Tadas Jucikas is one of the newer technology entrepreneurs to arrive in Nashville, moving his family and his artificial intelligence startup from San Francisco. His company on Sept. 22 announced an additional $6 million of funding, bringing its total capital to $11 million since Jucikas started the business in 2017. During this week's Launch Tennessee 3686 Festival, he shared more about his company, the move and plans for more growth.
Company name: Genus AI
Founder: Tadas Jucikas, CEO
What they do: Genus AI's technology creates product imagery and video that its clients — e-commerce brands and companies selling direct to consumers — use on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and other social media channels. Its software also can do predictive audience analysis. "Our mission is to make that available and accessible to brands of any size," Jucikas said.
How it started: Jucikas created the company in London after finishing his doctorate at Cambridge University in computational neuroscience. After netting a round of angel funding, he moved to the Bay Area, as a majority of customers were in North America. The company's engineering and technology team remains in Lithuania.
How it's going: Genus AI has a seven-figure revenue run-rate and is "very close to break-even" today. "It's very important to have good fundamentals … and be conservative about all this," Jucikas said. Already this year, dozens of clients have used the software to generate 10 million product images.
Why Nashville: Jucikas visited Tennessee a few times to see his brother-in-law, who lives in Cookeville. He's found Tennessee to be a great location as far as navigating time zone differences, as well as reaching his U.S. customers, which are scattered across the country. "Lastly, Covid changed the Bay Area significantly," he said. "A lot of earlier-stage companies that were building exciting things found they don't necessarily need to be there to keep doing what they're doing. The balance of quality of life, quality of people and talent made Tennessee stand out."
Initial impressions: "It's definitely at the beginning of building a technology entrepreneur ecosystem when compared to places like the Bay Area, London, etc. But it’s actually an opportunity to accelerate and create new things and be a part of expanding this technology knowledge base. I’m very energized."
What's surprised him the most: "The pace — everyone gets everything done, but they’re not frantic. Everyone’s extremely polite. You can end up talking with a neighbor for 30 minutes if you bump into them, which wouldn’t happen in a large city. You pause and take the time to appreciate that moment, and that’s sometimes missed in larger cities that I’ve lived in and we’ve done business in. That permeates personal interactions, how staff members interact, and how we can put ourselves in a better mindset to serve our customers."
Hiring plans: Genus AI has three full-time employees locally today, with the other 14 in Europe. Jucikas aims to grow local headcount to between 12 to 14 people in the next six to eight months. They'll focus on go-to-market efforts and customer support. "The investment now has been mostly in technology, but it's time now for us to invest in growth, and that's the idea here."
