Varun Puri

Varun Puri is co-founder and CEO of Yoodli, a company in Seattle, Washington, that makes AI roleplay and communication coaching software. He started it in 2021 with Esha Joshi, a former Apple engineer, at the AI2 Incubator of the Allen Institute for AI. Yoodli began as a public speaking coach and now sells roleplay training to sales and partner teams.

Special projects for Sergey Brin

Puri moved to the United States at 18. After college he joined Google, where he ran special projects for co-founder Sergey Brin. “Through a very random series of events, I was tapped by Sergey Brin, who was one of the founders of Google,” he said on the GeekWire Shift AI podcast. He did that for two years, then moved to Google X as an early employee on a team that used lasers to send internet signals through the air.

At Google he also coached colleagues on their speaking, and he noticed that people who could not present their ideas well were passed over for promotion. Coming from India, he had seen the same problem among students and young professionals who struggled to speak with confidence in a new country.

A coach on your shoulder

Puri describes Yoodli as a friend who pokes you under the table when a joke is not landing. He does not expect AI to replace human coaches. “I philosophically believe that AI can get you, let’s call it from a zero to an eight or a zero to nine,” he told TechCrunch. “But the pure essence of who you are and how you show up, and your authenticity and vulnerability that a human gives you feedback on will always exist.”