In this episode of Founders’ Tales, Chris Hopkins from Evolution Recruitment speaks with Jack O’Brien, co-founder and CEO of Subconscious, an AI startup building infrastructure for long running, complex tasks to solve themselves efficiently.
Jack shares how Subconscious emerged from MIT research after struggling with existing AI agent tools that were slow, expensive, and ineffective on long context problems. The team rebuilt the system from the ground up to handle extended workflows with better accuracy, lower cost, and faster performance.
The conversation dives into the realities of building in the AI space, where speed is everything and founders must move faster than they expect. Jack talks about the importance of choosing the right team, staying focused on real customer problems, and avoiding distractions from constant AI hype and social media noise.
He also breaks down how Subconscious wins early customers through strong performance on long context tasks, as well as the hiring philosophy behind building a high intensity startup team. The episode also highlights the strength of the Boston ecosystem, especially its deep connection to MIT and access to top engineering talent.
