Tag: CEO

Hrant Davtyan, founder and CEO of Metric and Pinsight, joins us to discuss how his company is building open source LLMs that are able to conduct analytics and extract insights from documents. Pinsight’s product, Anania, allows users to speak directly with their data – asking questions such as how much revenue the company generated last month, or when was the last time a certain customer placed an order. Hrant also shared with us the journey of finding a product that can gain market traction in the era of generative AI, and his thoughts on what ideas are worth pursuing in the AI space.

Karine Martirosyan, the founder and CEO of Wearify, joins us to discuss her start-up’s vision for helping online consumers try on clothes virtually before buying them. Karine shares how Wearify builds 3D avatars of their users so that they can see how clothes look on them while shopping online, just as they would in a real store. We also spoke about the role that 3D avatars will take on in the coming years as digital environments become increasingly used for a variety of use cases. Lastly, Karine shared her thoughts on how to decentralize tech in Armenia and promote greater activity outside of Yerevan.

Mikayel Khachatryan, the cofounder and CEO of Wirestock joins us to discuss their company’s increased focus on generative AI for stock content. Mikayel shared the trends he has seen in generated images becoming more common in stock marketplaces, and the products Wirestock is building to enable creators to make money in the age of generative AI. Lastly, he spoke about the capabilities of image and video generation models, and what he expects to see in the coming years.

Samson Avetian, the founder and CEO of Eqwefy, joins us to speak about how the platform they’re building is helping enable non-traditional investors to invest in Armenian start-ups. Samson also shared his thoughts on the importance of educating society on personal finance, and encouraging more investing throughout society.

Arman Atoyan, founder and CEO of ARLOOPA, joins us to discuss all things augmented and virtual reality. We discussed how his company enables anyone to build augmented reality (AR) experiences and content using the ARLOOPA platform. Arman also shared with us the history of AR, how it’s developed over the last decade, and what capabilities can be expected in upcoming releases from the major players in AR.

Adam Bittlingmayer, co-founder and CEO of ModelFront, discusses how machine translation has evolved and improved over the last 15 years. Adam explained how his company aids human translators by identifying sections of machine-translated text in need of human review, enabling them to concentrate on specific areas rather than the whole text. Finally, we delved into the ongoing debates within the AI community regarding the acceleration versus deceleration of AI development, and explored Adam’s perspectives on the future direction of the AI ecosystem.

Anna Shahinyan, co-founder and CEO of Fivebrane, leads a platform designed to streamline the development of AI models in healthcare. Fivebrane provides tools that enable data scientists and healthcare professionals to collaborate while working with the data critical to developing their models. It also provides analytical tools to evaluate the quality of their data. Anna shared with us how AI is used in medical imaging and healthcare today, and the potential it has to help doctors drive better treatment outcomes.

Mushegh Gevorgyan, the co-founder and CEO of Dowork.ai and Rumors Monitoring, discusses his entrepreneurial journey and the work he and his teams are doing at his two companies. Mushegh began by sharing his path with Rumors Monitoring, a platform that provides insights into how companies are perceived across the media sphere and his most recent venture, Dowork.ai, an AI agent for customer service applications. Mushegh also spoke about pivoting ideas and building defensible businesses on top of LLM layers such as GPT.

Mariam Torosyan, the CEO and founder of Safe YOU, joined us to discuss her platform's mission to empower women by providing tools to report cases of sexual and domestic violence, seek help, and to create a virtual safe space for women. We delved into the progress Safe YOU has made since its inception three years ago, including the thoughtful consideration of various cultural factors that guide their implementation strategies. Lastly, Mariam shared her insights on the current state of women in the tech industry in Armenia, highlighting the efforts and challenges in ensuring that women not only have access to opportunities but are also encouraged to establish companies and assume leadership roles.

In this episode, Narek Aslikyan, co-founder and CEO of Armenian Code Academy, provides insight into the Armenian tech industry's talent infrastructure. He explains how the Academy prepares individuals for employment in both technical and non-technical roles. We also discussed what is required to create employment opportunities outside Yerevan, and the strategies to encourage various stakeholders to expand into different regions of Armenia.

In this episode, Davit Baghdasaryan, the co-founder and CEO of Krisp, discusses how his start-up has grown to be a leader in the voice productivity AI space. He shares his thoughts on AI product development in the age of large AI models, and what the newest developments are in the field of voice AI. Davit also talked about his journey of founding BigStory VC, an early-stage venture capital fund in Yerevan and Bazoomq, a non-profit space research lab where Davit is an advisor.

In this episode, Khachatur Virabyan, the co-founder and CEO of Stylebit, discusses all things design systems. He breaks down how design systems are built, and how Stylebit helps companies track design system metrics such as adoption. Khacatur also spoke about how modern AI systems enable non-technical people to interact with engineering systems through natural language interfaces. He also shared his entrepreneurial journey and the path to finding a product idea that could gain traction in the marketplace.

Hamlet Azarian, CEO and founder of Azarian Growth Agency joins us to discuss validating start-up ideas, gaining traction, and scaling companies. Azarian breaks down the data-driven approach the agency takes to growth marketing, and what metrics they track to ensure that start-ups reach their growth goals. We also discussed Azarian Growth Agency’s upcoming initiative called “ Growth Academy” that aims to teach growth marketing in Armenia.

In this episode, Hovakim Zakaryan, co-founder and CEO of Denovo Sciences, discusses how his company is using reinforcement learning for drug discovery, making the process faster and more efficient. He shares insights on the challenges involved in drug discovery, and how AI tools can help overcome them. Additionally, Hovakim sheds light on Armenia's biotech industry and makes the case for why strategic investments should be made in this area.

Rem Darbinyan, the founder and CEO of Viral Mango and Smart Click, joins us to speak about the work being done in AI and influencer marketing by his companies. During the first half of the show, we delved into Smart Click's technology-as-a-service approach that makes computer vision algorithms accessible through APIs. In the second half, we explored Viral Mango, an influencer marketing platform, and discussed the inner workings of influencer marketing and its effectiveness. We also examined the impact of influencer and social media culture on society.

Arsen Stepanyan, the co-founder and CEO of Orders.co, joins us to discuss what challenges and opportunities there are in building software as a service (SaaS) solutions for the restaurant industry. Orders.co is a Los Angeles-based order and menu management system for small- and medium-sized restaurants. We also discussed Arsen’s efforts to build a team for his company in Armenia, and what lessons he’s drawn from his experience.

This week on EVN Disrupt we are continuing our series of podcasts from the Science and Technology Convergence Conference. Once again, we have two guests on this week’s podcast. Our first guest is Ashot Papoyan, a biotech executive who is the Chief Operating Officer at Biosim and CEO of Elm Tree Research. Our second guest is Haig Eskandarian, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. With our two guests we spoke about experimental biology and commercializing science findings in the biotech industry.

BigStory VC, a founder-led venture capital fund, promises to be the first of its kind, as Armenia’s start-up ecosystem continues to grow and its members attain success.

No one can refute the success stories and statistics of Armenian women in tech. Taking a more holistic view, however, one finds that the narrative isn’t quite so simple or straightforward.

HyeTech, a gathering of Armenian professionals who share technical, business and entrepreneurship expertise, is a case study in the value that networking organizations create for both their members and the ecosystem they operate in.

Deep tech startups are built on scientific and engineering discoveries and innovations. In the Armenian startup ecosystem, there are only a handful of deep tech startups. One of them is Krisp.