Securing a16z Investment, They're Rebuilding Ad Systems with AI | A Conversation with Gen-Z CEO Jason Hu

This week's guest at Crossroads is Jason, co-founder and CEO of Nexad, a startup building in the AI Native advertising space. The company has raised funding from top-tier Silicon Valley VC firms including a16z, Prosus, and Point72, with the team based in San Francisco.

Both co-founders Jason and Harry happen to be in China right now, and they occasionally work out of AI Hacker House, where we often run into each other.

AI Hacker House is a beautiful building in Shanghai's Caohejing Park, initiated by Crossroads. It sits next to a large lawn and a quiet lake. We recorded the first half of this podcast episode while walking along that lake — you can probably hear birdsong and frog calls in the recording. "The intersection of technology and liberal arts," as it were, converging in a single soundscape.

In this episode, we look back at Nexad's founding journey, including how they won over top-tier VCs, their product innovations in AI Native advertising, and their competitive strategy against major platforms. We also cover the experience and challenges of building as Chinese founders in Silicon Valley, plus our outlook on how AI will transform the advertising industry and Nexad's vision for becoming "the next-generation AI-native advertising system" — Jason mentioned the words "future" and "next-generation" at least ten times throughout the episode.

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🎪 [Beijing Salon Announcement] Crossroads and Nexad will co-host an offline salon on AI + Marketing in Beijing next Monday. Follow the Crossroads WeChat account for registration details.

📢 Before we begin, a disclosure: I have been serving as an advisor to Nexad, so I inevitably have bias and affection toward their team and product. But I believe this episode is sufficiently objective and neutral, and I hope it helps you understand Nexad and the AI marketing landscape.

🟢 Part 1. Lightning Round

03:38 Age, alma mater, career history, MBTI, zodiac sign

04:11 Nexad in one sentence, revenue & profit, funding & valuation, team size

🟢 Part 2. Fundraising

04:37 How did you land investments from top-tier VCs like a16z, Prosus, and Point72?

08:15 What challenges do Chinese-background founders face when fundraising in the US?

10:21 What important things have you done since closing the round?

🟢 Part 3. The Future

13:30 How is Nexad different from pre-Gen AI advertising systems?

15:34 Can AI make the advertising user experience better?

20:52 Can Nexad replace marketing departments?

22:56 Who are your typical customers? What do the ad formats look like?

32:29 What do advertisers expect from AI?

41:30 What will next-generation advertising systems look like on next-generation hardware and computing platforms?

🟢 Part 4. Competition

27:18 Advertising + AI — why is there an opportunity for startups here?

31:32 What are you doing differently from Meta and TikTok?

33:12 Compared to other competitors, what is Nexad's edge?

🟢 Part 5. Entrepreneurship

39:57 The mentors who helped me most: Reynold Xin (Databricks co-founder), Troy Kirwin (a16z partner)

45:25 The impact and shock of DeepSeek R1

47:17 "I built an AI Agent for internal company use"

50:29 How do you view the AI Agent wave?

52:03 What AI products do you use most?

53:56 What AI product are you most bullish on?

54:17 What's similar and different between founders in China and Silicon Valley?

55:38 What's similar and different between this generation of founders and the last?

56:09 Who is the entrepreneur you admire most?

59:11 How do you define success for this startup?

Welcome to the Crossroads podcast 🚦 We track the industry shifts and new entrepreneurial opportunities brought by the next wave of AI technology.

🚦 Crossroads is Steve Jobs' metaphor for Apple — standing at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, where great products are born. AI is transforming every industry. We seek out, interview, and bring together a new generation of AI founders and active builders in the AI era. Together with them, we explore and embrace the new changes and new possibilities.

👦🏻 Host Koji: I co-founded Jiepang, The Fair, and Tangdao, and initiated AI Hacker House, a community space for the new generation of AI entrepreneurs. I believe technology, especially AI, represents the greatest value-creation opportunity of our generation. Feel free to reach out to chat, exchange ideas, and connect on what's next. Koji's Jike, Koji's website

👧🏻 Host Ronghui: I've worked at a USD VC fund and spent five years as a Silicon Valley correspondent, tracking tech development and business stories. Feel free to reach out to chat and exchange thoughts. Ronghui's Jike

🎄 This podcast is supported by The Fair's Sound Forest Podcast Initiative.