#99 Naveen Verma — From Princeton Professor to Venture-Backed CEO, Fundraising Without a Network, and Leading Firmly and Empathetically

From Start-Up to Grown-Up

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Naveen Verma is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Princeton and the co-founder and CEO of EnCharge AI, a startup building radically energy-efficient computers for artificial intelligence. In this episode, Naveen shares how his academic research into in-memory computing evolved over six years into a venture-backed company that’s rethinking the physical limits of AI computers.

Naveen explains why traditional computing models can’t keep up with the energy demands of AI, how in-memory architectures unlock new efficiency, and what it means to transition from professor to startup CEO. He also opens up about how failure shaped his leadership style, why co-founder alignment is more important than titles, and what academia taught him about being an empathetic manager.

Whether you’re in deep tech, academia, or just curious how foundational innovation becomes a company, this episode offers a grounded and honest look at what it takes to build from the lab up.

Where to find Naveen:

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to turn academic research into a real-world company
How to find and align with the right co-founders
What good conflict looks like in early-stage teams
How to fundraise as a professor-turned-founder
Why being self-aware matters more than fitting a role
How to build culture through actions, not statements
What it means to lead with empathy in high-stakes environments

Timestamps:

(00:00) Why Naveen almost quit engineering
(03:50) From PhD to professor to founder
(07:04) What EnCharge actually builds
(10:56) The six-year journey to a spinout
(13:20) Why incubation matters in deep tech
(15:53) Inspiration, practicality, and real-world impact
(17:28) Choosing the right co-founders
(20:33) Why Naveen became CEO
(23:00) Conflict as a strength
(24:21) Vision, perspective, and pushing back
(25:49) Advice on co-founder relationships
(27:59) Fundraising lessons from a first-time founder
(34:19) Growing to 70+ people
(35:51) Hiring for culture and long-term vision
(37:01) Talking about culture without naming it
(38:16) Letting go and empowering the team
(41:41) Hiring non-technical leaders
(43:17) What Naveen found easy and hard as a manager
(45:56) How he learned to give difficult feedback
(48:56) Managing stress through abstraction and presence
(51:23) Academic mentors who shaped his thinking
(53:08) Leadership as enabling others
(55:08) Impostor syndrome and comfort with failure
(58:00) Early rejections and how he bounced back
(01:01:00) What everyone should know about AI
(01:02:43) What Naveen wishes he knew earlier
(01:04:27) Final advice to founders: normalize failure

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