Mwenya Kawesha - AI Fundraising, Responsible AI Development and The Impact of a Chief of Staff

02/03/25 • 50 min

Exploring the Role and Impact of a Chief of Staff in AI Startups and fundraising with Mwenya.

In this episode, we join Chris as he chats with Mwenya, an accomplished Chief of Staff with a rich background in operations and strategy within UK startups.

Together, they delve into Mwenya's career journey, transitioning from liberal arts to consultancy and AI. Mwenya is a true champion for responsible AI development and its intersection with industries like social media. Discover insights on what has made her successful as Chief of Staff and when the right time to hire one is.

We also cover the intricacies of AI strategy, the challenges of responsible AI development and why it's vital to any start-up trying to succeed. Mwenya also shares valuable fundraising tips, specifically focused on supporting founders, emphasizing the importance of having a clear vision and understanding the market dynamics.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:45 Career Journey and Background

06:02 Role and Responsibilities of a Chief of Staff

14:00 AI Strategy and Responsible Development

35:42 Fundraising Insights and Challenges

49:51 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Connect with Mwenya here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwenyakawesha/

Exploring the Role and Impact of a Chief of Staff in AI Startups and fundraising with Mwenya.

In this episode, we join Chris as he chats with Mwenya, an accomplished Chief of Staff with a rich background in operations and strategy within UK startups.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:45 Career Journey and Background

06:02 Role and Responsibilities of a Chief of Staff

14:00 AI Strategy and Responsible Development

35:42 Fundraising Insights and Challenges

49:51 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Connect with Mwenya here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwenyakawesha/

Previous Episode

Marco Del Tredici - Agentic AI, LLM Evals and Research

In this episode, we chat with Marco, who is extremely passionate and accomplished in NLP research; with a diverse background from the University of Amsterdam to industry giants like Amazon and Cohere. Marco shares his unique transition from academia to industry, his work on fake news detection, and his contributions to advancements in Amazon Alexa's conversational abilities.

We dig into the future of Large Language Models (LLMs), the challenges with LLM evals, and the promise of AI agents in simplifying daily tasks. Marco also discusses the emerging research directions and the potential of AI agents becoming integral to our daily lives.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
01:01 Background and Research Journey
06:28 Transition from Academia to Industry
10:13 LLMs and Their Future
15:10 Evaluating LLMs
23:43 Interpretability and Explainability
28:50 Understanding AI Agents
37:26 Research and Future of AI Agents
52:14 Predictions and Closing Remarks

Connect with Marco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-del-tredici-316a2984/

Next Episode

Erik Schwartz - Aligning AI to Business Strategy, DeepSeek and AI Agents

Join Chris as he welcomes Erik Schwartz in an in-depth conversation covering the fast-paced world of AI.

Eric shares his extensive career journey, providing insights from his early days in information retrieval to his current role as Chief AI Officer.

The discussion spans various topics, including the challenges of keeping up with rapid technological changes, the impact of AI on business operations, DeekSeek, the Paris AI Summit, the emergence of agentic AI, and the future of AI in personal and enterprise applications. Erik also delves into the similarities between the current AI boom and the dotcom era, and offers valuable advice for companies looking to align AI to business strategy.

00:00 Introduction and Welcoming Eric Schwartz
00:27 The Rapid Pace of AI Development
02:28 Eric's Career Journey and Early Tech Experiences
05:20 Building Digital Libraries and Information Retrieval
06:33 The Evolution of AI and Large Language Models
08:40 The Role of AI in Business and Market Trends
14:13 Defining AI Agents and Their Capabilities
18:06 Adoption of AI in Businesses and Strategic Planning
26:04 The Role of a Chief AI Officer
36:12 Automating Content Review
36:57 Measuring ROI and Success
38:15 Improving Operational Efficiency
40:18 Product Market Fit for Startups
43:26 Impact of AI on SEO and Search
46:17 Enterprise Search Solutions
48:57 Future of AI and Distributed Technologies
55:32 Exciting Developments in AI
01:05:34 Closing Thoughts and Community Engagement

Don't miss this thought-provoking episode as they explore the intricacies of AI adoption, ethics, and the future landscape of search and recommender systems.

What AI Means for Us - Mwenya Kawesha - AI Fundraising, Responsible AI Development and The Impact of a Chief of Staff

Transcript

Chris00:00:05.323

So hi. Yes, Moenu. Welcome to what AI means for us. Great, great to have you on today. How are you?

Mwenya Kawesha00:00:14.213

I'm very well, Chris. Uh, yeah, delighted to be here. Thanks for having me.

Chris00:00:18.693

You're welcome. So yes, I've been there. We've been chatting for a while. And, um, yeah, your background is in the operations, um, strategy piece. And, um, yeah, you've