• Three friends founded an AI startup that builds agents for private-market investors.
• Raylu raised $8 million in Series A funding on Monday, bringing its total funding to $12 million.
• The trio created a beer ritual to ensure the company never costs them their friendship.

When Ali Dastjerdi and Nathan Ondracek became freshman roommates at Harvard in 2015, they didn't expect they'd one day be cofounders together — or that they'd build a startup with a third friend they hadn't met yet.

Ondracek met Samuel Ilkka at AWS — his first job out of college — and the two bonded quickly and became roommates in Seattle. During the pandemic, Dastjerdi, who was working remotely as an investor at Insight Partners, moved in with them for a year. Working and living together cemented the three-way friendship.

In 2022, the trio quit their jobs to cofound Raylu, an AI startup that builds agents to help private-market investors automate sourcing work. On Monday, the company announced that it had raised $8 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to $12 million.

One of their earliest customers, HighlandX, led the round. The VC firm used the product, loved it, and eventually asked how they could invest, Dastjerdi said.

The Raylu team consists of 11 people, with plans to expand to 20 by January.

The three 28-year-olds told me that Raylu works because the friendship works. One of the ways they protect their friendship: a single, unopened beer in their office refrigerator.

"The day the company collapses is the day we drink that beer," Ondracek said.

It's a reminder that even if the company they built falls apart, their friendship is still worth toasting.

From roommates to founders

Ondracek and Dastjerdi met the way many college friendships begin. Harvard assigns freshman roommates after a 200-question survey, and the two ended up in the same room. "From that point forward, we started becoming really close," Ondracek said. "Ali was the best man at my wedding."

They took the same classes — computer science and statistics — and stayed roommates for all four years. They spent late nights dreaming up business ideas, none of which stuck. But the urge to build something together did.

When Dastjerdi moved to Seattle with Ondracek and Ilkka, it was obvious to him that this was "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a company with two close friends that you think are truly brilliant."

"Some people start companies because of ideas. I think we started a company because it's a one in a million shot to have this group to be able to start it with," Dastjerdi said.

The trio, now based in New York, works out of a WeWork office, and no longer lives together.

The perks of deep friendship

Mixing friendship and business usually comes with risks. But the three cofounders said the overlap didn't scare them.

Dastjerdi said he sought advice from a mentor who'd once started a company with his childhood best friend. The mentor asked him one question: "If you and these two friends had just the biggest fight ever, what would happen the next day?

"I said probably nothing," Dastjerdi recalled. "We would just get back to doing what we were doing." The mentor said that was a good sign.

The trio said working together as best friends has upsides: They trust one another, reset fast after an argument, and know each other's strengths and weaknesses.

"It's like a little bit of a sibling relationship," Ondracek said, explaining that disgruntlement doesn't lead to lasting animosity.

When I asked the trio to describe one another, their dynamic snapped into focus. Ilkka said Dastjerdi brings "urgency" and an understanding of the investing world, and he called Ondracek the "best engineer" he knows. Dastjerdi described Ilkka as the team's optimist and risk taker.

The rules of staying friends — and staying sane

The cofounders said their dynamic has changed after starting a business together.

Dastjerdi said one of the hardest adjustments for him was remembering how to be a "regular friend" outside work. Because "99%" of his thoughts revolve around the company, he's had to build what he calls a "mental firewall" to keep cofounder mode from bleeding into friend mode.

Trust has also become non-negotiable. For Ikka, he has had to learn not to look over their shoulders as much when they're working. "I can either stress about everything, or I can trust these guys I'm working with to handle their weight," he said.

They've learned to celebrate wins more deliberately — especially because they're doing this not just as founders, but as friends.

"You have to celebrate the good things because no one's going to celebrate them for you," Ondracek said.

Reflections on being a founder

The founders say their journey has taught them a few valuable lessons worth sharing.

Ondracek said what matters most for a startup is its people.

"Nothing works if the people don't work," Ondracek said. "You can have the most product market fit, and if the people don't work, you're doomed from the start," he added.

Dastjerdi said founders shouldn't fall in love with an idea too early.

"We went through many iterations where it felt like someone kind of liked what we did," he said. "When we actually found product-market-fit, it is so tangibly different. It's like, people have to rip the product from you."

Keep iterating, be picky, and pivot more — sometimes that could lead to a bigger win, he added.

Ilkka warned against rushing into the founder path just because other people are starting young. The right time is when you're ready, and when there's a real purpose driving the decision, he said.

And if you're building with your best friends? Make sure you still want to open a beer together when everything goes south.

Do you have a story to share about building an AI startup? Contact this reporter at cmlee@insider.com or Signal at @cmlee.81.

• A former Netflix executive testified in the $11 million criminal fraud trial of Carl Rinsch.
• The executive said Rinsch presented him with a coffee table book with pictures from the production.
• It was the culmination of multiple points of failure for the ambitious sci-fi project.

He didn't get a visionary Netflix series. But at least he got a coffee table book.

Former Netflix executive Peter Friedlander testified Tuesday about director-producer Carl Rinsch's failure to deliver "White Horse," which was supposed to be a futuristic sci-fi show that turned into a Hollywood debacle.

At Rinsch's criminal trial, in a downtown Manhattan federal courtroom, Friedlander told the jury about being "blown away" by early footage of Rinsch's series before finding himself chasing the director for updates. Freidlander, who oversaw the development of shows like "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black," described "unproductive" efforts to obtain status updates with Rinsch leaving some meetings before they concluded.

Rinsch didn't complete a single episode of the show. Prosecutors have accused him of fraud and money laundering, saying he defrauded Netflix of $11 million by using production funds for things like Rolls-Royces, cryptocurrency bets, divorce legal fees, and luxurious mattresses.

Rinsch's attorneys have cast the situation as a "contract dispute" — not a fraud. In an opening statement Tuesday morning, Rinsch's attorney Michael Arthus said Rinsch was a "creative genius" who was overwhelmed by his triple-hyphenate role as a director, writer, and producer on the project and floundered without sufficient support from Netflix on the project.

According to Friedlander, in a bizarre May 2020 meeting at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons hotel, Rinsch provided him and another Netflix executive with one thing he did create: A coffee table book.

The book included "high-gloss" behind-the-scenes photos from the months of filming that had taken place for "White Horse" in 2019, which never continued, Friedlander said.

"In his head, it would impress us," said Friedlander told the jury.

'Budgets have exploded'

Freidlander, who left Netflix for a role at Amazon MGM Studios in September, said he decided to acquire "White Horse" for Netflix in 2018 after seeing footage that Rinsch had produced on his own.

Jurors saw a preliminary trailer for "White Horse" that depicted a futuristic world where artificial human-like beings create their own society after a schism with humankind. Friedlander said he was "truly blown away" by the "visionary" footage.

"The visuals were something that I had never seen before," he said.

Filming began in 2019. Rinsch had huge ambitions for the shoot, planning to film scenes in Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Brazil, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay.

Friedlander said he was concerned early on that Rinsch had not appeared to hire a line producer — usually a crucial role to handle the complicated logistics of filming scenes in so many different countries.

"It was troubling, because I knew how difficult it was to organize these international shoots," Friedlander said.

In September of that year, while "White Horse" was filming in Budapest, Rinsch emailed Friedlander telling him that the "budgets have exploded."

Rinsch suggested that either he deliver only half the number of episodes he promised, or that Netflix provide more money to continue filming at the same rate.

Friedlander found the email alarming, he testified. He said he needed to "go under the hood" to understand why the project's costs were ballooning far beyond what Netflix expected.

As Friedlander walked the jury through his version of events, the lanky-haired Rinsch, dressed in a blue suit, fidgeted with his tie and shirt buttons and scribbled in his yellow notepad. At times, he leaned forward in his seat, appearing to pay close attention to Friedlander's telling of the development of "White Horse." When US District Judge Jed Rakoff cracked a joke, he laughed loudly.

Friedlander and another executive flew to Budapest and met with Rinsch on October 11, 2019. Friedlander said he visited the set and watched footage that Rinsch had shot earlier in Brazil and Uruguay.

But Friedlander said he didn't get the information he needed from Rinsch about the cost overruns, and that Rinsch walked out.

"He left when the meeting was not over," Friedlander said.

Friedlander said a meeting with Rinsch the following morning was similarly "unproductive," and that the director walked out yet again.

Shooting in Budapest wrapped up in November of 2019, but "there was no plan" to continue filming "White Horse" in other countries, Friedlander said.

Over the next few months, Rinsch and Netflix executives hashed out a plan to keep the project alive, according to emails introduced as trial evidence.

They struck an agreement in late February of 2020, where Netflix would send $11 million to Rinsch's production company, and Rinsch would deliver the rest of "White Horse," using the money for filming, overhead, storyboarding, and other production costs.

Every week, Rinsch would provide Netflix with a working "assembly" — an unpolished draft of the show with raw footage — according to an email exchange between Netflix executives and Rinsch and his attorney that was entered into trial evidence.

Soon afterward, the coronavirus pandemic shut down any chances of filming resuming. But Rinsch emailed Friedlander, telling him he continued working on the project.

After seeing the coffee-table book, in May, Friedlander said he hadn't seen any signs of progress. Netflix wrote down the costs of the production in the fourth quarter of 2020, he said.

• Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has been barred from the American Economic Association.
• The lifetime ban was handed down several weeks after Summers' ties to Jeffrey Epstein became public.
• Recently released emails show Summers asked Epstein's advice on romantically pursuing a subordinate.

Larry Summers has been handed a lifetime ban from the American Economic Association.

The AEA did not specifically cite convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but referenced Summers' "conduct, as reflected in publicly reported communications," as inconsistent with the prestigious association's integrity standards. The move from the association came weeks after the emails became public.

Summers, a former Harvard president and US Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, has faced sharp scrutiny in recent weeks after a trove of recently released emails detailed his years of correspondence with Epstein that continued until July 5, 2019 — the day before the disgraced financier was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Business Insider reported that Summers would be stepping back from public life after the emails revealed he had sought Epstein's advice on how to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman he referred to as his mentee.

"I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused," he said in a statement to Business Insider at the time. "I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein."

Summers stepped down from his teaching position at Harvard University on November 21.

The ban from the AEA prohibits Summers from attending, speaking at, or otherwise participating in events or activities sponsored by the nonprofit academic association, which has over 17,000 members.

"The AEA condemns Mr. Summers' conduct, as reflected in publicly reported communications, as fundamentally inconsistent with its standards of professional integrity and with the trust placed in mentors within the economics profession," reads a statement released Tuesday by the AEA, which did not specifically mention Summers' ties to Epstein. "Consistent with longstanding AEA practices and to protect the integrity and confidentiality of AEA processes, the AEA will not comment further on individual matters or the specific considerations underlying this determination."

Summers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider regarding the AEA's decision.

• "Sean Combs: The Reckoning" features interviews and footage of Diddy days before he was arrested.
• Director Alexandra Stapleton spoke to BI about the docuseries' most shocking moments.
• They include a sex worker's recollection and a chilling revelation from singer Aubrey O'Day.

"Sean Combs: The Reckoning" shows a side of Diddy we've never seen before.

Netflix's four-part docuseries chronicles the rise and fall of Combs, also known as Diddy, as he goes from hip-hop mogul and billionaire business owner to the subject of a federal prosecution and over 60 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse.

Combs, who pleaded not guilty, was ultimately convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and is serving a 50-month prison sentence. He was acquitted of the most serious charges, including RICO conspiracy and sex trafficking by force or fraud, and is set to be released in May 2028. Combs has denied all wrongdoing in the civil cases.

Not only does the series feature interviews with many who have been inside Diddy's inner circle, including Bad Boy Records cofounder Kirk Burrowes, actor Mark Curry, singer Aubrey O'Day, and one of the sex workers who engaged in Diddy's now-infamous freak offs, but it also includes never-before-seen footage of Combs in the days leading up to his arrest.

The inclusion of the latter has already made waves in the press and infuriated Combs and his team. They've also broadly disputed the allegations presented in the documentary.

"Netflix's so-called 'documentary' is a shameful hit piece," Combs' spokesperson Juda Engelmayer told Business Insider. "Netflix relied on stolen footage that was never authorized for release. If Netflix cared about truth or about Mr. Combs's legal rights, it would not be ripping private footage out of context — including conversations with his lawyers that were never intended for public viewing."

Netflix declined to comment.

"Sean Combs: The Reckoning" director Alexandra Stapleton told Business Insider that she obtained the footage legally, although she wouldn't disclose the details of how it was acquired when asked.

The director — whose previous documentary titles include 2023's "Reggie," on baseball legend Reggie Jackson and 2024's "How Music Got Free" on tech changing the music industry — had been developing the project ever since Combs' former girlfriend Cassandra Ventura, a singer under the name Cassie, accused him of rape and a "cycle of abuse" in a November 2023 lawsuit.

Though the case was quickly settled for $20 million, it opened the floodgates for a wave of misconduct suits against Combs and Ventura; Ventura would later testify against Combs in his federal trial.

Stapleton quickly found an ally in another hip-hop heavyweight, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, whom she featured in "How Music Got Free." The rapper and business mogul, who has feuded with Combs for years, is an executive producer.

Combs' team has said his involvement is due to his feud.

"I definitely knew that there were things that 50 could bring to the table that would be immensely useful to me for access," Stapleton told Business Insider.

The doc offers plenty of revelations via footage and interviews. Below, Stapleton offers insight into the most shocking moments.

Never-before-seen footage shows Diddy's final days before being arrested

Throughout the doc's four episodes, footage from a videographer hired by Combs shows him in the days leading up to his arrest.

Stapleton, who told Business Insider that the footage was acquired "completely legally," said that she had hoped to obtain an interview with Combs.

"I made that very clear behind the scenes that that was a really big goal to get him to sit down and talk, but it never materialized," she said.

In the doc, Combs is in New York City to cooperate with authorities. The footage shows him plotting out the best way to spin the negative press. "We're losing," he says on a call with his team while sitting in his hotel room.

Later in the docuseries, Combs spends an evening in Harlem, where he takes pictures with fans and even accepts a jacket given to him by a supporter. Afterward, while in his SUV, he asks for hand sanitizer and says he needs to take a bath.

"The amount of people that actually I'm coming in contact with, that's what I have to do," he said. "It's time to cleanse, I gotta go under the water, water gotta be boiling hot, put some peroxide in that."

The Bad Boy Records cofounder said Diddy figured out a way for Biggie Smalls to pay for his own funeral

The docuseries doesn't focus exclusively on the last few years of Combs' life. It also delves into his past, specifically the East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry in the mid-1990s that resulted in the murders of Tupac Shakur and Combs' friend, The Notorious B.I.G., also known as Biggie Smalls.

Bad Boy Records cofounder Kirk Burrowes recalls in the docuseries Combs' proclamation that he was going to throw the "biggest funeral for Biggie New York has ever seen." However, Burrowes said, when Combs crunched the numbers, he realized he didn't want to foot the bill himself — so he made the funeral a recoupable charge to Biggie Smalls, so the rapper's estate would bear the financial burden.

Stapleton said it was important to feature people from Combs' past, such as Burrowes, to illustrate how Combs has operated.

"What's interesting about Kirk Burrowes is that his allegations go way back in time," she said. "A lot of what he talked about goes all the way back to the early 2000s, so we really thought it was important to include that part."

Combs, Burrowes, and Biggie Smalls' estate did not respond to a request for comment.

A sex worker describes what his freak offs with Diddy and Cassie entailed

One of the most shocking elements of the indictment was the detailed sex performances Combs allegedly arranged between female victims and male sex workers, which Combs called "Freak Offs."

In the docuseries, one of those sex workers, Clayton Howard, steps forward to talk about his yearslong encounters with Diddy and Combs' then-girlfriend Ventura. The two dated for over a decade, breaking up in 2018.

Howard said he was first hired by Ventura and Combs in 2009.

"She tells me that I'm there to please her for her husband, they're married, they like to spice things up," Howard says in the docuseries of his first encounter with Ventura.

Howard gives detailed recollections of his sexual encounters with Ventura that included baby oil and instances where Ventura collected Howard's semen, all of which were "heavily regulated" by Combs. Howard said that on the anniversary of the murder of The Notorious B.I.G., the couple would fly him in to party and have sex with Ventura over multiple days. Howard said his sexual encounters with Ventura went on for eight years.

"I think Clayton was pretty comfortable coming forward with his story because he wanted to own his narrative. He was kind of brought out of the woodwork as a result of Cassie's lawsuit," Stapleton said. "I think once it became very public, Clayton's position was, 'I'm a human being, I lived through this a number of years, and I want to share my story.'"

Clayton told Business Insider he has no regrets about participating in the docuseries.

"I'm glad I told the truth, regardless if the world chooses to accept it. The trial exposed enough that those who paid attention know I spoke the truth," Clayton said. "Mr. Combs was guilty, but so was Cassie, and domestic violence does not erase conscious decisions made by her to please her lover."

Ventura did not respond to a request for comment.

Previously, Business Insider reported that Ventura felt pressured into participating. "I was just in love and wanted to make him happy," Ventura testified at Combs' May trial.

"I felt pretty horrible about myself. I felt disgusting. I was humiliated. I didn't have the words at the time to tell him how I felt," Ventura added on the stand. "And I couldn't talk to anyone about it."

Aubrey O'Day says she has no recollection of a possible sexual assault by Diddy

One of the most chilling moments in the docuseries is when singer Aubrey O'Day reads an affidavit from a woman who said she witnessed Combs and another man sexually assaulting O'Day, though O'Day said she has no recollection of this.

Earlier in the docuseries, O'Day, a former member of the girl group Danity Kane, which was formed by Combs for the 2005 MTV series "Making the Band," reads an email Combs sent to her in 2008, the year she was fired from the group.

In it, he says, "I don't wanna just fuck you. I want to turn you out." He ends the email by saying he's going to finish masturbating while watching porn and thinking of her.

Later in the docuseries, O'Day reads an affidavit from one of the civil lawsuits of an alleged Combs victim. It states that this woman witnessed O'Day in 2005 being sexually assaulted by Combs and another man.

While opening doors looking for the restroom, the woman said she opened one door to find Combs and the other man in sexual acts with O'Day, who was "sprawled out on a leather couch, looking very inebriated." The woman wrote in the affidavit that she is "100% certain" that the person was O'Day.

"Does this mean I was raped?" O'Day says in the docuseries. "I don't even know if I was raped, and I don't want to know."

"Aubrey's contribution and her stories are really very, very complicated and a symbol of the gray area of a lot of this," Stapleton said. "It was very raw for her. It was really deep for her, and it took a lot of conversations for her to feel like, 'I want to be public about this.'"

"It was never about not sharing it; it was more potentially, 'How do I present to the world that this isn't a binary feeling that I have? That I'm not going to sit here and say yes, this is absolutely true when I don't know if it's true, and also be like this is total BS when part of me feels what if it is true?'" Stapleton said. "Aubrey, in real time, was trying to figure out."

O'Day did not respond to a request for comment.

"Sean Combs: The Reckoning" is streaming now on Netflix.