10 Questions with Latimer.ai Cofounder/CEO, John Pasmore
Link to the complete video with John's answers -
How did you come to do this work and why is it so important to you personally?
Hey, it's John Pasmore from Latimer.ai, and I'm just going to answer a couple of questions. Why is it so important to me personally, to create what we've done with Latimer? I have a 16-year-old, and I think it's important that young people, especially, have positive technology, that's not insulting them, that they can use freely. When we initially saw some of the large language models, they were either more than speaking to them or, way back in the beginning, they were certainly saying things that we wouldn't want our kids to be confronted with.
What was your lightbulb moment for Latimer.ai?
That was the original motivation and that speaks to the light bulb moment as well. Just seeing all the complaints on social media about some of the interactions with large language models, I just thought that was an opportunity, that was a technical issue. I had gone back to Columbia University to get a CS degree, so I knew that it was a technical issue. I thought we could solve it. I still think it's a huge opportunity. So that was my light bulb moment.
What is the elevator pitch for Latimer.ai?
In terms of an elevator pitch, I would just say we've built an inclusive LLM that advances the technology to include or be more diverse in its appeal, and not to confront black and brown people with bias. So that's what we're building or what we've built. We launched on January 22nd this year.
Talk us through your strategy in building a team around you.
In terms of the strategy to build a team around us, it's always challenging to find talent. We want to find talent also that shares our vision of the impact and not just a future IPO, and I think that's it. It's fine talented people. We'd love to have them on the team.
What has surprised you most about starting Latimer.ai?
What I found surprising really was the reception. Very enthusiastic, enthusiastic reception. We've got a lot of press even before we launch in November to December leading up to the launch in January. We've got a good deal of press. We continue to get a lot of attention. So that's what's surprisingly expected. You know, a lot of resistance with any launch or new company. So that's been kind of a welcome surprise.
Talk us through one of your daily rituals.
In terms of a daily ritual, I'm a New Yorker. So that means coffee and bagel in the morning. That's part of the ritual. But also at the end of the day, I try and do one more thing. Whether that's another task. But usually, it's a kind of cold outreach. Just one more outreach to a potential partner, potential client, or potential team member. One more thing before I kind of hit the road.
What is a recent challenge you've faced as an entrepreneur and how did you overcome it? What lesson(s) did you take away from it?
And in terms of challenges, there's no shortage of challenges as an entrepreneur. Really, it's just the posture that you want to have or that I want to have. It's just being optimistic. We're not going to get everything solved today, but we will get it solved. So just don't beat yourself up as an entrepreneur when things seem to be somewhat overwhelming which certainly happens on certain days. So just keep the faith that we will get it done.
What does the next year look like for Latimer.ai?
It looks pretty exciting. We are looking at adding team members. We are looking at adding new clients. We have some new projects that are starting with commercial clients in just a couple of days. So much more of that, that's really fantastic. It keeps everybody on their toes with new and novel ways to use the technology. New functionality that we kind of pull out of these commercial relationships and build it back into Latimer itself.
What is a key piece of advice you've received that you'd want to share with other founders?
And in terms of key advice that I give other entrepreneurs or founders, it's just do you. You know figure out what drives you. It inspires you and you know use that energy to build with because that will always be there.
How can our regional startup community help your efforts?
And in terms of how the regional startup community can help, by all means, try Latimer, and give us some feedback. And it's your impressions of it. We are building. We are proving it. We're adding data to it. We're adding functionality to it. Capabilities to it. And then if there are any commercial opportunities or partnerships or people you think should be on the team, please by all means send them our way. Thanks.