Celebrating the rising changemakers shaping the future of AI.

A Startup Grind production

Nominations Open until September 10, 2025. Honorees Revealed October 1, 2025 @ Startup Grind AI Summit.

Pushing the world forward

The AI List will spotlight change makers and rising stars: founders, builders, researchers, industry leaders, media voices, policymakers, startups and more. Let’s recognize the people behind the work that has potential for outsized future impact, technical depth, and reflects a values-driven approach to building in AI.

100 honorees selected. List drops Oct 1.
Know someone shaping the future of AI? Nominate them – or yourself – for our AI List.

The Categories

Startup Founders (<$50m funding).

Startup Founders (<$50m funding).

While we’ll consider a wide range of profiles, we’re especially looking to highlight people who are pushing boundaries in the following areas:

Builders.

Product Leaders.

Researchers.

Industry Leaders.

Media Voices.

Policy Leaders.

Builders. Product Leaders. Researchers. Industry Leaders. Media Voices. Policy Leaders.

Startup Founders (<$50M Funding).

Media Voices.

Industry Leaders.

Policy Leaders.

Researchers.

Product Leaders.

Builders.

Startup Founders (<$50M Funding). Media Voices. Industry Leaders. Policy Leaders. Researchers. Product Leaders. Builders.

Meet the Judges

We’re grateful to our esteemed panel of judges — respected leaders and builders whose work serves as a compass for the future of AI. Their time, insight, and commitment will help shape this list and spotlight the emerging voices driving the field forward

  • Dr. Fei-Fei Li

    Professor, Stanford AI

  • Dustin Moskovitz

    Co-founder, Asana, Facebook

  • Emily Chang

    Host/Producer, Bloomberg

  • Sridhar Ramaswamy

    CEO, Snowflake

  • Darren Mowry

    VP, Google Cloud Global Startups

  • Armon Dadgar

    Co-founder/CTO, HashiCorp (IBM)

  • Ion Stoica

    Co-founder, Anyscale; Databricks; Berkeley

  • May Habib

    Co-founder/CEO, Writer

  • Rahul Vohra

    Founder/CEO, Superhuman

  • Navin Chaddha

    Managing Partner, Mayfield

  • Logan Kilpatrick

    Product, Google Deepmind

  • Dheeraj Pandey

    Co-founder/CEO, DevRev, Nutanix

  • Molly O’Shea

    Founder, Sourcery

  • Derek Andersen

    Co-founder/CEO, Startup Grind

  • Howard G. Wright

    VP, Startup Ecosystem, NVIDIA

  • Nicholas Thompson

    CEO, The Atlantic

  • Stefano Ermon

    CEO, Inception Labs; Stanford

  • Philip Dawson

    Head of AI Policy, Armilla AI

  • Sam Loesche

    Head of Policy, Waabi

  • Tanya Dua

    Senior Tech Editor, LinkedIn

The Honorees

The Honorees

Nomination Form

Everything you want to know about

  • Anyone making an impact in AI can be nominated. We’re seeking rising stars across builders, researchers, founders (with less than $50M in funding), policy leaders, media voices and industry leaders whose work points toward bold innovation and meaningful progress. Nominees should embody values of responsibility, diversity, and inclusivity, and show early signs of expertise, creativity, and future influence in their field.

  • To nominate, simply complete the nomination form before September 10, 2025. It should take no more than 10 minutes of your time.

  • Absolutely!

  • Nominations are carefully evaluated by panel of judges.

    Each entry is reviewed based on four key criteria:

    • The significance of the nominee’s contributions to the current and future landscape AI.

    • Leadership in Innovation: Advancing bold, responsible, and groundbreaking work. 

    • Ethics: Demonstrating commitment to responsible and ethical AI practices.  

    • Potential: Showing early signs of meaningful impact, promise, or influence in the field.

  • Honorees will be recognized as emerging change makers for their leadership in AI innovation across the Mayfield, Divot, and Startup Grind communities. They will receive a range of exclusive benefits announced when the list is revealed on October 1. Highlights include:

    • Public recognition as a rising leader shaping the future of AI.

    • Opportunities for increased media visibility to amplify your impact.

    • Exclusive access to private networking events with industry pioneers and investors.

    • Membership to a curated AI community focused on collaboration and innovation.

    • An invite-only gathering with fellow honorees, judges, and special guests in San Francisco, CA on November 6th.

  • For more information about the nomination process or event details, feel free to contact us. Our team is here to help! ai-list@startupgrind.com