Q1: Could you tell us a little bit about your company?
Soffos Inc. is a generative AI Platform as a Service company enabling product teams to accelerate their AI development and improve security and privacy with our on-premises AI platform, low-code SDK, agnostic support of any LLM, and private LLM for maximum privacy, security, and reliability. The Soffos Platform (https://Soffos.ai), now in its second release, is designed to help you easily create AI workflows whether you are a business user looking for a quick solution or a software developer creating the next great app. While applicable to any industry, our initial focus is creating services and optimized modules for EdTech products.
Q2: What inspired you to start your own company?
My co-founder, Nik Kairinos, and I started the company with the goal of creating a next generation AI powered learning application for K-12 education. We quickly learned during our alpha stage that entering this market is extremely difficult for a number of reasons. We also discovered while the app would experience challenges, our modular approach to AI technology was needed by organizations who did not have AI/ML capability in house. Through our research, we also recognized the $250 billion corporate training market was ripe for disruption. After the pandemic, we pivoted to address this market with our technology and created our platform as a service to meet the needs of EdTech product companies looking to fast track generative AI features for their customers.
Q3: What previous experiences influence your role today?
I have been in the corporate training and EdTech product space for three decades. I helped create Adobe Shockwave 3D and a companion stand-alone modular authoring tool. I have created learning programs for companies large and small including General Motors, the FAA, NASA, Caterpillar, Ingersoll Rand, Wells Fargo, and the United Nations. I was an early developer of natural language skills for Alexa and Google Home devices. And, I was fortunate to have the insight over a decade ago that led me to write the book, “There is AI in Team: the future of human, augmented human, and non-human collaboration,” providing a guide to adopting the new technologies entering the workspace and adapting to the changing workforce as we enter the second quarter of the century.
Q4: What are the biggest challenges you’ve encountered as a startup founder this far, and how did you overcome them?
I began as a board advisor at Soffos, later stepping in as CPO to guide product development. When the board asked me to take over as CEO in October 2023, I was surprised and initially hesitant. My first challenge was accepting a role I hadn’t sought. I got down to business and hit challenge number two, there were a lot of “closets” needing to be opened, explored, and managed based on decisions made by the previous leadership. Challenge three was a rapid succession of employees who were burned out from the perpetual start-up fervor, and the need to restaff and retool to prepare for a formal release of the platform. The biggest challenge has been driving sales and revenue—an area outside my expertise. But with support from my talented team, I’m quickly learning and confident we’ll hit our targets.
Q5: Do you have any mentors or role models who have inspired you while you have been building your business?
I look back on directors and CEOs I worked under in the past with new eyes now that I am in the role of CEO. I find their words of wisdom coming to me at the oddest of times and I am applying their methods as I grow in this role. Frank Hughes of TC2, Miles Owens of NxView Technologies, Troy Knight of BLDG-25, and Robert Szostak of Raytheon Professional Services to name a few. Then there are the big players like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who while I don’t necessarily equate where I am with them, I do appreciate the journey and some of their approach. And, then there are the classics like Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” and Niccolò Machiavelli’s “The Prince” both of which provide abstract insight to the nature of business.
Q6: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs and future startup founders based on your own experiences and lessons learned?
My advice: start your own company rather than inheriting one. Like buying a used car, you never know what’s under the hood. Review the business and ask yourself, “would I be better off just starting from scratch?” Success is possible either way, but with an existing company, much may have changed before your arrival. Also, remember that as CEO, you’re the head of sales, so either excel at it or learn fast.