Latest / AI for Founders with Ryan Estes
40,000 Models, One API Key, And A $25M Bet On Open Source
Every month your inference bill climbs, and you tell yourself it is the cost of doing business. What if it is actually a tax on what you do not know? In this episode, the founder of Featherless makes a blunt case: the best model for most of what your startup does is open source, often runs for basically peanuts, and is frequently built in China. He has put real money behind that thesis, about $25M across a seed and a Series A led by AMD Ventures and Airbus Ventures, and a platform that holds tens of thousands of open models online at once through a single API key.
The throughline is freedom…
The skinny
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