Happyverse, Stanford, and building AI avatars in SF
Max Sapo — ex-Google TPU engineer and Stanford grad — on building Happyverse, raising a $2M pre-seed, the vibe hiring trap, founder mode, and burnout.
This episode's guest
Max Sapo
Founder, Happyverse
What happens when an ex-Google TPU engineer and Stanford grad leaves Big Tech to build AI clones of real people? Meet Max Sapo, founder of Happyverse — a San Francisco AI startup building digital humans and AI Confidants.
In the first episode of The Bay Signal we talk about the real San Francisco startup scene, what Stanford gives a founder and what it does not, raising a $2M pre-seed, the vibe hiring trap and his biggest hiring mistake, angel investing, and the worst startup advice he ever got.
And then the parts nobody puts in the pitch deck: founder mode in a windowless office, burnout and a meditation headband, the happiness formula, no dating until Series B — and the honest answer to when he would shut Happyverse down.