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AI Founder Story

The Founder Who Ditched Chatbots to Build the AI Cockpit

Executive Hook

What if your team never had to prompt AI again? What if enterprise AI adoption could happen without friction, training, or tool overload?

While most companies are still asking their teams to prompt models, Delos is betting big on orchestration. Founder Thibaut De La Grand’rive believes the future belongs not to those building the models—but to those who make them usable at scale. This is the story of how Delos evolved from a scrappy AI agency into a platform trusted by Allianz, Shiseido, and top-tier VCs.

From Services to Scalable Infrastructure

Thibaut and his brother Pierre launched Delos not as a product—but as a learning engine. They used early agency contracts (with Allianz in five countries) to observe enterprise pain points up close, while getting paid to build foundational tech. The goal wasn’t just to understand GenAI—it was to understand how companies would struggle to adopt it.

Instead of competing to build their own LLM, they built something most AI companies were ignoring: the orchestration layer. Delos combines the best large language models—GPT-4, Claude, Mistral, Gemini—into a single workspace designed to eliminate prompting altogether. Their unique approach attracted top-tier global investors, including 20VC, Plug and Play, Innovia, and Team Aventures. In early 2024, Delos secured a €2.5M seed round to fuel expansion as reported by Vestbee. Now, they’re preparing for a major US push and a much larger raise in 2026.

Key Achievements & Insights:

• Validated Early with Enterprise Revenue

  We had the opportunity quite quickly to sign a very good contract with Allianz… in five different countries in Europe.

• Orchestrates AI, Doesn’t Build It

  You don’t have to choose any LLMs anymore… We take the best out of them all and introduce more technologies to make them stronger, more powerful, and cheaper.

• Built a Competitive Moat Around Simplicity

  If you have a good platform with great parametering, you don’t have to prompt anymore.

• Raised from global Tier-1 VCs

  20VC with Harry Stebbings, Team Aventures from Xavier Niel, Plug and Play, Innovia from ex-Google CFO Patrick Pichette—strong people who really understood the vision.

• Created a Culture That Keeps Top Engineers

  We impose identity—no remote, beers every week, team wins celebrated like company wins. Our engineers are Polytechnique and ENS—top of France and Europe.

• Built a strong team identity to retain elite engineers

  We take beers every week. When someone gets a client, everyone celebrates.

• Smart Go-to-Market Focus on Mid-to-Large Enterprises

  B2B is our main market. Shiseido—45,000 people—uses Delos. They love it because people actually use it.

Watch the full interview below! 👇

The Ultimate Lesson

Thibaut’s most important insight? AI adoption doesn’t fail because of tech—it fails because of UX. Most people in large companies can’t prompt. They shouldn’t have to. Delos removes that layer entirely, letting teams share agents, workflows, and content without asking anyone to “figure it out.”

His advice to other founders: avoid narrow, vertical GenAI plays. You may be replaced by the next 250 clones. Instead, build products that embed into daily workflows. Build things people depend on. That’s how you stay in the game.

See why top VCs are betting on Delos' vision for frictionless AI adoption in our founder interview — Read the full interview →

HEADLINE ROUNDUP
Headline recap

• Microsoft Paves Way for OpenAI's Wall Street Debut (Link) ChatGPT maker and tech giant renegotiating their partnership terms to unlock fresh capital and clear regulatory hurdles for what could be the most anticipated tech IPO in years.

• Anthropic Secures Massive $2.5B War Chest (Link) Claude's maker lands unprecedented credit facility as Wall Street doubles down on AI investments despite market uncertainties.

• Musk's $40B Gift to NVIDIA Shareholders? (Link) Tesla's CEO may have inadvertently supercharged NVIDIA stock with his latest AI infrastructure announcements.

• Google One Hits 150M Subscribers Riding the AI Wave (Link) Premium $19.99 tier with exclusive AI features drives explosive growth for Google's subscription business.

• Trump Brokers Historic $1.4T UAE-US AI Investment Deal (Link) President announces decade-long investment during Abu Dhabi press conference, potentially reshaping the global AI landscape.

TRENDS
What's trending in AI

Vidnoz AI

• Key Player: LA-based Vidnoz creates AI videos without cameras or actors. Founded in 2016, they've scaled to 70M+ users with 1,500+ AI avatars and 2,800+ templates.

• Market Value: Bootstrapped with no external funding, competing against funded rivals like Runway. Freemium model starts free; paid plans from $14.99/month, reducing production costs by 80%.

• Adoption: Explosive growth from 300K to 70M+ users since September 2023. User base spans 40+ industries, strongest in marketing, education, and corporate training.

• Recent Developments: June 2024's Vidnoz AI 3.0 added seated avatars and team collaboration for up to 1,000 members. Achieved ISO 27001 certification in January 2025.

Growth: 5,400% growth in two years with 110K active users. Businesses report saving $10,000/month compared to traditional video production while seeing higher conversion rates.

Why It Matters: Democratizes video creation in a market where quality video drives engagement. Enables scaling production without proportionally scaling costs across marketing, training, and customer service.

The Big Picture: Vidnoz shows how AI can transform creative fields. Unlike VC-backed startups, they've built a sustainable business while partnering with Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI to deliver enterprise-grade capabilities at consumer-friendly prices.

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