Cohere's Aidan Gomez: The Canadian Founder Taking AI Models To The World, Not Just Big Tech

A self-described "shy nerd" from rural Ontario, Aidan Gomez doesn't like to scream his startup’s name from the rooftops.

But the co-author of the landmark ‘Attention Is All You Need’ paper is quietly building one of AI's most important infrastructure companies — one focused on bringing its benefits to the wider world outside Silicon Valley.

Toronto-based Cohere works with major enterprises and G7 governments, providing secure models for them to build everything from email-summary apps to onboard ship telemetry on top. Revenue grew 6x last year, past a reported $240 million; with $1.7 billion in total funding, an IPO is in its sights.

On the Upstarts Podcast, Gomez talks about his journey to co-developing the Transformer architecture that underpins modern AI; why he sees AI as the best shot at restoring global growth and democratic resilience; and why it’s so important that more nations than the world’s biggest benefit.

Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: building on ‘hard mode’ by not taking money from Amazon, Google or Microsoft early on.

Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:11 Cohere’s ‘takeoff phase’ 05:09 Where vibe coding falls short 08:05 Smalltown Canada to AI epicenter 14:27 Co-authoring the Transformer paper 18:52 Starting up Cohere 25:22 Why AI sovereignty matters 30:25 Aidan’s Upstart Moment 32:56 Playing on ‘hard mode’ 36:55 Ethical questions of AI 39:44 Why Cohere should IPO

For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/

Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury

Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod