Maria Dulce Zamora

[Andrew @wesel0]

Simile trains a simulation model. Also, we train another model that predicts the error of the simulation model (the “confidence model”). Tucked away in a secret dungeon below Mission Bay, we also have a “confidence confidence model” that predicts the error of the confidence model, but this one is saddled with a certain sinister statistical spirit that must be contained at all costs! To contain San Francisco’s crisis of confidence, Members of Technical Staff across the valley must come together and read Simile’s confidence blog post today!

[Harry Stebbings @HarryStebbings]

Three weeks ago, I was sitting in the drawing room of the holiday rental my family always gets in July in Frinton-on-Sea (St Tropez of the UK).

It was midnight and as my grandparents were snoring loudly next to me; my phone suddenly buzzed. It was legendary investor, @shardul_shah @IndexVentures.

As much as I love Shardul, it is rare for him to send me a deal and so when he does, I pay attention.

Shardul was sharing @simile_ai with me, suggesting I meet @joon_s_pk. He spoke of all the companies he has backed, their growth being unparalleled. Given the man did Wiz, that really excited me!

I asked for the intro, and 60 mins later, at 1 AM UK time, I was on a call with Joon. Straight away, it was clear he was one of the most unique talents I had met; an ability to be world-class in two seemingly opposing skills: creativity and scientific rigour. The man was a painter before becoming world class AI mind! Wow.

I committed to invest on the call. Why? Joon is obviously insanely special. Second, I care deeply about upside. If this works, what could this be? If this works, it will change marketing forever. It will change stock markets forever. It will change human decision-making in general. Insane.

I had to be a part of it and so I gave Joon a boatload of cash and asked if I could summarise the notes from our conversation below. (Links in comments)

Huge thanks to @BennettSiegel @ninaachadjian @kevinhartz @BryanOffutt @karpathy for amazing thoughts, questions and feedback here.

1. The Question to Ask When Assessing Talent

The best way to evaluate talent is to look for consistent performance across multiple stages of a career, not impressive titles. Ask one question: Were they the common denominator behind every success? Exceptional operators repeatedly create great outcomes across different roles, demonstrating rare ownership and adaptability.

-- @kevinhartz you are one of the single best talent spotters in tech. What is the single biggest commonality in the best founders you have worked with?

2. The Sign of Truly Great Talent

Exceptional talent combines traits that rarely coexist. While most people have correlated strengths, world-class builders embrace cognitive tension. They are short-term paranoid but long-term optimistic—obsessing over daily execution while maintaining unwavering conviction in the bigger picture.

-- @dannyrimer you also have an immense love of art. How has art impacted your view on company building and entrepreneurship?

3. People Will Pay $100 Million for a Single Simulation

AI will enable simulations so valuable that companies will spend tens of millions on a single run. A simulation may cost $20 million in compute, but if it prevents a $500 million product failure, paying $100 million becomes an extraordinary bargain.

-- @GavinSBaker does this align to your views on specialised intelligence?

4. Why Simulation Requires Modeling Human Bias, Not Perfect Logic

Frontier labs are racing to build the “CPU of intelligence” optimized for perfect reasoning. The bigger commercial opportunity may be the “GPU of intelligence”: models that replicate human judgment, bias, and imperfect decision-making to simulate complex real-world markets at scale.

-- @ml_angelopoulos how does the role of evaluations change in this world?

[Percy Liang @percyliang]

It's time to scale that Simile.

Our ambition is to build a foundation model that can predict what anyone will do in any situation.

Research-wise, Simile in 2026 for simulation is like OpenAI in 2019 for AI assistants - signs of life, a path to scaling, yet still many open research questions.

Commercially, Simile is already a company with many amazing enterprise partners who understand the potential of simulation and will help us grow sustainably.

If simulation and this special combination of research and product is appealing to you, we’re hiring.

[Joon Sung Park @joon_s_pk]

Five months ago, we launched @simile_ai with the belief that simulation would become a new way for the world to make decisions.

Today, that belief feels less like a thesis and more like the beginning of a new category.

Incredibly proud of my team. We are just getting started.

[Maria Dulce Zamora @mdgzamora]

I'm excited to announce Simile's Series B — we raised $200M at a $2B valuation from Greenoaks, with participation from Index Ventures, Hanabi, Bain Capital Ventures, A*, and more!

Incredibly proud of this team, and we're just getting started. We're hiring!

[Maria Dulce Zamora @mdgzamora]

@simile_ai So exciting!

[Simile @simile_ai]

Today we’re announcing our Series B.

We’ve raised $200M at a $2B valuation from Greenoaks with participation from Index Ventures, Hanabi, A*, Bain Capital Ventures, CVS Health Ventures, and Definition.

Our mission is to simulate all eight billion people on earth, accurately.

[Simile @simile_ai]

h1 roadmap earth, h2 roadmap mars

[Simile @simile_ai]

Happy Valentine’s Day from Team Simile!

Fun fact: In our founders’ 2023 paper, @joon_s_pk and team introduced the concept of generative agents to the world by simulating a town of 25 agents… one of who was planning a Valentine’s Day party.

The agents autonomously spread invitations to the party over the next two days, made new acquaintances, and asked each other out on dates to the party.

This town of agents, Smallville, along with all the flirty festivities, was instrumental in creating the field of AI-based simulation.

Love is in the air! 🎈

[Joon Sung Park @joon_s_pk]

Introducing Simile.

Simulating human behavior is one of the most consequential and technically difficult problems of our time.

We raised $100M from Index, Hanabi, A* BCV, @karpathy @drfeifei @adamdangelo @rauchg @scottbelsky among others.

[Simile @simile_ai]

https://t.co/eKKz1ewGex

[Maria Dulce Zamora @mdgzamora]

Unusual Academy applications are open! 8 weeks of in-depth company building lessons from people like @Adam Grant and @Sarah Leary, plus $250k - $1M in an uncapped SAFE note, and over $50k of credits from partners like [@qdrant], [@AnthropicAI] and more.
https://t.co/8uU3O1lAJ4

[Unusual Ventures @Unusual_VC]

Accelerate your path to product-market fit!

🚨 Applications for Unusual Academy's Fall cohort are NOW OPEN ⏰

Over 8 weeks founders learn the keys to:

— Customer discovery
— Conducting early outreach
— Working with design partners
and much more!

https://t.co/kwigl8cH5m

[Tyler Crown 👑 @RTylerCrown]

We are thrilled to share that @Unusual_VC is leading a $7m Seed round into @portraitanalyst. @Dplon88 and team are poised to accelerate/deepen powerful investment research through building a Gen AI research platform to discover "aha" moments for analysts in their thesis creation.

[Maria Dulce Zamora @mdgzamora]

@TeslaSupra 😭

[Sandhya @sandhya]

Generative video is going to massively change our creative lives over the next few years. But who wins?

Wrote up some thoughts with from all our thesis work @Unusual_VC on how new markets, networks, styles + unicorns will be born of generative video 👇
https://t.co/ntVtfwGmUV

[Unusual Ventures @Unusual_VC]

Lighthouse customers can create a great deal of momentum for an early-stage company!

But what happens when these deals go wrong?

In our NEW blog post, @larsalbright offers a strategic approach to structuring lighthouse deals.

https://t.co/YZBRwJFsdx

[Maria Dulce Zamora @mdgzamora]

@TeslaSupra 😂😂😂

[Tyler Crown 👑 @RTylerCrown]

Calling all Boston area entrepreneurs - Similar to what we have hosted in NYC and SF, @Unusual_VC and @GlasswingVC are hosting a get together on May 18th for Boston's community of builders, technologists, and founders. ✉️ link in thread and DM me for password!

For those in other metros, stay tuned for an event happening near you soon!

[Maria Dulce Zamora @mdgzamora]

Unusual celebrating five years!

I'm truly grateful to @jvrionis for giving me the opportunity to work for him and a great company like @Unusual_VC . Working with intelligent, dedicated, and wonderful people has been an honor.

Cheers to the next five!

[John Vrionis @jvrionis]

Had a chance to reflect on the first five years of building @Unusual_VC and the team surprised me with a video from our Founders. Nothing more inspiring than hearing from the people we work in service of. Onward! https://t.co/Plzt6gpk1v