Ignite AI: The AI Gateway for Models, Agents and Multi-Device Inference with Jonathan Archer | Ep301

Jonathan Archer (0:00)

You know, it's really good to have different models for different use cases, and that's, I think, one of the best selling points with Open LLM is like, okay, you bring your own keys, you bring your own subscriptions, but we're gonna live in a multi-model future. And I think this is also kinda, from my crypto experience, it's like, okay, there's gonna be more than one ecosystem, and it's actually the best when you start using different products together, you know, because they have different use cases. And so that's something that we're working on for the landing page, is these kind of like cookbooks and recipes, let's say, for, you know, what model to use when, because, yeah, it makes a lot of sense, and it's really annoying if you have to switch, you know, different UIs all the time to get access to each of those models. Like, you don't have to go to Grokbot, and then back to, I don't know, Cloud Code, and then back to Codex, you know. Just do whatever you wanna do in the place that you get the most work done.

Brian Bell (1:15)

Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Ignite Podcast. Today, we are delighted to have Jonathan Archer on the mic. He's the co-founder and CEO of Open LLM, a gateway that puts every AI model you pay for, Claude, GPT, Gemini, etc., behind one key. Before building infrastructure for the AI stack, he spent years in Web 3, running Community Growth and Tokenomics for NFT projects. He's here to talk about what that takes to build an AI right now. Thanks for coming on, Jonathan.

Jonathan Archer (1:39)

Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Brian.

Brian Bell (1:41)

Yeah, I'd love to start with your origin story. What's your background, besides what I said?

Jonathan Archer (1:45)

Yeah, so as you kind of mentioned, I've been advising and helping out with a bunch of different crypto projects over the past six years or so. And that's actually how I met my co-founder, Mamet. We met at a crypto conference in Buenos Aires, the Avalanche Summit about two years ago. And it was one of those funny connections where you meet someone and just immediately hit it off. So him and I started kind of trying to cook up some fun side projects online until eventually we started working together in person. But yeah, really, when it comes to BD growth, community management, everything in the non-technical side of project development. Yeah.

Brian Bell (2:23)

And we were joking in front of the podcast that you did a teacher training program for yoga. What was that like and how does that inform your kind of life as a founder?

Jonathan Archer (2:33)

Yeah. So the teacher training program was amazing. But what really taught me a lot was actually my time meditating. So I lived in India for about a year and a half, just meditating almost every day, spending a lot of time in silent retreats.

Brian Bell (2:48)

Was this in the Vedic tradition? So you have like mantras and stuff like that?

Jonathan Archer (2:51)

I did a bit of that, but I'm actually more in line with the Buddhist traditions. Okay.

The last school I practiced was really focused on the Theravada. So like the closest thing to the sutras or what the Buddha directly taught, more, let's say, yeah, more traditional. And I really enjoyed that because-

Brian Bell (3:12)

More like insights of things in your mind, breath, body sensations, stuff like that.

Jonathan Archer (3:16)

Exactly. And actually just open awareness, you know, and-

Brian Bell (3:19)

Open awareness, yeah.

Jonathan Archer (3:20)

Bringing that calm mind to whatever it is, where I've been in situations with my co-founder that can be very, very stressful. And I've noticed that this meditation practice has actually helped me maintain that calm, you know, and I think that's really important. And one of the best skills that you can nurture as a founder is like, okay, you know, you have to be able to push yourself and like take that stress and use it in a positive way, but you can't let it overcome you and just take advantage of the situation.

Brian Bell (3:51)

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I'm a naturally kind of a more hot headed person, believe it or not. And I think the meditation kind of smooths out the rough edges a little bit, right?

Jonathan Archer (4:01)

Yeah. And it's so easy to be hard on oneself, right? And I think that's something that my meditation teacher was always, always telling me, he's like, Jonathan, you're being hard on yourself again. You know, you've just got to loosen up and have fun. And when you're doing that, everyone has more fun around you. There's better deals, you know, things just flow naturally.