Punjun Bhatnagar & Jeff Gibson: Filling AI Cracks with Gold - Kintsugi

In this episode, Laura Fu interviews Pujun Bhatnagar and Jeff Gibson, co-founders of Kintsugi, an AI-native company focused on revolutionizing sales tax compliance. They discuss their backgrounds, the vision behind Kintsugi, and the unique challenges of building an AI-first company. The conversation explores the importance of understanding customer needs, the evolution of pricing strategies in AI, and the future of AI in enterprises. They also share insights on the changing perspectives of buyers and the significance of having the right team in a startup environment.TakeawaysKintsugi aims to empower local businesses by simplifying sales tax compliance.AI can automate tedious tasks, allowing humans to focus on more complex problems.Building an AI-native company requires a different approach to hiring and team dynamics.Pricing strategies in AI must reflect the value delivered to customers, not just costs.Buyers should evaluate AI tools based on their ability to solve real business problems.The future of AI will involve cracking the code of symbolic manipulation for better reasoning.Startups must focus on accountability and clear roles to succeed.Investors are increasingly concerned with compliance during due diligence.The right team can make the difference between startup success and failure.Understanding and leveraging existing tools can maximize their value. KeywordsAI, Kintsugi, startups, sales tax, compliance, machine learning, pricing strategies, enterprise AI, buyer perspectives, entrepreneurship