What if you could meet your heroes?

What if you could sit down with the best minds in the world—your favorite author, your childhood hero, the sharpest thinker in your field—and ask them anything? Throughout life, we’re shaped by the people we learn from. But the right guidance is often out of reach. The best coaches are booked. The industry veterans don’t take many meetings. And the people we most wish we could hear from—our grandparents, or the genius whose biography sits on our bookshelf—may no longer be around.

What if that wasn’t the case?

That’s the question at the heart of Delphi: What if you could create a digital version of someone’s mind—one that thinks like them, speaks like them and can share their expertise, on demand and endlessly patient?

The first time I met Delphi CEO Dara Ladjevardian, this idea sounded equal parts fascinating and science fiction. But the more I saw it in action, the more obvious—and inevitable—it felt.

Delphi began with one person’s desire to reconnect.

Dara had just quit his job as an engineer at C3.ai and was seeking advice on what to do next. In particular, he wanted guidance from his grandfather Akbar, who was a successful entrepreneur in Iran before the revolution and fled to America to create a better life for his family. But Akbar had suffered a stroke that affected his ability to speak, and could no longer hold the conversations Dara longed for.

What Dara did have, though, was his grandfather’s memoir—and a background in AI. So he used the full text of that book to create the first Delphi, an interactive mirror of his grandfather’s teachings.

Later Dara joined OpenStore, where he used the same technology to build an AI chatbot of Nest co-founder Tony Fadell to help give his team product advice. It was there that Dara met his co-founder, Sam Spelsberg. Together they ran a book club and found common ground in their love of learning from great mentorship through books—then went on to co-found Delphi one month before the launch of ChatGPT.

Fast forward to today, and Delphi is a platform where anyone can build their own “digital mind.” Just connect your existing content—writing, podcasts, interviews, tweets—or sit for an interview, and Delphi handles the rest. The result is an interactive version of your perspective that people can talk to, text or video call—even in languages you don’t speak. The experience feels personal, thoughtful and uncannily true to you.

The diversity of use cases and personas is fascinating, with everyone from PM expert Lenny Rachitsky to Arnold Schwarzenegger using Delphi to multiply their impact. Coaches like Matthew Hussey and Hadar Shemesh scale themselves to hundreds of clients, doctors like Mark Hyman answer patient questions, and professors like entrepreneur/VC Jeff Bussgang offer 24/7 access to their Harvard Business School courses and books. Beyond the obvious business applications, there are also parents who want to preserve their knowledge for their kids, foundations of legends like Ayn Rand who want to sustain legacy, and people who bring Delphi to their IRL meetings as if it’s their own chief of staff. Delphi lets these experts be everywhere to everyone, all at once.

The excitement is catching on inside Sequoia, too. Growth Partner and HubSpot co-founder Brian Halligan uses his Delphi for founder coaching. Design Partner James Buckhouse created one to consult on design and storytelling—complete with insights from his blog. And Sequoia steward Roelof Botha’s Delphi, trained on our Crucible Moments podcast, doesn’t just reflect his knowledge—it even captures his South African accent.

At Sequoia, we’ve seen a familiar pattern with legendary consumer companies: what starts as a niche—cat videos on YouTube, couch surfing on Airbnb, dancing teens on TikTok—can quickly become the new normal. Delphi founders Dara and Sam share the traits we’ve seen in many great consumer founders: clear vision, high conviction, velocity and the ability to win over early believers—including us. We’re proud to lead Delphi’s Series A and support their work toward a future where the world’s best knowledge isn’t locked away—but is instantly accessible to anyone, at any time. A future where you don’t just read about your heroes. You talk to them.