

Innovator Coffee EP-30 AI Agent Security: Rethinking Enterprise Defense in the Autonomous EraWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. We're Tom and Wickey. Follow us to explore the top AI products, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. In this episode, we explore a rapidly emerging enterprise challenge: AI Agent Security. As AI agents are integrated into core systems like Slack, Jira, and CRM platforms, they are no longer just “tools.” They become autonomous digital entities with permissions, access, and the ability to take action. The problem? Traditional security tools were never designed to truly see or control them. In this conversation, we discuss: * Why “adding permissions + sandboxing + human approval” does not equal security * What “agent jacking” really means * How attacks can unfold through chains of actions that appear completely legitimate * How organizations can build sustainable security frameworks without slowing innovation If you are a CISO, founder, AI builder, or actively deploying agents into production environments, this episode is essential listening. Guest: Barak Sternberg, CEO& Co-Founder @ Stealth AI Security, Hacktivity Speaker, Ex-YL Ventures Advisor, Ex-Unit 8200 Timeline: 00:00:00 — Opening: Why AI Agent Security Is the New Battlefield 00:04:40 — The Core Problem: Agents Are Invisible to Traditional Security 00:11:50 — Identity Is a Baseline — But Not Enough 00:19:30 — The CISO’s Dilemma: Inventory Isn’t Control 00:24:50 — RPA vs. Agents: How “Agent Jacking” Happens 00:34:40 — The Sandbox Myth & The Illusion of Human Approval 00:43:30 — Market Landscape: Governance, Perimeter, Identity, and Agent TDR 00:51:30 — Closing: Why Observability ≠ Security — and What’s Missing Next Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wang-9302421b3/ Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance Leader & University Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor, VC fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee EP-29 AI Agents, Data Trust, and the Next Computing ArchitectureWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. We're Tom and Wickey. Follow us to explore the top AI products, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. As AI agents rapidly move from experimentation to real-world deployment, a new question is emerging: are our security models evolving fast enough to protect this new ecosystem? In this episode of Innovator Coffee, we sit down with a veteran AI leader whose career spans over three decades, from hardware to generative AI and intelligent agents to explore what the next wave of computing may look like. Our guest: Claudionor Coelho Jr, Senior AI Fellow at Majestic Labs ai and Ex-Chief AI Officer at Zscaler, is a seasoned AI technologist with nearly 35 years of experience spanning hardware, artificial intelligence, generative models, and agent-based systems. Currently, he focuses on building next-generation infrastructure capable of supporting high-speed inference and large-scale agent execution. Timeline: 00:00 – Welcome & Guest Introduction 01:10 – From 2025 to 2026: The Rise of Distributed Agents 03:40 – The Real Security Problem Isn’t the Protocol. It’s the Data 05:50 – Multi-Agent Systems and the “New Internet” 08:20 – Context Graphs and the Next Trillion-Dollar Opportunity 12:40 – Hallucinations, Confirmation Bias, and AI Reliability 16:50 – Building AI Products the Hard Way 21:20 – The Future of Inference: Memory Over Compute Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. / hannah-wang-9302421b3 and Vicky who helps editing the podcast vickylan0004@gmail.com Hosts: Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance Leader & University Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor, VC fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author & SafenAI co-founder Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee EP-28 Beyond the Breakthrough: 2026 Predictions with Lu Zhang, Founding Partner of Fusion FundIn this episode of Innovator Coffee, we sit down with Lu Zhang, Founding Partner of Fusion Fund, for a wide-ranging conversation on where AI is heading in 2025–2026 and what truly matters beyond the hype. Drawing from her deep experience investing at the intersection of AI, healthcare, enterprise infrastructure, space tech, and open source, Lu shares firsthand insights from Silicon Valley, Davos, and JPMorgan Healthcare Conference. The conversation also dives into global AI dynamics, geopolitical tensions, open-source innovation, AI agents, physical AI, and the emerging leadership challenges of managing both human and digital labor. This episode is a must-listen for founders, investors, enterprise leaders, and anyone navigating the real decisions behind AI’s next phase. Lu Zhang is the Founding Partner of Fusion Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley that focuses on AI-driven technologies, enterprise AI, healthcare AI, space tech, and deep tech innovation. Since founding Fusion Fund, Lu has built a strong track record of backing AI-native companies from inception through scale, with multiple IPOs and significant exits across her portfolio. She is a long-time investor in healthcare AI, federal/federated computing, AI governance, space infrastructure, and physical AI, and has been actively investing in space technology since 2017. 00:00 – 01:00 | Welcome & Introduction Introducing Lu Zhang and framing the discussion around AI, innovation, and global technology trends. 01:00 – 05:00 | AI in 2025–2026: From Hype to Practicality Why AI adoption has shifted toward concrete use cases, cost reduction, inference efficiency, and small language models for enterprise deployment. 05:00 – 08:30 | Vertical AI Opportunities Healthcare AI, insurance, finance, logistics, and why highly regulated industries are now moving faster than expected. 08:30 – 12:00 | Global AI & Geopolitics Insights from Davos: U.S. leadership, Europe’s regulatory shift, data sovereignty concerns, and emerging geopolitical tensions. 12:00 – 15:30 | AI Economics & Social Impact Hyper-efficient startups, revenue growth with smaller teams, labor disruption, and the societal challenges of AI concentration. 15:30 – 18:30 | Open Source & New Model Architectures Why open source matters more than ever, the role of GitHub traction, and why the next breakthrough may come from new model architectures—not just LLMs. 18:30 – 22:30 | AI Agents & Governance Challenges Agent protocols, infrastructure readiness, governance gaps, and why enterprises are struggling with agent-to-agent decision-making. 22:30 – 26:30 | Physical AI & the Road Ahead Physical AI, simulation systems, data layers, space robotics, and where Silicon Valley still has a long-term edge. 26:30 – 27:00 | Closing Thoughts Why 2026 will be even more intense — and why collaboration between startups and enterprises is accelerating. Tom Kong*Stanford EE alumni,*Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley )*AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com and heyboss.ai*AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion)Wickey Wang*IT Security Compliance Leader & University Faculty*Growth fund VC advisor and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus*GAI Security book co-author*AI Security Non-Profit (SafenAI) Co-founderQuestions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: / wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 / thomaskong
Innovator Coffee EP-27 The Vector Database Precursors part 2- Xiaofan Luan, VP of Technology@ ZillizWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. Follow us to explore the top AI products, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. This episode explores how vector databases are evolving from “RAG serving infrastructure” into a broader vector lake / multimodal lake layer that can support training, multimodal data management, and agentic context engineering. The guest explains why context engineering increases the need for better retrieval + processing pipelines, and why the market is likely to consolidate to a few survivors. Practical advice is given for builders: prioritize data + evaluation discipline, keep stacks simple early, and treat security (RBAC + encryption + key management) as essential even for small teams. The conversation closes with a candid look at open source as GTM and the “hard, unsexy breakthrough” of stability that takes years of compounding improvements. James (also goes by “Xiaofan Luan” in the recording) is the VP of Technology, a leading vector database company Zilliz. He and his team open-sourced Milvus, described as one of the most popular open-source vector database projects on GitHub, and he has been building Milvus for about six years. Before that, he contributed to multiple open-source database projects. 00:02 Opening & Guest Introduction 00:45 From Vector DB to Vector Lake / Multimodal Lake 03:06 Context Engineering, Memory Layers & Agents 05:41 AI Infra Outlook & Vector DB Market Consolidation 09:09 Improving Accuracy: Data, Evaluation & Context 12:47 Vector DB + MongoDB/Postgres & Startup Tradeoffs 15:37 Security in Vector Databases: RBAC, Encryption & Cloud 21:53 Open Source GTM, Stability as Moat & Closing Advice Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. / hannah-wang-9302421b3 and Vicky who helps editing the podcast vickylan0004@gmail.com Hosts:Tom Kong*Stanford EE alumni,*Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley )*AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com*AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion)Wickey Wang*IT Security Compliance Leader & University Faculty*Growth fund VC advisor, VC fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus*GAI Security book co-author Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee EP-26 The Vector Database Precursors part 1- Xiaofan Luan, VP of Technology at ZillizWelcome to Innovator Coffee, an English podcast dedicated to bridging the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. Follow us to explore the top AI products, ecosystem insights and the emerging trends. In this episode, we interview with Xiaofan Luan, VP of Technology at Zilliz, a company specializing in vector databases, and discusses the history, technology, and market position of this infrastructure in the context of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The conversation primarily focuses on how vector databases, such as the open-source Milvus project, address challenges like processing unstructured data and enabling large-scale similarity searches. A significant portion of the discussion is dedicated to the role of vector databases in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, which use them to reduce the hallucination of Large Language Models (LLMs) by providing a single source of truth. The founder also highlights the ongoing industry challenges of scalability and cost reduction, while detailing Zilliz's cloud-only business model and global expansion strategy. 00:00 – Welcome to Innovator Coffee Bridging people with the world of AI and innovation; guest introduction. 00:45 – The Birth of Vector Databases Why vectors became the next data representation and how the market emerged. 03:42 – Vector Databases in the RAG & Agent Era Multimodal AI, hallucination reduction, RAG systems, and agent memory. 07:33 – Industry Landscape & Key Players FAISS, Pinecone, open source ecosystems, and a fast-diversifying market. 10:25 – Core Challenges: Cost, Accuracy, Scale Why cost is the biggest bottleneck and what unlocks the next wave of use cases. 15:43 – Founder Story & Strategic Pivots From GPU databases to vectors: finding real product–market fit. 19:28 – Product Differentiation & Enterprise Adoption Scalability, cloud-native design, security, governance, and cost efficiency. 29:00 – Global Expansion & The Future of AI Infrastructure Enterprise use cases, US vs. APAC markets, open source GTM, and what comes after scaling laws. Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wang-9302421b3/ and Vicky who helps editing the podcast vickylan0004@gmail.com Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance Leader & University Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor, VC fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/ #AI #Innovation #VC #Entrepreneur #Startup #AIJob #Investment #AITrends
Innovator Coffee EP-25 From Milan to San Francisco: The Global Pulse of AI InnovationIn this session of Innovator Coffee podcast featuring the guest Steven Wang, who is based in Milan, Italy, and hosts his own podcast, "Steven Data Talk." The discussion focuses heavily on the AI ecosystem in Europe, contrasting it with the United States . Key topics addressed include the perceived "AI bubble,"challenges related to infrastructure shortages and the difficulty for European startups to secure funding, and the general cultural emphasis on work-life balance in Europe. Steven Wang also provides specific examples of interesting European AI startups and stresses the importance of education and risk control within the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. Podcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Introduction: Meeting Steven Wang Background in finance, Milan, and his bilingual AI podcasting journey. 01:23 – How Europe Sees AI Public perception, mixed sentiment, and regional AI maturity differences. 06:47 – European Work Culture & Innovation Pace Work–life balance, labor regulations, and cultural impact on startups. 09:35 – Is AI a Bubble? Different angles from model layer, application layer, and enterprise adoption. 17:56 – AI Infrastructure & Data Center Shortages Why Europe struggles with compute availability and how it affects founders. 21:00 – Interesting AI Startups in Europe Workflow orchestration agents, Excel–LLM bridges, and AI-powered 3D printing. 23:43 – What Drives (or Limits) European AI Innovation Funding scale, government incentives, bureaucracy, and talent flow. 29:51 – The Startup Reality: Taxes, Cost, and Bureaucracy Why founders often struggle financially despite funding. 35:19 – Global Community Building (Vansa & Beyond) European–US ecosystem connections and emerging cross-border collaboration. 51:01 – The Next 5 Years of AI Transformer limits, world models, small models on edge devices, and paradigm shifts. Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wang-9302421b3/ and Vicky who helps editing the podcast vickylan0004@gmail.com Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance Leader & University Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor, VC fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee - EP24 Inside StartX: The Power of Community-Driven Founders with Pengpeng Wang, Stanford GSB, Head of Community & Campus at StartXWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. Follow us to explore the top AI products, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. In this episode, Innovator Coffee podcast features an interview with Pengpeng Wang, the Head of Community and Campus at StartX. StartX is described as a nonprofit, zero-equity accelerator and community specifically dedicated to supporting Stanford-affiliated founders. The discussion focuses heavily on what makes StartX unique, emphasizing its community-driven model, the importance of founders having a "pay it forward" mentality, and its highly selective, multi-stage application process, which has an acceptance rate under ten percent. They also explore the support StartX provides to its founders, including mentorship, resources, and educational events, and its current focus on supporting the rising number of AI-focused companies within its cohorts. 00:00 – 06:30 | What Makes StartX Different 06:31 – 14:00 | How StartX Selects Founders (Application & Interview Insights) 14:01 – 22:00 | The Heart of StartX: Community, Mentorship & Support 22:01 – 30:30 | Stanford Ecosystem, Trust & Access 30:31 – 41:00 | AI, Unicorns & Success Metrics Beyond Fundraising 41:01 – 51:00 | Founder Mindset, Misconceptions & Program Details Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wang-9302421b3/ and Vicky who helps editing the podcast vickylan0004@gmail.com Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance Leader & University Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author *AI Security Non-Profit (SafenAI) Co-founder Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee - PE23 Decoding the Future with Sandy Carter, Unicorn Chief Business Officer: AI, Web3, and Human-Centered InnovationWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. Follow us to explore the top AI products, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. In this episode, Sandy Carter, Chief Business Officer at Unstoppable Domains and best-selling author of AI First, Human Always, shares her journey across waves of innovation—from cloud and AI to blockchain and Web3. She highlights how emerging technologies democratize access, intelligence, and ownership, emphasizing the importance of empowerment and ethical use. Guest Bio: Sandy Carter’s background is characterized by a career spent leading innovation through successive waves of emerging technology: cloud, blockchain, and AI. She is currently the Chief Business Officer for Unstoppable Domains, which focuses on blockchain and digital identity. She previously held leadership positions at both IBM (Worked on some of the earliest AI initiatives) and AWS (Amazon Web Services). 00:00 – 05:00 | Introduction & Career Journey 05:01 – 12:00 | Human-Centered AI Philosophy and future workforce discussion 12:01 – 20:00 | AI + Web3 Integration 20:01 – 30:00 | Practical Applications & Use Cases 30:01 – 40:00 | Future Vision (2030) 40:01 – 50:00 | Advice for Innovators Hosts: Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance management in public company *Growth fund VC advisor, Early stage fund fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author *AI Security/EmergingTech Security Non-Profit (SafenAI) Co-founder Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wang-9302421b3/ Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/ (Co-founder of the podcast)
Innovator Coffee - PE22 Power, Capital, and GPUs: The Strategic Ecosystem Behind OpenAIWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. Follow us to explore the top AI applications, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. In this episode of “Innovator Coffee" podcast, we wrote scripts but let AI speak to explores the complex and capital-intensive ecosystem behind OpenAI, highlighting how the company has shifted from mere product development to strategic financial and supply chain control. CEO Sam Altman is building an AI financial closed-loop by investing in and partnering with key technology suppliers like Nvidia, AMD, and Oracle, securing access to critical compute resources. The strategy also extends to applications, exemplified by UiPath’s stock surge following its AI-RPA integration with OpenAI. Additionally, the episode covers the rise of specialized AI cloud infrastructure providers like Nebius, showing that control over high-density GPU infrastructure (AI-IaaS) is a vital driver of value in the modern AI economy. 1. OpenAI's $300 Billion Ecosystem and Altman's Flywheel [00:00 – 02:45] 2. The Nvidia and Oracle Alliances [02:45 – 05:00] 3. The Strategic AMD Warrant: Hedging Compute Costs [05:00 – 09:30] 4. The Market Shift to Execution: The UiPath Case Study [09:30 – 14:00] 5. Other Application Layer Opportunities [14:00 – 15:30] 6. Nebius: The Rise of AI Infrastructure-as-a-Service [15:30 – 19:00] Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance Leader & University Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author *AI Security Non-Profit (SafenAI) Co-founder Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee - PE21 Lessons from 3X Exit AI Founder – Joe Hsy on Startups, Exits, and the Future of AIWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. Follow us to explore the top AI applications, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. In this episode of “Innovator Coffee" podcast, we featured an interview with a seasoned technology leader, Joe Hsy, CTO of Raydiant, Investor, 3X exit founders, the first generation Stanford AI graduate and a MJAA mentor. The conversation primarily tracks Joe’s long and varied career path, including his subsequent journey through multiple startups, enterprise roles at companies like Oracle and WebEx, and several acquisitions (exits). Key themes explored include the importance of a growth mindset and continuous learning as a career driver, strategies for leading teams, and lessons learned from the startup lifecycle, particularly regarding go-to-market strategies like product-led growth and the complexities of M&A integration. The discussion concludes with Joe sharing his perspective on the current AI wave, its transformative potential compared to previous cycles, ethical concerns regarding data privacy and governance within large language models, and predictions for the future of work. His main advice for early-stage AI founders is to fall in love with the problem, not the AI technology itself. A Summarized Version of the Podcast, Broken Down into Eight Sections Section Timestamp 1. Introduction, Education, and Early Startup Career 00:00 - 04:27 2. Evaluating AI Initiatives: Painkillers vs. Vitamins 04:28 - 07:40 3. Acquisition Lessons and Management Philosophy 07:41 - 14:16 4. The New AI Wave, Disruption, and Societal Purpose 14:17 - 18:19 5. Data Governance, Team Scaling, and Go-to-Market Strategy 18:20 - 32:00 6. Radiant's Strategy, Founder Advice, and Critical Mindset as well as MJAA 32:00 - end Information about the MJAA: https://mjaamentorship.org Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance/Auditor & CSTU Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor, Early stage fund fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author *AI Security/EmergingTech Security Non-Profit (SafenAI) Co-founder Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wang-9302421b3/ and Vicky @ vickylan0004@gmail.com Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee - PE20 Credit Reimagined: AI Agents and the Future of Consumer Finance from Samder, co-founder of BONIn this episode, Innovator podcast interviewed with Samder, the co-founder of BON, a company aiming to automate consumer credit management using AI. The conversation covers the evolution of consumer credit interactions, highlighting a shift from traditional financial advisors to internet apps, and now to AI-powered agents like BON's CreditGPT. Sandra details how BON addresses major pain points in the credit industry. The discussion also explores BON's technical pillars, including its proprietary LLM trained on credit data, its commitment to data privacy and personalization, and its aspirations for future growth and global expansion in the fintech space. Enjoying! Here is a summarized version of each section of the podcast, with timestamps: 1. Podcast Introduction and Born's Vision (00:02 - 01:39) 2. The Evolution of Credit Management and Born's Solution (01:39 - 08:56) 3. Born's Product (CRED GPT) and Industry Pain Points (09:07 - 13:52) 4. Founding Story, Technical Pillars, and Overcoming AI Challenges (14:03 - 23:12) 5. Core Values, Future Shifts, and Growth Strategy (24:19 - 32:38) 6. Lessons Learned and Inspiration (33:00 - 36:59) 7. Future Trends, Resources, and Call to Action (37:25 - 43:30) Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance/Auditor Leader & University Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor, Early stage fund fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author Special thanks to Vicky at vickylan0004@gmail.com for the audio editing. Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wang-9302421b3/ Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee - PE19 AI & Web3: Synergies, Bottlenecks, and Investment FocusWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. Follow us to explore the top AI products, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. This podcast episode features a panel discussion with venture capitalists and founders in the AI and Web3 space. The core of the discussion revolves around the synergies between Web3 and AI, with panelists exploring how these technologies can complement each other to solve existing problems and create new opportunities. They also address infrastructure bottlenecks and challenges hindering mainstream adoption of Web3/AI applications, such as scalability, data privacy, and the need for product-market fit (PMF) beyond token speculation. Finally, the panel discusses key traits they look for in AI plus Web3 projects, emphasizing cash flow generation, strong teams with niche expertise, and real-world problem-solving abilities. Here is a summarized version of each section of the podcast with estimated timestamps: • Introduction and Panelist Introductions (Approx. 0:00 - 3:00) • Synergies Between Web3 and AI (Approx. 3:00 - 7:30) • Infrastructure and Bottlenecks in Web3/AI Adoption (Approx. 7:30 - 14:00) • Evaluating AI + Web3 Projects for Investment (Approx. 14:00 - 19:30) • Noteworthy Web3 and AI Combination Products (Approx. 19:30 - 22:30) • Conclusion (Approx. 24:30 - 25:00) Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance/Auditor Leader & CSTU Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor, Early stage fund fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wang-9302421b3/ Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee - PE18 MCP and Nanda: The Infrastructure Behind Networked AIWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. Follow us to explore the top AI applications, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. In this episode of “Innovator Coffee" podcast, we featured an interview with Dr. Dimitry Chary from the MIT Media Lab. The discussion primarily focuses on MCP (Model Communication Protocol), explaining its role as a standardized JSON RPC schema that enables Large Language Models (LLMs) to interact seamlessly with various tools and services. The conversation also introduces Nanda, an MIT initiative aiming to establish an open, decentralized web of AI agents by addressing critical aspects such as agent discovery, reputation, security, and traceability, fostering a collective ecosystem for networked AI. While MCP excels in agent-to-tool communication, Nanda and other emerging protocols like A2A and ACP focus on the broader challenges of agent-to-agent interaction and a secure, accountable AI landscape. Dr. Dimitry Chary is a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, where he works with Professor Ramesh Raskar in the decentralized AI group. He earned his PhD from UCLA in AI and computer vision. At MIT, Dr. Chary focuses on a range of projects within the decentralized AI and networked AI agents space. His work includes: • Decentralized AI. • Networked AI agents. Here is a summarized version of the podcast, broken down into six sections with timestamps: • Introduction to Dr. Dimitry Chary and MCP's Core Purpose (00:03 - 05:43) • How MCP Servers Operate and Protocol Comparisons (05:43 - 13:03) • Technical Architecture of MCP (13:03 - 21:20) • The Nanda Project: Extending Beyond MCP (36:46 - 59:38) • Future Vision and Broader Implications of AI Agents (59:38 - 01:13:57) Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance/Auditor & CSTU Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor, Early stage fund fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author *AI Security/EmergingTech Security Non-Profit (SafenAI) Co-founder Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wang-9302421b3/ Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee - PE17 From Zero to AI Stardom in 90 Days – Two YC Founder’s JourneyWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. Follow us to explore the top AI products, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. This episode of Innovator Coffee features guests Daniel Alberson and Wenbo Zhang, two Y-Combinator Founders. Daniel's company, Agentive, helps auditors request and test evidence with AI to be 10x more effective. Wenbo's company, LineWise, is building a virtual engineer to troubleshoot production line issues faster in manufacturing. The "Innovator Cafe" podcast episode features Y Combinator founders Daniel of Agentive and Wen Bo of LineWise, who share their experiences in AI entrepreneurship. They discuss the origins of their companies, their journey through the YC application and accelerator program, and offer advice for aspiring AI founders. Key themes explored include solving real-world problems, the benefits of community support, and effective fundraising strategies. The founders emphasize the importance of clear communication, persistent effort, and a mission-driven approach in building a successful startup. A summarized version of each section of the podcast with timestamps, with a total of fewer than 8 sections: • Introduction & Company Overviews (00:03 - 01:43) • Founders' "Aha Moments" & Company Origins (01:43 - 07:21) • YC Application Advice (07:21 - 10:46) • YC Program Experience: Challenges, Breakthroughs, and Community (10:46 - 16:22) • Managing Pressure, Work Ethic & YC's Impact on Go-to-Market (16:22 - 26:49) • Post-YC Habits & Core Founder Advice (27:14 - 34:15) • Key Resources, Best YC Advice, and Final Reflections (34:15 - 47:16) Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance/Auditor Leader & CSTU Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor, Early stage fund fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wang-9302421b3/ Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/
Innovator Coffee - PE16 AI platform wars: Salesforce vs ServiceNowWelcome to the Innovator Coffee, a podcast that bridges the gap between people and the world of AI and innovation. Follow us to explore the top AI products, ecosystem insights, and the emerging trends. In this episode of Innovative Coffee, host Wickey Wang and Tom, are joined by Pramod Gosavi, Investor @ Blumberg Capital in in Infrastructure, SaaS, AI, Cybersecurity. In this podcast, we dive into the high stakes battle for enterprise dominance between Salesforce and ServiceNow. Titled "Platform Wars: Salesforce vs. ServiceNow", this conversation explores how these giants are positioning themselves as the foundational layer for agentic, AI-powered enterprise workflows. We’ll unpack their AI integration strategies, acquisitions, and long-term bets—while discussing the broader evolution of SaaS toward agentic platforms where UI fades and orchestration takes center stage. Joined by a special guest expert in enterprise AI, we’ll examine what startups should do to stay competitive, what the future of workflow platforms looks like, and who might emerge as the winner by 2027. A summarized version of each section of the podcast with timestamps, with a total of 4 sections: 00:00 – Platform Wars: Salesforce vs. ServiceNow 08:55 – Salesforce M&A and Strategic Moves 16:57– AI in the Future of Enterprise Platforms 23:45 – Forward-Looking quick Q&A Hosts: Tom Kong *Stanford EE alumni, *Founder@ Stanford AGI Adventist Community (10K+ members so far from top VC, Engineers, startups from Silicon Valley ) *AI Lecturer, a serial entrepreneur in media and data. Advisor @ techtimes.com *AI deployment for 8 years, with NLP and recent LLMs (RAG, Agent, Diffusion) Wickey Wang *IT Security Compliance/Auditor & CSTU Faculty *Growth fund VC advisor, Early stage fund fellow and Angel Investor with cybersecurity and AI focus *GAI Security book co-author Special thanks to Hannah Wang who did the wonderful job to assist to complete this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/haoge-wang-9302421b3/ Editing: Vicky: vickylan0004@gmail.com Questions, Suggestions, Feedback and Comments? You can find us in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickey-wang-cisa-six-sigma-green-belt-2aaa913 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaskong/