Akash Sharma is the founder and CEO of Vellum, a Y Combinator–backed developer platform launched in 2023 that helps engineering teams build production‑quality LLM (large language model) applications. He conceived Vellum after working extensively with GPT‑3 since its beta in 2020 and realizing how difficult it was to bring AI prototypes into reliable production.

Prior to founding Vellum, Akash earned his undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley and spent five years at McKinsey’s Silicon Valley office focusing on technology strategy and operations. Under his leadership, Vellum quickly raised seed funding from YC, Rebel Fund, Pioneer Fund, and Eastlink Capital, and later secured a $20 million Series A as of July 2025. With Vellum, he’s delivering the tooling and methodologies needed to bridge the gap from AI experiments to scalable, robust applications.

The Collective Intelligence Community Podcast by the AI Collective brings the brightest minds in AI to the table to discuss the field’s most pressing topics! Each interview provides a unique perspective on this industry, providing sharp insights and informed commentaries shared to our growing community of 70,000+ founders, funders, and thought leaders.

PODCAST CREATED BY THE AI COLLECTIVE:

Website: https://www.aicollective.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aicollective/

Twitter: https://x.com/_ai_collective

Slack: https://join.slack.com/t/genai-collective/shared_invite/zt-1ya6vi6ti-h8nzjNxISgPfEtya89F2Kw

HOST:

Magnus Kubo-Allen

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/magnuskuboallen/

Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/magnuskuboallen/

GUEST:

Akash Sharma

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akash-sharma53/

Twitter: https://x.com/akashsharma503

MUSIC:

"jiglr - Odyssey" is under a Creative Commons (BY-SA 3.0) license:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

https://soundcloud.com/jiglrmusic

Music powered by BreakingCopyright: • 🤖 Technology & Synthwave (Free Music) - "ODYSSEY" by Jiglr

“The Labyrinth” by DaniHaDani

https://artlist.io/royalty-free-music/artist/danihadani/2295

The Labyrinth

David Corbitt is the cofounder and Chief Product Officer of OpenPipe, a Y Combinator-backed AI startup launched in 2023 by brothers Kyle and David Corbitt. OpenPipe helps developers convert expensive, slow GPT-3.5/4 prompts into customized fine-tuned language models that deliver similar or better performance at a fraction of the cost and latency.

Before starting OpenPipe, David worked at Palantir and Qualtrics and also cofounded GenerationalStory, a video legacy startup focused on preserving family histories. With a background in both technical roles and entrepreneurship, he now helps engineers easily fine-tune and deploy AI models without requiring deep machine learning expertise.

The Collective Intelligence Community Podcast by the AI Collective brings the brightest minds in AI to the table to discuss the field’s most pressing topics! Each interview provides a unique perspective on this industry, providing sharp insights and informed commentaries shared to our growing community of 70,000+ founders, funders, and thought leaders.

PODCAST CREATED BY THE AI COLLECTIVE:

Website: https://www.aicollective.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aicollective/

Twitter: https://x.com/_ai_collective

Slack: https://join.slack.com/t/genai-collective/shared_invite/zt-1ya6vi6ti-h8nzjNxISgPfEtya89F2Kw

HOST:

Magnus Kubo-Allen

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/magnuskuboallen/

Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/magnuskuboallen/

GUEST:

David Corbitt

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcorbitt/

Twitter: https://x.com/dvdcrbt

MUSIC:

"jiglr - Odyssey" is under a Creative Commons (BY-SA 3.0) license:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

https://soundcloud.com/jiglrmusic

Music powered by BreakingCopyright: • 🤖 Technology & Synthwave (Free Music) - "ODYSSEY" by Jiglr

“The Labyrinth” by DaniHaDani

https://artlist.io/royalty-free-music/artist/danihadani/2295

The Labyrinth

Avthar Sewrathan is currently product lead of AI for Timescale, a modern cloud platform built on PostgreSQL. Prior to Timescale, he cofounded Afari inc, a decentralized social newtork, and founded Zayo, a social enterprise for for female students in developing countries. Timescale's mission is to serve developers as they create the next wave of computing. The Collective Intelligence Community Podcast by the GenAI Collective brings the brightest minds in AI to the table to discuss the field’s most pressing topics! Each interview provides a unique perspective on this industry, providing sharp insights and informed commentaries shared to our growing community of 15,000+ founders, funders, and thought leaders. PODCAST CREATED BY THE GENAI COLLECTIVE: Website: https://www.genaicollective.ai/ LinkedIn:

/ genaicollective

Twitter:

/ genaicollective

Slack:

https://join.slack.com/t/genai-collec...

HOST: Thomas Joshi LinkedIn:

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Twitter:

https://x.com/thomastjoshi

GUEST: Avthar Sewrathan LinkedIn:

/ avthars

Twitter:

https://x.com/avthars