Episode
START: Ian M.J. McInnis, CEO & Co-Founder, WithAI “Custom command centers for hedge funds”
- Podcast
- START
- Published
- Jun 24, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1159
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://share.transistor.fm/s/08290b8d
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/start-7171926/episodes/start-ian-m-j-mcinnis-ceo-co-founder-withai-custom-command-centers-for-hedge-funds/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/start-7171926/start-ian-m-j-mcinnis-ceo-co-founder-withai-custom-command-centers-for-hedge-funds.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
The biggest hedge funds have entire teams building AI. Most asset managers are on their own. But closing that gap isn't about buying more AI. It's about a problem most people get wrong. You can test code by running it. You can't test an investment by buying it. Software engineering and investing aren't the same problem In software, we've moved from autocomplete to agents to long-running agent swarms - each step climbing another level of abstraction In investing, human judgment still has to exist at the object level So the challenge was never deploying agents The challenge is giving them the context to be useful Every source of knowledge Internal and external Structured and unstructured Connected to the people making decisions. That's what Ian M.J. McInnis and his co-founder Ben Finch built at WithAI (YC P26) Not another AI tool A customized environment where agents can work the way investors actually do. Ian knows the problem firsthand. Before co-founding WithAI, he worked at the center of AI and investing at Bridgewater, studying how AI would reshape markets and knowledge work. His conclusion after trying the alternative: "The DIY approach ends in pain" The future isn't simply managing swarms of agents It's knowing what to delegate What to automate And where human judgment remains essential That's why WithAI focuses on amplifying investors rather than replacing them Research faster Monitor more companies Surface information that would otherwise be missed "AI for asset managers, built with you": Security, infrastructure, and white-glove service for harnessing the latest agents 🎙️ Ian McInnis , CEO & Co-Founder, WithAI on Fondo START pod 00:20 Why AI adoption in investing requires more than simply deploying agents 00:35 Building a customized AI operating environme…