Interview with David DeWolf, CEO of Knownwell
Check out our most recent edition of Founder Spotlight Interview, featuring David DeWolf, the CEO of Knownwell, an AI solutions company revolutionizing the way businesses operate in the Intelligence Economy. We are thrilled to share with our readers Knownwell’s exciting journey and challenges.
Could you share the journey of Knownwell from its inception to becoming a leading AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) platform company in the market?
In May of 2023, I went on an 8 day silent retreat. On the flight there, I read the news for the last time before going “offline” and learned that Jeffrey Hinton had resigned from Google, supposedly so that he could speak more freely about the dangers of AI. I thought nothing of it.On the 6th day of my retreat, something hit me. My entire career up until that point had prepared me for this point in time. AI was the most powerful invention in the history of the world and we needed ethical leaders to run towards, not away from, helping its adoption in the enterprise. It was on that day that I decided to start Knownwell with a mission of helping businesses “realize the full economic potential of AI in a moral, ethical and responsible fashion”.I began to search for problems to solve and, after dozens of conversations with CEOs, board members and investors, I found that leaders were absolutely convinced that AI would transform their business –but they had no idea how and no clue where to start.
In late June I gathered Courney Baker, our Chief Marketing Officer, Mohan Rao, our Chief Product & Technology Officer and Peter Buer, our Chief Strategy Officer for a brainstorming session. Together we formed the foundations of the business and set a September 5th launch date.The rest is history. By October 6th we had found a product and by November we had found our first beta Customer.
How does Knownwell utilize AI and data analytics to synthesize natural communications, enterprise data, and public information into actionable intelligence for its clients?
Knownwell is reinventing the way organizations consume data. We are replacing the modern data stack with what we call the “intelligence” stack. We are working to minimize the amounts of customer data engineering that organizations need to complete to get value from their data and adding the ability to process the unstructured and unmanaged information – the natural information flows like emails, slack channels, and video recordings – to your intelligence.
What specific challenges or pain points does Knownwell address for mid-market professional services executives, and how does its platform provide them with a competitive edge?
Professional Service organizations lack the transactional data that SaaS, retail and other industries that have rich usage leverage to drive client retention, growth and operational excellence. Knownwell translates the rich communications that exist in service industries into operational data, allowing leaders to drive operational excellence.
Can you elaborate on how Knownwell’s platform helps minimize client churn, maximize client growth, and drive operational efficiency for its clients?
Knownwell turns client communications into client intelligence and provides leaders with discrete actions that they must take in order to manage service quality perception, strengthen commercial relationships and strengthen commercial alignment.
What are some key features or capabilities of Knownwell’s transformative platform that differentiate it from other solutions in the market?
Knownwell provides the industry’s first Commercial Health Score that is based upon actual operational information – as opposed to anecdotes or survey results. We surface key actions that leaders need to take in order to strengthen commercial health and plan and prioritize strategic objectives to improve corporate performance.
How does Knownwell ensure the security and privacy of client data while delivering actionable intelligence through its platform?
Knownwell has been architected from the beginning to handle sensitive data and the platform is built on GCP using the latest security and privacy standards. When leveraging our enterprise connectors, sensitive processing takes place within the client’s virtual private cloud and only meta-data is stored on Knownwell’s platform.
Congrats! Knownwell successfully raised $2,000,000 in pre-seed funding – can you share your funding experience?
Knownwell is fortunate to be operating in a massive market and to have a seasoned leadership team with multiple successful exits. 11 industry professionals, including 3 members of the management team, participated in the raise.
What are the future plans and goals for Knownwell in terms of innovation, expansion into new markets, and furthering its impact on client success?
Knownwell developing ground breaking technology that serves the B2B Service industry, whichrepresents $2 Trillion of the $3 Trillion Professional Services market. Right now we are focused specifically on helping middle market functional business services – Marketing, PR, Finance, Accounting and Technology Services organizations and will expand further as we capture market share.
As the CEO of Knownwell, what guiding principles would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?
There is nothing more important to the success of a company than surrounding yourself with the right people. Do not compromise. Character, passion, experience and expertise all matter. Do whatever it takes to surround yourself with a high caliber team.
