AI After Dark

Alex Gras

AI After Dark is a podcast hosted by Alex Gras, venture capitalist at Mercury, focused on how real companies are built once the hype fades and the hard decisions begin. Through candid conversations with founders, CTOs, and operators, the show cuts through buzzwords to talk about people, systems, risk, and the trade-offs that actually matter. Alex brings a background as an operator, founder, and revenue leader, with a belief that technology matters, but people come first. This podcast is for builders who care less about trends and more about what lasts.

Episodes

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Akhil Mantripragada from Pie

    Akhil Mantripragada from Pie joins Alex on AI After Dark to trace his journey from coding without a computer in eighth grade India to building a $100M+ revenue AI-native marketing platform for SMBs. He shares how changing seven schools growing up forced him to become adaptable, why he spent hours writing multiple code versions on paper with only one hour per week at a computer lab, and how selling his first ed-tech company to UTSA funded grad school at Columbia. The conversation reveals why Pi's first three hires were designers instead of engineers, his controversial belief that chat is the "lousiest way to interact with AI," and how meeting users where they're at - not where you want them to be - became the core design philosophy that lets three engineers do what used to take thirty. Plus, the framework for building modular systems where perfection lies in the architecture's inputs and outputs, not the code inside the black box. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 Growing up moving between seven schools in India01:39 Learning to code without a computer access07:13 Starting an events management company as an introvert12:18 The arrogance and humility combination that drives builders15:12 First website job at UTSA and learning by doing18:01 Building quantitative literacy tracking system for professors24:17 Why school being too easy created entrepreneurial opportunities26:45 Columbia grad school and starting Edu Link collaboration tool35:14 The two acquisition experiences and MIT licensing lessons40:56 Blockchain land registry in India and creator platform experiments43:35 Why education will become skill-based not credit-based46:15 Joining Toast's New Ventures program and building benchmarking56:07 Recruiting A-players through bias for action and ownership01;02;40 Why Pi hired three designers before the first engineer01;06;54 Meeting users where they're at versus forcing chat interfaces01;12;48 The black box modularity philosophy for AI-native startupshttps://twitter.com/collide_io https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters

    1h 17m

  2. 18 FEB

    Canisius Rozario from collide.

    In this kickoff to a new series, AI After Dark, Alex Gras (VC @ Mercury Fund) talks with Canisius Rozario (CTO @ Collide) about how he built a top-tier AI team in oil & gas without any industry background. It’s a sharp, candid look at hiring, learning fast, and building AI-first systems, packed with practical takeaways for founders, CTOs, and early builders working in high-stakes, data-heavy industries. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 0:00 Introduction and series kickoff1:50 Canisius career background and journey through tech9:30 Joining Collide and the decision to go AI-native20:00 First 90 days as CTO and the "sniff test"33:00 Why senior engineers beat junior hires in AI builds37:00 Incorporating oil and gas experts into AI model training41:45 The Forward Deploy Engineer model and how it works46:00 Prioritization process for POCs and customer feedback52:50 What to look for in the next generation of AI CTOs56:30 What does "AI native" actually mean and audience Q&Ahttps://twitter.com/collide_io https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters

    1h 1m
  • 2 Episodes

About

AI After Dark is a podcast hosted by Alex Gras, venture capitalist at Mercury, focused on how real companies are built once the hype fades and the hard decisions begin. Through candid conversations with founders, CTOs, and operators, the show cuts through buzzwords to talk about people, systems, risk, and the trade-offs that actually matter. Alex brings a background as an operator, founder, and revenue leader, with a belief that technology matters, but people come first. This podcast is for builders who care less about trends and more about what lasts.

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Gras
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    2
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Digital Wildcatters, Inc
  • Show Website
    AI After Dark