Issue No. 31Week ending Sunday, August 2, 2026726 episodes · 3,194 write-ups
The Podcast Summary.

The best ideas from 30+ top podcasts, every week.

The Best AI Companies Have Unique Data Acquisition Strategies | Simile Co-founder & CEO

With Harry Stebbings, Jun Song Park · Sunday, August 2, 2026

Jun Song Park, co-founder and CEO of Simily, discusses how their company creates a foundation model of human behavior through simulations. He explains Simily's unique data acquisition strategies focused on causal mechanisms and counterfactuals, rather than just predictions, to help clients shape the future. The episode also covers Simily's rapid product-market fit, its enterprise growth, Jun's team-building philosophy, and his vision for the future of AI simulation as a 'GPU of intelligence'.

Key takeaways

  • Simily, led by Jun Song Park, closed major enterprise deals within three months by solving acute customer pain points, challenging typical assumptions about corporate sales cycles. Read more →
  • Jun Song Park, co-founder and CEO of AI simulation company Simily, builds high-performing research and product teams by identifying specific, non-obvious traits. Read more →
  • Simily’s core insight is that large language models, trained on vast amounts of web data, can extract complex human behaviors, not just classify them. Jun Song Park noted, “if you poke at them sort of the right angle, you could actually extract a lot of realistic human behaviors out of them.” Read more →
  • Jun Song Park, CEO of Simily, argues modern AI companies need defensible data strategies that go beyond mere observation. Read more →

4 articles from this episode

More 20VC with Harry Stebbings episodes

Every 20VC with Harry Stebbings episode we cover →

The Sunday Email

Get next Sunday's issue in your inbox.

The week's best AI, tech, business, science, and culture podcasts in one short read. Free, every Sunday.

You get both newsletters, The Throughline and The Carry. No spam. Unsubscribe with one click.