Why did Silicon Valley’s top VC invest $17M in this startup founder?
John Ling, co-founder & CEO of Meridian, is building AI for one of the most overlooked but massive categories in software: spreadsheets. After seeing how fast AI could change the way people work, he set out to help the millions of people still buried in Excel move 20x faster.
Before Meridian, John spent years obsessing over how AI systems actually work, from data quality and evaluations to real-world workflows. His edge? First-principles thinking, relentless curiosity, and a willingness to spend thousands of hours where others won’t.
00:00 Intro
01:30 How he became a top 1% performer at ScaleAI
02:59 Why I Bet on This Founder – a16z, Kimberly Tan
07:26 Bias Towards Action
10:08 Spend 10,000 hours with AI – Own your unfair advantage
EO stands for Entrepreneur& Opportunities. As we’re looking to feature more inspiring stories of entrepreneurs all over the world, don’t hesitate to contact us at partner@eoeoeo.net
LinkedIn | @EO STUDIO
X | @eostudi0
