Call Summary: Formalizing Applied AI Society Leadership and EIR Position

Overview

Travis called Gary while returning from Utah AI summit to formalize an Entrepreneur in Residence offer at OT Incubator to lead the Applied AI Society initiative. The conversation covered Utah policy makers' interest in digital sovereignty, Travis's complex company structure and fundraising challenges, and concrete plans for building a movement to democratize AI access and prevent "AI feudalism."

Key Topics Discussed

Utah AI Summit Insights

Digital Sovereignty Movement:

• Met with Utah Department of Commerce and digital ID program leader
• Utah passed law requiring social media companies to let people download their data (currently enjoined from enforcement due to lawsuit)
• Governor Cox Position: "He's pretty strongly just about the bad things [social media] has done towards our kids... railing against the business model that amplifies our worst features to get attention"

Cloudflare CEO Alignment:

• CEO spoke about importance of multiple AI companies, not just a few
• Travis: "This is exactly what I've been saying... they're very eager to support that... this mission of horizontal AI"
• Travis was panelist on "Trailblazers" panel alongside Paul Allen

OT Incubator Structure and Philosophy

Company Evolution Story:

• Started with Anaconda as "first incubator company"
• Created Quant Site to recreate Anaconda foundations
• Two modes: Consulting (revenue generation) + Investment (creating new companies)
• Entrepreneur Residence Program: Started with Braden, now expanded

Current Structure:

• OT Incubator (Open Technology Incubator): Provides back office services
• Open Technology Venture Fund: Investment vehicle
• Services Provided: To Quant Site, OpenTeams, Paul Allen's startups, others

Leadership Philosophy:

"It's much more servant leadership in the sense of how do we do the stuff that's hard or boring or get that working so that others can benefit"

OpenTeams Financial Crisis

Fundraising Challenges:

• Travis: "The big issue for me, Gary, has been the past three months of OpenTeams not fundraising... It's taken a lot more of my bandwidth than I expected"
• Uttam Reddy (lead investor) committed to $100M but doesn't have immediate liquidity
• Travis using personal liquidity to support OpenTeams: "I've used all my liquidity to support the OpenTeams lack of fundraising"
• Incubator providing loans to OpenTeams to maintain operations

Braden's Success:

• Fund 1: $4M
• Fund 2: $2.5M
• Fund 3: $12M raised in three weeks
• Fund 4: Target $200M with sidecar

Applied AI Society Vision and Structure

Core Mission:

"There's massive need and massive opportunity, like the number of businesses that are out there that need help... If something like this doesn't exist, then it's going to be the dev rels, the technology evangelists from Google, OpenAI, Microsoft pulling people into their orbit"

Target Audience (per Gary's presentation):

1. Engineers and professionals who want to make money helping businesses apply AI
2. Business owners needing AI implementation support

Initial Structure Proposal:

• Start as OT Incubator initiative before formalizing foundation
• Travis: "We can call it an initiative of the incubator to start with"
• Avoid NumFocus mistake of locking in structure before understanding mission

Compensation Offer:

• W2 employee of OT Incubator
• Starting salary: $100-120k annually
• Benefits through ADP, MetLife insurance
• Potential for compensation from multiple sources as initiative grows

Movement Building Strategy

PyData Model Reference:

"What kicked that off was a workshop at Google... rallying about 10 to 20 people who were eager to support a place to talk about this"

Key Activities:

• Host in-person and online events
• Create "Applied AI track" at existing conferences
• Develop local chapters with strong playbook
• Content creation (podcast episodes, blog posts, potentially book)

Conference Vision:

• Austin event potentially January 2025
• Get speakers like Andrej Karpathy, Sebastian Raschka
• Both virtual and in-person components
• OpenTeams interest: Recruiting event for applied AI engineers

Divine Connection Recognition

Gary's Perspective:

"I think that God connected us... I wasn't going to the American Defense Summit super intentional... You came up to me"

Travis's Response:

"Yeah, I believe that too, Gary. I believe that"

Past Support Referenced:

• Travis offered casita when Gary was homeless
• First person to offer concrete support
• Gary's first Google intern host (Perry Nelson) now running Ghana office for social impact AI

Leadership Philosophy Discussion

Jensen Huang Reference:

• Gary listened to full Rogan interview
• Discussed benevolent dictator moves Jensen had to make
• Masayoshi Son bailout saving NVIDIA from graveyard
• Gary: "We don't even know a reality that doesn't have NVIDIA"

Travis on Action:

"That has been a feature of my approach... when I see something I feel strongly about, I just go do it... NumPy is like, this needs to happen. Somebody needs to do this. Well, I'm going to figure out how I can"

Truth Management Integration

Gary's Proposal:

• Help OpenTeams with "truth management" and internal alignment
• Work with Tiffany on strategic communication
• Document family of companies' vision and structure
• Travis: "I completely agree... I agree"

Next Steps and Timeline

Immediate Actions:

• Travis to provide formal contract closer to $120k range
• Start as W2 through OT Incubator
• Begin organizing January 2025 event planning
• Connect with Tiffany, Thomas, Willie on Applied AI movement

Travis's Commitment:

"I feel similarly right now, Gary. I think this is a thing that needs to exist. And so I'm eager to support it. So it's a high priority thing for me"

Key Quotes

"Most things in my experience, these kind of movements, these kind of activities, they take a little bit of time... They grow to the degree you inspire chapters" - Travis

"There are so many businesses out there that so, Gary, I mean, so many businesses still haven't really caught up to the digital transformation... they're two transformations behind" - Travis

"I would like to be able to support you on, you know, north of six figures, right? On an annual basis at kind of a minimum" - Travis

"Every EIR program is a conversation with the entrepreneur about what works for you" - Travis

"The leadership misalignment creates loss of momentum... I've seen so many times" - Travis

"Not many people would get this to even value this at all. Right? So but that's also why it could be such a high leverage play because it's like your understanding of community is your edge" - Gary

Action Items / Takeaways

• Travis to provide formal EIR contract through OT Incubator ($100-120k range)
• Gary to lead Applied AI Society as incubator initiative initially
• Plan January 2025 Austin event to launch movement
• Connect with existing team (Tiffany, Willie, Thomas) for support
• Develop content strategy including podcast episodes and blog posts
• Build local chapter playbook based on PyData model
• Explore sponsorships from Google, Microsoft, other hyperscalers
• Consider 501(c)(6) or 501(c)(3) structure after initial experimentation

Strategic Alignment

The conversation demonstrated deep alignment between Travis's vision for preventing AI feudalism through democratization and Gary's ability to build movements and communities. Travis's recognition of Gary's unique value ("not many people would get this") and commitment to support despite financial pressures shows genuine belief in the Applied AI Society's importance. The initiative addresses a critical gap where businesses need practical AI implementation help beyond vendor lock-in, positioning it as essential infrastructure for the AI transition.