Dara Ladjevardian, founder and CEO of Delphi, is creating digital minds that allow people to scale their thoughts and availability without replacing human connection. Inspired by Ray Kurzweil’s theory of mind as a hierarchy of pattern recognizers, Dara built an adaptive temporal knowledge graph that captures how people think and reason. From helping CEOs train new hires to enabling coaches to monetize their expertise 24/7, Delphi represents a new form of conversational media. Dara explains why authentic human representation matters, how digital minds actually increase desire for real human connection, and why he believes 2026 will be the tipping point for adoption for digital minds.

Hosted by Sonya Huang and Jess Lee, Sequoia Capital

Mentioned in this episode:

How to Create a Mind: 2012 book by Ray Kurzweil that inspired Dara

The Memoirs of Akbar Ladjevardian: 2008 book about Dara’s grandfather, an Iranian industrialist, that led him to create his first “digital mind”

Build: 2022 book by Tony Fadell that refers to itself as “a mentor in a box”; another inspiration for Dara

The 2 Sigma Problem: 1984 paper by Benjamin Bloom about how students that receive one-on-one tutoring perform two standard deviations better than students educated in a classroom environment