Welcome to Homebase AI - A weekly newsletter where we share our interviews with founders & leaders building next-gen AI companies and curate interesting news, insights & trends in the AI space for our community members.

What’s on tap today:

• Our interview with Ole Shved | CEO and Co-Founder @ StackBob

• Weekly Headline Recap

• What's trending in AI this week

• Community Update

• How Homebase Helps You

AI Founder Story

How Ole Shved is Disrupting the $25B Identity Management Industry

Quick Background

Ole Shved, co-founder of StackBob, is revolutionizing identity and access management with AI-powered solutions that eliminate the "SSO tax" and simplify enterprise security. With experience across five B2B startups, Ole partnered with his cybersecurity expert co-founder to build a solution that automates access management across any tool - even custom-built internal applications.

When his previous company was scaling from a handful of engineers to over 30, he faced a frustratingly common problem: managing access across a sprawling tech stack had become a nightmare. Like countless founders before him, Ole watched as his team wasted hours on the mind-numbing process of manually provisioning and deprovisioning tools. What he discovered next would change everything.

"There's a cartel situation in the market called the SSO tax," Ole explains. "If you want centralized identity management, you first need to upgrade every single tool to their premium plans. It means companies end up paying two, three, sometimes four times more than they did before." This insight led Ole to co-found StackBob, a revolutionary identity and access management solution that's taking aim at industry giants like Okta, Ping Identity, and Microsoft Entra – and it's powered by AI.

Key Achievements & Insights:

• StackBob eliminates the "SSO tax" by automating access without requiring premium tool upgrades.

• Their browser-based AI agents can learn and integrate with any application - even those without APIs

• Implementation time drops from 3+ months (typical for Okta) to days or weeks

• The platform provides comprehensive security compliance support for SOC 2 and ISO certifications

• The "magic moment" for customers comes when StackBob successfully manages tools that no other system can handle

• The company has secured dozens of customers and is growing "mindfully" with high-touch onboarding

• Their AI agents handle the tedious provisioning work, freeing IT teams to focus on strategic security initiatives

Watch the full interview below! 👇

The Ultimate Lesson

When asked about his founder journey, Ole doesn't talk technology – he talks teamwork. "The most important principle I would advise any founder to follow is to always focus on your team first," he emphasizes. "Only with a strong and exceptional team can you build an exceptional product." Ole's partnership with his co-founder Yarek, a cybersecurity expert he worked with at a previous startup, proved crucial for tackling a complex industry with high barriers to entry.

For executives still on the fence about prioritizing identity security, Ole shares a sobering reminder from a CISO he works with: "The best time to start caring about your cybersecurity was yesterday." With the majority of breaches now beginning with compromised identities, the cost of inaction far outweighs the investment in protection.

🔥 Discover how Ole's AI agent is making Okta obsolete and saving companies thousands in "SSO tax" — Read the full interview →

HEADLINE ROUNDUP
Headline recap

• New Algorithm Detects Cancer with Near-Perfect Accuracy (Link) Revolutionary AI system achieves 99.26% accuracy in endometrial cancer diagnosis, potentially saving countless lives through earlier detection than human doctors can provide.

• Elon Musk Folds X into xAI at $33 Billion Valuation (Link) In a strategic consolidation of his tech empire, Elon Musk is combining X (formerly Twitter) with xAI through a share swap that values his AI venture at $33 billion.

• SoftBank's Trillion-Dollar Moonshot: AI Robot Parks Coming to America (Link) SoftBank unveils its most ambitious project yet: a $1 trillion investment in AI data centers and robot industrial parks across the US, seeking backing from major financial institutions.

• ChatGPT Creator Hits Record Valuation: OpenAI Raises Staggering $40 Billion (Link) OpenAI shatters funding records with a $40 billion raise led by SoftBank, cementing its position as the world's most valuable AI company and accelerating its development of advanced language models.

• Taxo's AI 'Reasoning Engine' Secures $5M to Cut Admin Bloat (Link) YC-backed Taxo attracts $5M investment for its innovative AI system that promises to eliminate the administrative burden crippling healthcare providers and reduce costs for patients.

TRENDS
What's trending in AI

Vidnoz AI

• Key Player: Vidnoz AI is an emerging leader in AI-powered video creation, leveraging advanced deep learning for lifelike avatars and automated content production.

• Market Value: With AI video tools seeing explosive growth, Vidnoz AI has positioned itself as a competitive player in the multi-billion-dollar AI-driven content industry.

• Adoption: The platform is rapidly gaining traction among marketers, educators, and content creators, offering over 2,800 templates and 1,500 AI avatars.

• Recent Developments: Vidnoz AI recently introduced AI-powered video translation and voice cloning, expanding its global accessibility and content personalization features.

Growth: The demand for AI-generated content is skyrocketing, with businesses and creators seeking scalable, cost-effective video solutions. Vidnoz AI’s suite of tools has led to an 80% reduction in production costs for users, driving wider adoption.

Why It Matters: Vidnoz AI democratizes video production, making professional-quality videos accessible without high budgets or technical expertise. Its innovations in AI-driven translation and avatars set a new standard for personalized digital storytelling.

The Big Picture: As video continues to dominate digital engagement, AI-powered content creation platforms like Vidnoz AI are shaping the future of marketing, education, and online media. Their rapid evolution underscores the growing reliance on automation in creative industries.

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