Meet Rohan Doctor, CEO and Founder of louisa.ai
Use AI to connect people not replace them
We caught up with Rohan Doctor, Founder and CEO of Louisa AI who recently closed a $5M+ Seed round and is one of the most recent investments by the Oxford Angel Fund. Louisa.AI is an AI-powered deal origination platform that transforms the way organizations leverage their internal expertise and relationships. Read more about Rohan’s journey from Oxford and his personal story behind the founding of Louisa AI.
What is the problem the company is solving?
Louisa AI solves the problem of not being able to find the right expertise at the right time. In most organizations, the connections and expertise of employees goes untapped, leading to missed revenue opportunities, fractured client experiences, disconnected colleagues and billions of dollars in hidden costs.
Why is this an important problem to solve?
On average an employee spends 20% of their time asking around for the right expertise or relationship. Louisa AI solves this problem by leveraging the data that lies internally within a firm, and external news, to prompt connections for colleagues to be at the right place at the right time.
How is the company solving the problem in an innovative way?
Louisa uses AI to build a map of what, and who everyone knows and connects it with its external graph of people, companies and news.
By auto- mapping expertise and relationships within companies, it enables employees to quickly find the right colleagues for collaboration, solving problems, and serving clients efficiently. This platform is especially valuable in today's remote and hybrid work environments, addressing the challenge of disconnected and underutilized internal networks. With Louisa AI, organizations can maximize revenues & their human capital, ensuring the best use of their workforce's collective knowledge and skills, ultimately driving growth and innovation.
What did you study at Oxford?
I matriculated in 1999 at St. Anne’s college, Oxford, in Physics (Double First).
What was your most important takeaway from Oxford?
Networks are key. At Oxford University there are 39 colleges, each with 100-200 students where in each year perhaps 5 read English, 5 read PPE, 5 read physics, and so on. This leads to an amazing network intelligence where one can quickly crowd source information on anything through friends you eat, live and hang with. Why do liberal arts when you can know all of the arts and sciences through your friend network?
Did you always think you would be an entrepreneur?
Not really, I spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs. So happy I did though!
What motivated you to start this company?
I closed a large trade at Goldman Sachs and management asked:
1.How did I do it?
2.How could I do it again?
The answer was serendipity - meeting the right person at theright time at a water cooler. The next question was what if one could systematize serendipity with data? And Louisa was conceptualized. Originally incubated at Goldman Sachs, Louisa spun out in March 2023 to become an independent company.
What are the biggest struggles you have experienced as a founder?
Navigating the buying process at large organizations. We’re mitigating this by focusing on a narrower market and owning that market (in our case finance) before moving to the next.
What has been your most rewarding accomplishment to date as a founder?
Seeing the look on customers' faces when we explain and show them what we have done.
Why is the Oxford Angel Fund excited about this investment?
We are excited about Louisa AI and the market opportunity it offers to boost sales productivity and revenue opportunities for organizations by uncovering valuable connections between potential clients and team members. We are just at the beginning of the next wave of productivity improvements that AI will enable and we see Louisa AI fuelling multiple business applications to maximize revenue. We are impressed by the team and are excited to see their traction. To learn more visit www.louisa.ai.
louisa.ai
AI-powered network intelligence platform
Founders: Rohan Doctor
Founded: 2023
Stage: Seed 2023
Notable Customers: Goldman Sachs
Louisa AI, an AI-powered deal origination platform that transforms the way organizations leverage their internal expertise and relationships. Louisa AI maximizes the revenues of financial institutions by reading all the newspapers and connecting colleagues, with the right expertise and relationships, to explore new deals with clients.