 This month’s four-minute FirstMile Founder interview features Luke Norris, co-founder and CEO of Kamiwaza, a FirstMile 2024 portfolio company. Kamiwaza.ai is driving enterprise AI innovation with a focus on secure, scalable GenAI deployments. With extensive experience raising over $100M in venture capital and leading global AI/ML deployments for Fortune 500 companies, Luke is passionate about enabling enterprises to unlock the full potential of AI with unmatched flexibility and efficiency. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be a paleontologist. I’ve delegated that dream to my wife now—she’s getting her master’s in Anthropology and we’ve even talked about doing underwater digs. When I was thirteen, though, I got into computers and the paleontologist dream took a back seat. I started a computer retail company where I put Nvidia chips into legacy PCs to enable CAD. Fun fact: I went to the same high school as Jensen—Aloha High School. Was starting Kamiwaza an "aha moment" or a "gradual realization"? A little of both. My previous company, Faction, focused on delivering reductive ML solutions, so we saw Generative AI coming like a freight train. About three years ago I was ready to move on from Faction, and by then it was clear the freight of Generative AI had arrived. If you could go back in time and give yourself advice when you first started Kamiwaza, what would it be? You’ll be continually shocked by the pace of change in generative AI. It requires moving every month. When we started, we thought in terms of a five-year plan. Now it’s more like a three-year plan, and even that feels hard to keep up with. The plan was grand, but it’s terrifying how quickly it’s happening. So I’d tell myself: dream even bigger—and expect it to happen faster. What is the best constructive feedback you have gotten, and how bad did it hurt the first time you heard it? The best feedback came from a friend and former employee, who told me to celebrate the small stuff because you’re always moving the goalposts on the big stuff. I tend not to acknowledge the little wins, just move on without remark, and that reminder stuck with me. Why is Colorado a great place to start a company? In this day and age, we need to balance camaraderie and celebrating wins with the need for remote and flexible work. Colorado attracts the type of talent that demands hard work but requires the balance of the great outdoors and nature. On the other side, customers love coming here for training, so it makes sales and CS easy. Rapid Fire Ques: How do you take your coffee? Black Favorite time management hack? I wear a Limitless pendant that records all my calls and meetings. It’s trained on my voice and annotates everything. It also pulls in my calendar appointments and tasks, then organizes them into a daily program I check every morning. I just verify everything is correct. I especially love it at conferences where you might have 15 meetings in a day. What AI products are you using in your personal life or professional work? We utilize a lot of our own AI solutions. For example, we recently launched an interview tool to help interviewers stay on track and ask the right questions. We’re also using some deep research products to help us make better decisions throughout the day. Last book you read? I literally just finished Accelerando. I recommend all VCs and founders read it. It's sort of crazy how far out the book projects the impact of AI. It came out in March 2014 and is more relevant than ever today. Favorite podcast or blog? I really like ACQ2, a sub-podcast from the Acquired team. Free time (not that you have any), but if you did or when you do, how do you spend it? I try to get out and hike every morning—living in the mountains makes it easy. When I have more time, I go fly fishing. And I love hanging out at our local brewpub, Angry James in Silverthorne. Comments are closed.
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