Alex G, founder of Rena Labs, joins host Sunny Ray to explain how a personal pain point became a company. Overwhelmed by more than 30 meetings a week and over 200 messages a day across email, WhatsApp, Telegram and LinkedIn, he missed partner messages for a week and realized he had to build an agent that worked from his own context. Rena Labs has spent more than two years building privacy infrastructure based on trusted execution environments, under the slogan "don't trust, verify." Its first customers were hedge funds and market makers, and winning the first one took almost a year. The team then built two products on the same infrastructure: Insider Cash for financial data and Addis, a proactive agent that turns meetings into CRM updates and drafted replies with no prompts. Alex also shares advice for founders on landing the first big deal, explains why Rena avoids healthcare and other uncleaned data for now, and previews a mobile app launch planned for mid-November.
Alex G missed a week of partner messages, built his own agent, and then realized he could no longer work without it.
What pushed you to build an agent that works the way you work?
As a founder I handle over 30 meetings a week and more than 200 messages a day across email, WhatsApp, Telegram and LinkedIn. In business you need information fast to win a deal. When I missed partners' messages for a week, I knew I had to build an agent based on my own context.
Why did you move from infrastructure into the application layer?
Our middleware works for any private data, not just financial data, like chat history, docs and social data. Focusing only on infrastructure limited us to fewer than 30 frontier labs. A consumer app lets more people see what we do and understand why it matters.
Where does "don't trust, verify" come from?
Providers like big cloud companies ask you to trust their word on privacy. We use trusted execution environments instead. We publish verification code so anyone can mimic the process and get the same results, which shows we don't see, use or steal your data.
What was it like landing your first big customers?
It was a disaster at first. Persuading a top global hedge fund or trading firm as a startup is very hard, and it took almost a year to convince the first one. With investor help and endorsement, once we had it, others became much easier.
What advice do you have for founders about early deals?
Find an anchor deal and try your best to win it, even if it takes time. Your effort pays off many times over, because later deals take far less time and you already know the process. Be patient but hardworking.
What makes Addis proactive rather than another meeting summarizer?
Context. Addis connects to LinkedIn, WhatsApp, your CRM, Notion, Google Drive or HubSpot. After a meeting it puts details into your CRM and drafts customized replies. You give no prompts, review the result, and send with one click.
What will you not build right now?
We are not doing data cleaning, so the data must already be clean with a defined schema. Financial and social data fit well. Healthcare or image data are hard to fit into our infrastructure, so we are staying focused on two areas first.
What has to happen in the next 90 days?
Our mobile app launch in mid-November. BD and sales people mostly work from their phones, and the lack of a mobile app has limited attention so far. I expect many more users, and the app will work like a remote control.
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