How To Actually
Get In.
What this is
We mapped 473 people and 1,794 public ties across the AI industry. Then we looked at how their work became influence, how they are connected, how their companies depend on one another, and where they disagree. The interactive map and the companion book let you explore those patterns yourself.
Three simplified entry paths, illustrated with people in the map. They are examples, not a count of the dataset.
Five Career Arcs by Starting Point
The long-form edition compared career arcs by starting point and by the time people spent building relevant experience.
These arcs describe the curated cast; they are not forecasts or success probabilities. Read Chapter 1: Age and paths →
From the book
- Influence came when visible work met collaborators and an institution with reach. Anthropic, NVIDIA, and Harvey show three different combinations of prior work, teams, resources, and users.
- Some paths run through research or engineering; others through knowledge of customers or the experience of building a business. A title records a position; a career shows the work behind it.
- The median founding age in this selected cast was 33. Among 159 founders with a recorded age, 70 founded at 35 or older.
- A shared school or employer records common background; it does not show that two people met. Cofounding, coauthoring, investment, and introductions are different kinds of ties.
Counts describe the book's selected cast, not success rates for all founders. The book's Findings at a Glance lists six recurring patterns, each linked to its evidence.
Explore the full map and book
Search 473 people. See how they're connected. Read the companion book behind the map.