Finding Founders · 2025-04-03 · 1h 37m
In this episode, we sit down with Kevin Surace , a legendary inventor, keynote speaker, and the man credited with creating the world’s first virtual assistant - technology that would eventually power Siri, Alexa , and Google Assistant . With 94 patents under his belt and a track record of turning vision into billion-dollar industries, Kevin walks us through his unconventional path from tinkering with radios at age 12 to co-founding Air Communications , revolutionizing enterprise AI at Appvance , and retrofitting the Empire State Building to save millions in energy costs. We cover: How he landed 12 job offers out of college through coding his own mail-merge system in 1985. Lessons from building the first data-capable cell phone used by the FBI and U.S. schools . The inside story of how General Magic's patents led to billions in licensing revenue from Apple , Amazon , and Microsoft . Why most founders get fired from their own startups - and how he bounced back stronger. How to identify pain points, build intellectual moats, and lead with joy and integrity . And finally, his latest work combining AI and video to push boundaries in storytelling and tech.
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