This week I spoke with Sam Spelsberg, a 2021 UVA alumni who’s now the Co-Founder & CTO of Delphi, the AI Cloning Company. You can talk to his AI Clone here.

The Rundown:

• COLD OPEN: From emailing NASA to pretending to be a Comm student – how Sam got his start

• TURNING POINT: Risk-taking through a new perspective

• STEAL THIS: A question to uncover what you don’t know

• INDUSTRY INSIDER: How fast AI is really moving

• IF I WERE YOU: Skip the line — anything you want is possible

COLD OPEN

How Did You Get Your Start?

The summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I emailed a guy who worked at NASA, asking for an internship. I didn’t know they had one, but reaching out and asking is what got me the job.

When I got to UVA, I dropped out for a semester to work at a startup in Silicon Valley. After graduation, I worked at Apple.

Two months later, I uprooted again to join a startup called OpenStore in Miami.

A big part of the move to Miami was actually from a networking event at UVA, where I pretended to be a Comm School student to see a talk with an alumn who worked for Uber. 

Years later, he invited me to a conference about startups in Miami.

While there, I had been talking to my now co-founder about the idea behind Delphi.

The day before ChatGPT came out, we got the wire for our seed money, and in December 2022 we quit our jobs. We’ve been working on Delphi ever since.  

TURNING POINT

What’s The Biggest Risk You’ve Taken

I’ve never looked at anything I’ve done as risky.

I think it’s a way bigger risk to take a traditional path and think, “once I get to this milestone, then I’ll be happy.”

You have to ask yourself, “are you doing the things you like every day?”

Not just your long-term vision, a 5-year plan, or the end goal. What matters is the here and now.

Big companies will always be there.

I think, reframe risk.

STEAL THIS

What’s A Question You Love To Be Asked (Or Asking)?

I like asking people, “what are you interested in?"

I think everyone has something you can learn from.

I try to think of it as a Venn diagram of your knowledge and theirs. What’s the side of the bubble I know nothing about, and how can I ask questions to get to it?

INDUSTRY INSIDER

What Do People Misunderstand About AI Startups?

The general population misunderstands the rate at which AI startups are improving.

I would encourage everyone to read the AI 2027 Blog Post and start thinking about what the world’s going to be like in the next 2 years, because it's going to be way different than you think.

People in Silicon Valley think their last job is around the corner, and robots are going to do all physical labor within the next 10 years.

IF I WERE YOU

Do You Have Any Advice For Students?

Everything that exists in the world was made by people who are no smarter than you, and the boundaries between you and what you want to do is your own action.

If you want to work at a company, find the people who are important decision makers, find out what they need, teach yourself those skills, and start emailing them.

Anything you want is possible.

At the UVA career fair there was a line out the door for Facebook’s booth, and I had to go to class, so I walked to the front and said to the recruiter, “I have to go to class right now, but I think that I should work at Facebook. Here’s my resume.” I got a job offer at Facebook.