John Willett
4 Feb 2026Moltbook, SpaceX Buys xAI, Forbes 30u30, Granola Rebrand
Rogo's John Willett: $75M Sequoia-Led Series C & AI for Finance
John Willett, co-founder and COO of Rogo, introduces the AI platform for investment banks, private equity and hedge funds used by roughly 25,000 bankers and investors, and discusses its $75 million Series C led by Sequoia to fund European expansion from a new King's Cross office. He traces the company's origins to the Princeton 'Athena' NLP project with co-founder Gabe and their Wall Street analyst years, describes the shift from chat Q&A to end-to-end workflow automation like Excel models and pitch books, and how Rogo partners with banks' internal AI teams. He also recounts the reality of an analyst's day in 2020–21 banking and explains why EMEA needs a local team.
4 Feb 2026Moltbook🦞, SpaceX Buys xAI, Forbes 30u30, Granola Rebrand
John Willett (Rogo): $75M Series C & AI for Finance
John Willett, co-founder and COO of Rogo, discusses the $75M Series C led by Sequoia and Rogo's AI platform for financial firms, used by roughly 25,000 bankers and investors at banks, PE firms, and hedge funds. He traces the company's genesis to Princeton's Project Athena NLP research and his and co-founder Gabe's analyst years at Barclays and Lazard, explains how Rogo automates analyst workflows like Excel models and pitch books, and describes partnering with banks' sophisticated internal AI teams. He also covers relocating to London to open the King's Cross office and serve EMEA, before the show signs off teasing Thursday's episode.