WEBVTT 00:00.660 --> 00:07.460 I'm the CEO and co-founder of Midfleet. Hi, my name is Raju. I am the CTO and also 00:07.460 --> 00:13.080 the co-founder of Midfleet. So we met, what, 20 years ago? More than 20 years ago 00:13.080 --> 00:20.240 in high school. Yeah, we met actually in Sweden, in Uppsala. Yeah. We did college 00:20.240 --> 00:22.860 together or high school. College, high school, I don't know what you call it. 00:22.940 --> 00:26.640 Second up and dirty high school? Second up and dirty. We studied computer science. 00:28.340 --> 00:34.220 Without the computer? Without the computer or the science. We both worked in the tech 00:34.220 --> 00:41.440 field for a very long time. Me, I worked for Google plus my own startups, building 00:41.440 --> 00:48.340 digital healthcare products, but also advised hundreds of startups across Europe 00:48.340 --> 00:54.760 as well as Asia Pacific. And done some interesting, cool projects with companies 00:54.760 --> 01:04.800 like Tencent, Alibaba, H&M, and all sorts. But, you know, in 2016, I was at the 01:04.800 --> 01:11.180 launch event of TensorFlow, which is Google's own machine learning algorithm. 01:11.920 --> 01:16.160 And this is kind of where I saw the first promises of what artificial intelligence 01:16.160 --> 01:23.400 can actually do. And this was in 2016, if I remember correctly, end of 2016. And I 01:23.400 --> 01:30.540 saw the live Go match between a computer and the best Go player. Go is that Chinese 01:30.540 --> 01:36.680 game. It's one of those complex board games. And I could see that the machine 01:36.680 --> 01:41.840 was learning the first few games and it'll start winning and just dominating that 01:41.840 --> 01:45.820 best Go player in the world. And then, you know, from there, I could see, you know, 01:46.060 --> 01:52.920 the reasoning capabilities were there, the question is, when is it able to do actual 01:52.920 --> 01:59.660 work? You saw the beginnings of what we are doing today. Yes. And the writing was on 01:59.660 --> 02:05.080 the wall already. But what I knew also is that I wanted to start my own company in 02:05.080 --> 02:13.420 tech. And my purpose was that I wanted to help others with technology. So I built a 02:13.420 --> 02:19.120 bunch of digital health companies, exited one in 2022. And then I quickly realized 02:19.120 --> 02:22.440 while I was working for the company that acquired us that, no, no, I want to go 02:22.440 --> 02:28.180 back and build something else. And we went back to each other. We started traveling 02:28.180 --> 02:35.940 together. Backpacking through Southeast Asia. Before we even started with Midfleet and 02:35.940 --> 02:46.280 all of that, right? So we, we initially we met in high school. Yeah. And then you did 02:46.280 --> 02:51.120 some, what do you call this? Lumpen, right? Yeah. I did my military service. 02:51.220 --> 02:57.740 Military services. And I went on to a spiritual journey. So at, I think, 18, 19, 02:57.760 --> 03:07.960 we just took different routes. Yeah. And I've always, you know, seen Ahmed and what 03:07.960 --> 03:13.320 he has been doing and on LinkedIn. And he, you were traveling around the world with a 03:13.320 --> 03:18.120 motorbike and you did some crazy stuff there. Right? Yeah. Just being a young 03:18.120 --> 03:22.080 guy. Trying to understand the world. Trying to understand the world. Trying to 03:22.080 --> 03:29.360 see where we fit in. And try to see like, okay, how can we build stuff, you know, 03:29.780 --> 03:34.460 improve humanity. As a young guy, like gets very, very visionary about things. It 03:34.460 --> 03:40.580 was a, it was a philosophical journey and a journey to just see who you are as well, 03:40.580 --> 03:46.540 I guess. And I had a similar journey as well, but it was another take of the same. 03:47.480 --> 03:54.220 And it's, it's an interesting journey for both of us. I left when I was 19 and I had 03:54.220 --> 04:00.540 my so-called monk life. It was a monk in India. Yeah. I was a monk in India living 04:00.540 --> 04:07.000 outside of a bag and just moving around different mosques and temples and stuff 04:07.000 --> 04:13.480 like that. I was doing that for a long time. Yeah. For a long, long time. Before 04:13.480 --> 04:18.860 I decided that, hey, I mean, you know, you need money, man. You should do something. 04:18.860 --> 04:23.980 You can't just walk around like a monk all your life. You become a dad very early. I 04:23.980 --> 04:28.540 became a dad. I married very early. And then I was like, hey, I'm in this 04:28.540 --> 04:33.740 situation. I need money. Yeah. And I realized that, okay, I need to do 04:33.740 --> 04:40.620 something. And I was pretty early with the tech and engineering. I was building my 04:40.620 --> 04:46.420 own computers. I don't remember when, like 10 years or something. So it was, it was, 04:46.480 --> 04:53.820 it was a natural way to go and solve problems. So, and then I started in tech 04:53.820 --> 04:58.940 and I was in it for, for a long, long, long time. Working mostly with 04:58.940 --> 05:03.940 infrastructure, cloud, dev ops, dev sec ops, site reliability, you name it. I've 05:03.940 --> 05:11.460 done the most of the things in this area. And also being in Australia, being in 05:11.460 --> 05:18.900 Atlassian, it gave me a lot of knowledge and experience as well. But then 2022, 05:18.920 --> 05:23.020 when we met up again, it was actually when I was in Australia, you were like, hey 05:23.020 --> 05:27.620 man, what you doing? And I was like, I'm in Australia. Yeah. And then he was like, 05:27.700 --> 05:32.140 okay, but let's come and meet up. So I went to Thailand, met you and we had a 05:32.140 --> 05:36.000 trip and journey where we were just philosophizing and talking about anything. 05:36.960 --> 05:41.620 Anything. Right. Yeah. But then I also like realized the sort of strength of 05:41.620 --> 05:46.720 working together. We're not just sitting and agreeing with each other. We actually 05:46.720 --> 05:51.600 complement each other very, very well. Challenging each other as well. And, you 05:51.600 --> 05:57.760 know, a healthy disposition of just growing an idea to sort of taking a kernel 05:57.760 --> 06:01.660 that one person has and then just, you know, running with it. And I think kind of 06:01.660 --> 06:07.200 this is how Midfleet came to be. It was taking that kernel and just making 06:07.200 --> 06:11.460 something out of it together. Because, you know, if you would be alone, if I would be 06:11.460 --> 06:13.000 alone, we wouldn't be getting to that. 06:41.580 --> 06:48.560 No, absolutely not. Like, what was going on? Yeah. But also believing in that 06:48.560 --> 06:56.720 color, as we say, we are like my strong belief in Islam and God and the destiny 06:56.720 --> 07:01.900 that we meet again. And we have a journey in front of us where we don't know 07:01.900 --> 07:05.640 actually where we're going, but we know we have a trust where we are building 07:05.640 --> 07:13.340 together. We are sacrificing time, money, and effort. And we are really like when we 07:13.340 --> 07:18.040 started, it was a question mark. It was a big question mark. But like with all good 07:18.040 --> 07:25.720 ideas, it has to be a little bit of a resistance to it almost, you know. But 07:25.720 --> 07:29.320 we're not pessimists by nature, but we have to inject that little bit of 07:29.320 --> 07:33.060 pessimism to question validity of something. Yeah, but we knew we had to 07:33.060 --> 07:37.440 build something. Yeah. So I remember when I, after the journey in Penang in 07:37.440 --> 07:45.420 November, 2025, and I was almost like 2024, I left corporate BS. And I was like, 07:45.500 --> 07:50.000 you know, I was still in the monk mode in a way, like again, like what should I do? 07:50.520 --> 07:56.200 And then after that journey, came back to Sweden and just, I was like, Ahmed, you 07:56.200 --> 07:59.860 have to look at this, man. Yeah. You know, just look at this. And he was like, what's 07:59.860 --> 08:03.060 up, what's up? And he was looking at it. And then, you know, we came together. It 08:03.060 --> 08:07.900 was like, this is it. This is it. This is it. It was an agent talking to another 08:07.900 --> 08:15.180 agent. And for me at that time, I was like also in the same position as everybody 08:15.180 --> 08:22.560 else in tech at that point where we were kind of running around with our heads 08:22.560 --> 08:27.140 unscrewed like chickens without heads. And just asking us like, what can you actually 08:27.140 --> 08:32.200 do with this? What's possible? What does the technology allow to do? Is it over 08:32.200 --> 08:39.840 promising? And this is the question that where Midfleet was born from, right? Yeah. 08:40.060 --> 08:45.000 We can do a lot of stuff with agents. He can ask it anything. And essentially, he 08:45.000 --> 08:49.840 can tell it to go in and build a product. You can tell it to sell that product or he 08:49.840 --> 08:53.740 can tell it to call your mom and say you're late. Whatever. You know, all of 08:53.740 --> 08:59.920 these things kind of like, okay. So we saw the headlines getting up there. Everybody 08:59.920 --> 09:03.520 was talking about AI. Okay. What are they talking about? It's like, oh, the AI is 09:03.520 --> 09:08.520 taking over. It's singularity, AGI. And we were sitting with agents and we saw the 09:08.520 --> 09:13.260 reality was actually quite different when they started asking it. Even simple stuff 09:13.260 --> 09:20.640 started drifting, doing something else. And it became increasingly very apparent 09:20.640 --> 09:25.160 we wanted to do when agents talk to each other. We didn't want it to control that 09:25.160 --> 09:30.960 path as infrastructure, as a runtime. We saw that problem of them drifting and 09:30.960 --> 09:35.340 doing something else or guaranteeing an outcome or working towards a goal 09:35.340 --> 09:40.300 together. It's something that you need to control. Right. And we don't see that as 09:40.300 --> 09:45.560 workflows. We don't see that necessarily as that. We see it as a runtime, a path 09:45.560 --> 09:53.860 with roads, stop signs or red lights. Yeah. And I want to also talk about a 09:53.860 --> 09:58.700 little bit about, we were talking about this for a while. Every time we met, we 09:58.700 --> 10:05.060 were like, hey, man, are we going back to tech or are we going back to unemployment? 10:05.420 --> 10:07.980 Well, what are we going to do? Because we were trading together for quite some time. 10:08.100 --> 10:12.220 We were crazy. Yeah, we were trading. We were successful in that. And we were like, 10:12.320 --> 10:18.400 okay, listen, like, should we go back? Yeah. You know, and I just felt like I 10:18.400 --> 10:22.900 can't go back. I don't know why. No, you know, it was something that was dragging 10:22.900 --> 10:28.440 me or forcing me. And we had this conversation so many times at that time. I 10:28.440 --> 10:33.420 think it was a sort of a fatigue of being promised something in an industry. And I'm 10:33.420 --> 10:39.200 not saying that we're sort of, we expected something from somebody else, but it was a 10:39.200 --> 10:43.640 fatigue of the sort of regurgitation of the same type of thinking in this 10:43.640 --> 10:49.800 industry, right? Yeah. The hype and the whole, you know, massive amount of money, 10:49.940 --> 10:53.340 investment, VCs and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. It was sort of, we got tired 10:53.340 --> 10:58.320 a little bit about it, but we needed to make something that was ours. That we 10:58.320 --> 11:04.260 could trust, that we were genuinely used as people, right? Yeah. And I come from 11:04.260 --> 11:12.600 the philosophy where, you know, in my head, I'm imagining something like you say 11:12.600 --> 11:21.400 something. So this was my experience. I was sitting at home and I had a microphone 11:21.400 --> 11:29.560 and I had the whisper flow installed on my book. Yeah. And I was like, I'm having a 11:29.560 --> 11:33.780 conversation in the microphone and I'm looking at the screen and I'm seeing the 11:33.780 --> 11:38.620 output of that conversation. Sure. And then it just hit me like, okay, this is 11:38.620 --> 11:44.580 for real. This is, this is happening today, right now at this moment. And from 11:44.580 --> 11:50.640 that, I just felt if that's possible for me to be able to construct and give an 11:50.640 --> 11:57.160 intent of something that I want to happen or create. Yeah. Yeah. And it comes also 11:57.160 --> 12:03.560 from the Islamic philosophy where God says, kun faya kun, be and it becomes. 12:04.040 --> 12:09.920 Yeah. And you can now see that in AI and technology that as a human being, you can 12:09.920 --> 12:14.040 say something and it's building and creating this. Yeah. It was so powerful 12:14.040 --> 12:19.220 for me that I just felt like I have to go all into this new technology. Right. And 12:19.220 --> 12:26.620 actually see if, if this is real. Right. And that's, I think where naturally I 12:26.620 --> 12:33.000 asked you like, Hey, is this real? Or, you know, is this happening? Just as a non 12:33.000 --> 12:37.440 -engineer. Where now I could actually sit with Raju, who is like a fully fledged 12:37.440 --> 12:44.720 full stack engineer and code and build and do the things as you. I remember that. I 12:44.720 --> 12:47.960 remember that when I asked you, I was like, Hey, you need to go into GitHub and 12:47.960 --> 12:51.440 you need to start talking with the agents. And you were like a little bit hesitant. 12:51.840 --> 12:55.580 And you were like, what do you mean? I'm a CEO. I work with different stuff, you 12:55.580 --> 12:59.680 know? But I was like, I was like, Hey, there is no CEO anymore, man. It's just, 12:59.780 --> 13:03.680 everyone is the same now. Everyone has the power. Or it's just about how much 13:03.680 --> 13:09.720 experience and knowledge you have in your mind that you can. It quickly became to me 13:09.720 --> 13:13.820 is that, yes, I was using AI and agents and I was working as a product manager for 13:13.820 --> 13:17.360 another company, but not fully understanding the sort of capacity of this 13:17.360 --> 13:23.940 tech. Because it was all unknown for all of us. I think it become now more apparent 13:23.940 --> 13:28.640 that it's an extension of my mind and brain. I had to be a better CEO while 13:28.640 --> 13:33.060 doing it. What is a CEO if it's not somebody's holding the vision to an 13:33.060 --> 13:37.800 account? Yeah. Right? Making sure that whatever organization that we're doing is 13:37.800 --> 13:44.200 profitable. And I could see that type of work coming in where I can have one or two 13:44.200 --> 13:50.300 people with me who are intelligent in the way that they make judgment. Rather than 13:50.300 --> 13:55.080 work, they're actually good at judgment. And just give them those tools and those 13:55.080 --> 14:00.700 tools become an extension of their fingers and minds and everything else. And with 14:00.700 --> 14:06.220 Midfleet, we can look at sort of guaranteeing an outcome or working towards 14:06.220 --> 14:11.900 an outcome has become more of a reality. Yeah. And I think going forward, the 14:11.900 --> 14:17.140 vision and the long-term goal as, you know, for Midfleet is I'm thinking that 14:17.140 --> 14:22.680 you can be anybody. You can be whoever you want to be. You can be a big enterprise 14:22.680 --> 14:27.160 organization. Or you can just be a one single founder of, you know, maybe a two, 14:27.320 --> 14:31.860 just like us. Yeah. And you can go into Midfleet and you can say, hey, this is the 14:31.860 --> 14:37.200 intent. This is the outcome I want. And you can actually see that progress. And 14:37.200 --> 14:43.120 you can really see that coming to reality. And that's what I want to build for. I 14:43.120 --> 14:48.980 want to build for a generation where you have an idea. You know, instead of having 14:48.980 --> 14:54.600 this seat or this position that I came from, maybe you also came from where you 14:54.600 --> 14:58.400 have to listen to people, you know, telling you stuff that maybe you don't 14:58.400 --> 15:03.920 want to do, but you have to do it. And just coming out from that environment and 15:03.920 --> 15:11.100 saying, hey, I'm capable. I have the intelligence and, you know, ideas that I 15:11.100 --> 15:17.740 want something real to come out of that. So a little bit, I want to empower people. 15:18.000 --> 15:23.420 I want to empower, you know, you, you know, to be able to create something. And 15:23.420 --> 15:30.520 that's my intent for Midfleet, at least personally. Yeah, for sure. Like the 15:30.520 --> 15:36.080 ultimate vision of Midfleet is you're in the driver's seat, right? You can build 15:36.080 --> 15:40.720 whatever you want, whether it's engineering, sales, marketing, or calling 15:40.720 --> 15:45.620 your mom, as we said. But you put the rules of the engagement. You make sure 15:45.620 --> 15:50.620 that the agents actually deliver what they're supposed to do, right? So, yeah, 15:50.680 --> 15:56.900 with that, we have a couple of ways that you can work with Midfleet. And it's, you 15:56.900 --> 16:02.700 know, you can sign up for free, try it out, or get in touch with us. And our team 16:02.700 --> 16:07.080 will help you get on board with all the work that you need to be done with agents. 16:07.860 --> 16:12.240 Yeah. And thank you, guys. Thank you for watching. And I'm really looking forward 16:12.240 --> 16:18.120 to working with Ahmed and see where this is going. And also with you guys, you 16:18.120 --> 16:23.840 know, contact us. And we're here to support you, you know, on the onboarding 16:23.840 --> 16:28.660 and the journey as well to Midfleet. So just feel free to go in and contact us. 16:28.820 --> 16:32.960 And there is a chat box that you can just, you know, communicate with us. So, yeah.