In this episode, we sit down with Claudia Natasia, CEO and Co-founder of Riley AI, to explore her unexpected journey into entrepreneurship, the power of AI-driven insights, and the challenges of building a startup from the ground up. Despite initially resisting the idea of launching her own company, Claudia found herself inundated with interest for a product she had only presented conceptually—before a single line of code was ever written.
She shares how speaking at conferences led to Riley AI’s first paying customer, how she and her co-founder built the platform in stealth mode, and how they raised $3 million in seed funding without the typical VC milestones. Claudia also explains why early advocates are crucial, how the go-to-market strategy often matters more than the product itself, and what it took to win over established companies as early adopters.
This episode is packed with insights on building with intent, leveraging thought leadership, and navigating the fast-evolving landscape of AI in business. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, data scientist, or simply curious about how big ideas take shape, Claudia’s journey offers a powerful blueprint.
Episode Quotes
On the Unexpected Path to Entrepreneurship
My mom’s an entrepreneur, and she always asked me to consider this path, but I would tell her, no, there’s no way I’m going to be an entrepreneur. I started my career in data science, and I was so adamant that I was just going to stay as a data scientist and a product manager. I think what made me decide to take this leap is, people always talk about product market fit and how hard it is to find product market fit. For me being in this space for so long, I presented this idea for this product at a few different conferences, and hundreds of PMs, researchers, and data scientists had reached out to me on LinkedIn after asking for access to what is now Riley. And so knowing that there’s already that initial traction even before one line of code was written made me decide. I think we have something amazing here. I want to be the person building this for the future. And so I don’t think it was being an entrepreneur that drew me into entrepreneurship. It’s the fact that there is this huge need that I feel like I’m the best person equipped to build this for the world.
On Building a Defensible Startup
Two reasons. One, we wanted to be sure that we build a defensible moat. And two, we wanted to be sure that we stay focused in the first few months of building the product. Defensible moat is hard to build right now. AI makes it very easy for anyone to build anything. I think it’s very good to be disciplined and to realize that you want to be focused. You don’t want to follow flashy trends. This is what you stand for, and to build that quietly. The moment you start publicizing what you’re building, competitors or aspiring competitors will go on your LinkedIn profile, go on everything to try to find out exactly what you’re building. So it was to really protect that.
On Female Entrepreneurship
The thing that was encouraging is, I remember pitching to one investor, and that investor said it is very rare. You are probably the only female founder who is also a CEO who is also technical and the person in charge. It’s very rare, but I want to write you a check right now. So before this, my narrative was it’s very rare, and therefore it’s going to be hard. But this conversation proved to me that it’s very rare, but it’s special. So please, if you’re a (female) founder, again, start something right away.
Startup Advice from Claudia
My biggest advice is to not overthink it. Most of the learning happens after you start the company. So start it right now. Start experimenting with your idea right now. And then the second thing that I learned very quickly is the hardest part about building a company is not building the product, it’s building the go-to-market engine. So if you already have something that gives you an unfair advantage from a go-to-market perspective, you’re already many steps ahead from competitors or other founders. So please pay attention to the go-to market.