AI Stories

The Story Behind Mosaic ML's $1.3 Billion Acquisition with Davis Blalock #35

October 10, 2023 Neil Leiser Season 3 Episode 1
The Story Behind Mosaic ML's $1.3 Billion Acquisition with Davis Blalock #35
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AI Stories
The Story Behind Mosaic ML's $1.3 Billion Acquisition with Davis Blalock #35
Oct 10, 2023 Season 3 Episode 1
Neil Leiser

Our guest today is Davis Blalock, Research Scientist and first employee of Mosaic ML; a startup which got recently acquired by Databricks for an astonishing $1.3 billion.

In our conversation, we first talk about Davis' PhD at MIT and his research on making algorithms more efficient. Davis then explains how and why he joined Mosaic and shares the story behind the company. He dives into the product and how they evolved from focusing on deep learning algorithms to generative AI and large language models. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a 5 star review and subscribe to the AI Stories Youtube channel.

Follow Davis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblalock/

Follow Neil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leiserneil/  

————
(00:00) - Intro
(01:40) - How Davis entered the world of Data and AI?
(03:30) - Enhancing ML algorithms' efficiency
(12:50) - Importance of efficiency
(16:37) - Choosing MosaicML over starting his own startup
(25:30) - What is Mosaic ML? 
(37:34) - How did the rise of LLM aid MosaicML's growth?
(46:54) - $1.3 billion acquisition by Databricks
(48:52) - Learnings and failures from working in a startup
(01:00:05) - Career advice




Show Notes

Our guest today is Davis Blalock, Research Scientist and first employee of Mosaic ML; a startup which got recently acquired by Databricks for an astonishing $1.3 billion.

In our conversation, we first talk about Davis' PhD at MIT and his research on making algorithms more efficient. Davis then explains how and why he joined Mosaic and shares the story behind the company. He dives into the product and how they evolved from focusing on deep learning algorithms to generative AI and large language models. 

If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a 5 star review and subscribe to the AI Stories Youtube channel.

Follow Davis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblalock/

Follow Neil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leiserneil/  

————
(00:00) - Intro
(01:40) - How Davis entered the world of Data and AI?
(03:30) - Enhancing ML algorithms' efficiency
(12:50) - Importance of efficiency
(16:37) - Choosing MosaicML over starting his own startup
(25:30) - What is Mosaic ML? 
(37:34) - How did the rise of LLM aid MosaicML's growth?
(46:54) - $1.3 billion acquisition by Databricks
(48:52) - Learnings and failures from working in a startup
(01:00:05) - Career advice