Building at the Frontier: Hypergrowth Startup Operator Panel
Join CORE & Bleecker Street for a fireside chat with operators at some of the top AI startups today, ranging from engineers and researchers to business strategists and marketing leads. Hear about what it's like to build and operate at the AI frontier.
Whether you're aiming for a top startup after graduation or simply want to learn how the best operators think and work, this is a rare chance to hear it firsthand. Come ready with questions!
Meet the speakers:
Brian Zhou, Engineer @ Cognition
Brian graduated from Princeton in May with a degree in Computer Science and now builds AI tools for federal customers at Cognition. His work spans product, ML infrastructure, and forward-deployed engineering. Previously, he wrote Starlink's wifi telemetry system at SpaceX as a founding member of the Aviation team.
About Cognition: Cognition is the company behind Devin, the first fully autonomous AI software engineer, and one of the fastest-growing companies in AI coding.
Johnathan Bridges, Founding Marketing @ Antimetal
Johnathan recently joined Antimetal as a founding marketer after nearly two years of working in Growth at Tennr. A Stanford grad (and former Class President), he'll talk about choosing a startup, taking on early leadership, and building a brand from zero.
About Antimetal: Antimetal is building an autonomous AI system for managing software in production that diagnoses and fixes infrastructure issues so engineering teams can focus on building.
Matt Garcia, Business Operations & Strategy Lead @ Tennr
Matt works on Business Operations & Strategy at Tennr, contributing across revenue strategy, process optimization, special projects, and more. Matt joined Tennr after 2.5 years at McKinsey. A Brown grad, he'll speak to what ops and strategy look like inside a fast-scaling company and what it’s really like to take the leap from strategy consulting to a startup.
About Tennr: Tennr uses AI to automate referrals, ensure payor-ready documentation, boost conversions, and cut denials, helping providers get patients from referral to treatment faster.
Meet the hosts:
Justine Mach, President @ CORE
Justine is one of CORE's Presidents and studies Computer Science and History at Columbia while working as a GTM Engineer at Forus outside of class. Justine has earned experience across the startup/venture ecosystem, working across Growth and Engineering at Browserbase, Growth at Dedalus Labs (YC S25), and software engineering at Zoomprop. She's also a Venture Partner at Contrary.
Antonio Warren, Senior Associate @ Bleecker Street
Antonio is a Senior Associate at Bleecker Street, where he started as the firm's Founding Associate. He places candidates at startups backed by firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Sequoia, and Kleiner Perkins and graduated from Princeton in 2025 with a degree in Architecture.
About CORE:
CORE is an undergraduate entrepreneurship society cultivating Columbia's community for student founders, engineers, and operators. CORE hosts events with the likes of OpenAI, YC, and a16z, runs the Almaworks accelerator (100+ startups graduated, raising >$150M total), and hosts the CORE Fellowship internship program, recruiting and pairing motivated Columbia students with impactful internship opportunities in the New York Area.
About Bleecker Street:
Bleecker Street is an NYC-based executive search firm that places talent into top startups backed by some of the best venture capital firms in the world, including 8VC, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia, among others.