Ep 1.8 • Professor-Student Duo Takes on AI | Interview with Voxel51

This week’s episode brings professor-student duo from University of Michigan, Brian Moore (CEO) and Prof. Jason Corso (CSO), co-founders of Voxel51, an open source toolkit to enable better data and better models. They discuss transitioning from academia to entrepreneurship in AI, shedding the “faculty” and “student” roles, changing CEO titles earlier last year, how they made a major pivot (and if it was the right choice), as well as how they tackled one of their biggest disagreements - deciding when to fundraise.

Over the past 7 years, Jason and Brian have grown Voxel51 to a company with 25+ team members, over 2 million downloads, and have secured over $12M to date led by Drive Capital, with participation from Top Harvest, Shasta Ventures, eLab Ventures and ID Ventures.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• The transition from academia to entrepreneurship
• Starting a company with two technical co-founders
• Shedding the “faculty” and “student” roles
• Changing who is CEO 5 years in
• Making a *major* business model pivot
• Conflict: when is the right time to fundraise?

Full Blog Post: www.confidante.substack.com

Where to find Voxel51, Brian, and Jason:
Website: https://voxel51.com
Briane Moore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brimoor
Jason Corso: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-corso

Where to find Annie Garofalo, host and startup team relationship expert:

Website: https://www.confidante.info
Newsletter: https://confidante.substack.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-garofalo/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/thecofounderconfidante
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.cofounder.confidante
Twitter: https://twitter.com/anniegarofal0
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCoFounderConfidante

In this episode, we cover:

00:00 Episode Highlights

00:47 Meet the Professor-Student Founding Duo

01:31 The Origin Story of Voxel 51

01:51 From Classroom to Startup: The Early Days

02:43 Navigating the Transition from Academia to Startup

03:05 Building a Technical Foundation and Market Understanding

03:42 The Dynamics of a Founding Team

04:29 Remote Work and Geographic Challenges

05:03 Leadership and Decision Making

09:34 Adapting Roles for Growth

12:58 Navigating Change and Conflict

14:46 The Importance of Commitment and Trust

17:15 Managing Conflict and Decision Making

18:00 The Pivot: A Major Strategic Decision

33:40 Closing Thoughts and Advice for Founding Teams

References & Resources:

• [Blog Post by Jason Corso] Navigating Academia to Startup: What Kind of Companies Do Scholars Create?: https://medium.com/@jasoncorso/navigatin