Lev, the Pioneer Square Labs spinout, has announced a significant partnership: it is joining forces with Jay Bartot as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO). This collaboration centers around building an ‘AI co-founder’ specifically designed to assist startup entrepreneurs in navigating the complexities of ideation, validation, and company formation. Lev, established as a spinout from the PSL, is leveraging AI to provide founders with a suite of tools and resources. The company’s core functionality revolves around generating assets such as competitive analyses, customer outreach templates, and product specifications – essentially, automating the process of creating foundational information for startups.
Bartot, a long-time Seattle entrepreneur and co-founder of Farecast, the airfare-prediction startup acquired by Microsoft in 2008, brings a wealth of experience to the venture studio. He co-founded Medify, a medical information company sold in 2012, and Vhoto, a computer vision startup acquired by Hulu in 2015. His past roles at Madrona Venture Labs, a former venture studio, demonstrate his deep understanding of startup ecosystems and the intricacies of early-stage business development. He’s also mentored at Creative Destruction Lab, TheFounderVC, and Foundations, highlighting his extensive network and expertise within the startup community.
The launch of Lev Learn, a free public guide to the startup terminology founders are expected to encounter, marks the beginning of this strategic initiative. McCann, the CEO of Lev, stated that the explanations within Lev will also surface in the platform itself, offering a context-rich, in-app learning experience. The initiative is rooted in tools developed by McCann and his colleagues, which are currently being integrated into the PSL’s existing company-building process. The startup grew out of tools McCann and his colleagues built inside PSL to bring more structure to the studio’s company-building process. PSL and its AI Studio Fund have invested over $1 million in the venture, with McCann co-founding it and Greg Gottesman on its board.
This partnership with Bartot represents a significant expansion of Lev’s capabilities. According to McCann, the company anticipates approximately 1,000 people to engage with Lev Learn, with active users spanning over 50 countries and over 1,500 projects initiated. Nearly one in ten of Lev’s institutional users originate from universities or research organizations, demonstrating the platform’s appeal to a specialized audience. Bartot, who remains a small operation, is collaborating with McCann, Per Nilsson, who served as the company’s contract CTO, and Sahana Narendran, a design and development engineer. The company is currently pre-revenue and McCann expects to turn on monetization around September, focusing on a subscription-based model.
As of this reporting period, the startup has grown 17-fold in four months, with active users exceeding 500, and over 1,500 projects started. The university and research sector represents a substantial portion of Lev’s user base, with nearly one in ten institutional users coming from these entities.
Several notable figures have been involved, including Bartot, McCann, Per Nilsson, Gottesman, and Narendran. The launch of Lev Learn underscores the company’s commitment to providing founders with valuable resources and support, aligning with the broader goals of the PSL and its investments within the startup ecosystem.”
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Source: Tech
