of rolling out at the moment over the next month
or so, you would use this to create short from
content that promotes your products, and you would use this,
you know, to post organic content on TikTok YouTube, you know,
(01:53):
wherever you've previously struggled to have a heights of through
both content. Yeah, so that's that sort of the high
level picture.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, so you managed to get somebody to part with
six million dollars to plug into this, which suggests that
that there are people out there who think this is
a winner.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Right. Yeah. I think the landscape right now for investing
in you know, tech startups is pretty good, and an
AI as well is also really great. You know, we
see a lot of fundraising activity much bigger than this
in the space too, for you know, new startups creating
foundation models. So I'm very fortunate to be in the
you know, we're we're in a great position from sort
(02:26):
of capital perspective. Yeah, it's just really exciting.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
What happened to your last startup? Did that go well?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So that was sort of a year long sort of stint.
We were building bike sharing software for companies in America
that operate micromobility systems, and we thought that was really
promising direction. But that was sort of in the middle
of COVID, and COVID essentially shut down the customers that
we were serving and piloting with, and so at that
(02:55):
stage we had sort of part ways with that unfortunately,
which is a strange first experience.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I was probably quite normal for an entrepreneur. How did
you get from Hamilton to where you are right now?
What's the secret source? Do you reckon?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I wonder this sometimes I'm not I'm not too sure.
I had the itch to go to Harvard for some
reason from when I was a kid. I think my
dad probably mentioned the name, and somewhere in my mind
I just thought I really wanted to go there. I
didn't really think it was possible. And then you know,
I met some great people a little bit later into
my high school career who gave me some good advice
about you know, going going to the States, how you
(03:33):
can kind of apply. And that's when I realized, like, oh,
I have the profile to potentially pull this off. And
you know that's that's how that happened. And then you know,
from there things just compound. There are really great opportunities
where I went, and you know that sort of helped
me go to you know, Silicon Valley, raised capital, build
a team, and you know, ultimately build this company. So yeah,
it's it's it's a it's unclear exactly what the secret sources.
(03:54):
Maybe it was my my my parents sort of somehow
subliminally messaging me when I was when I was young.
I'm too sure.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
A week of the education system in New Zealand a
very hard time. Are we giving it too hard a
time if it's able to send somebody to Harvard?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I don't know. I think that wasn't really how I
thought about it. I think it was more that, you know,
my my parents are doctor as my older brother he
went to you know, Otago University to study medicine. And
I felt like a lot of my friends wanted to
do medicine, but I didn't. And it was almost as
though I needed to create my own narrative. And I
think that just drove a lot of this activity for
(04:32):
me to partner their disease. Well, I think that's more
what it was. Yeah, And what.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You're telling me is a family of high achievers, which
is why you're a high achiever to mate beast of
luck with them. And I really hope you do super
well and become incredibly wealthy and then we can trade
on your name. Somul Singh, founder of Unfazed dot Ai,
which is the startup for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.
Listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on high Hard Radio.
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