#48 - $20M Start-Up, Jhanas and Dzogchen, with Oliver Edholm

Christofer and entrepreneur Oliver Edholm speak about his road to becoming CEO of a major AI start-up (Depict) and meditation in this episode of Do Explain. They discuss Minecraft and programming, dropping out of high school, joining Y-combinator, AI-recommendation engines, why Depict is different from larger competitors, the role of emotions in decision-making, the four jhanas, Dzogchen, pointing-out instructions, and other related topics.

Oliver Edholm is a 20-year old high school dropout, and founder & CEO of Depict. Depict has raised $20M in funding, and employs 40 people at the company during the time of writing. He previously lived in Singapore where he conducted AI-research at the age of 16, and before that he worked as a Machine Learning Engineer at Klarna. Oliver is also a Thiel Fellow and is recognized by Forbes in their 30 Under 30 list.

Website: https://depict.ai/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-edholm-ai/

Timestamps:

(0:00) - Preamble and intro 
(4:28) - Oliver’s origin story as an AI Entrepreneur
(16:26) - Emerging from a teenage existential crisis
(25:30) - Recommendation engines 
(29:40) - Expanding into e-commerce
(34:03) - Dealing with the human aspect of business / Overcoming interpersonal barriers
(42:46) - Differentiating from the tech giants 
(50:45) - Where does meditation fit into all of this? 
(54:48) - Thoughts on Dzogchen
(1:03:55) - Instructions and teachings on jhanas
(1:08:51) - Breakdown of all the jhanas
(1:23:22) - Comparisons of jhanas with other experiences 
(1:28:25) - Oliver reveals the Dzogchen ‘pointing out’ instruction

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