Irina Kukuyeva, PhD
AI diligence
at Kukuyeva Consulting
Dr. Irina Kukuyeva is a business operations-focused technology leader who helps companies understand and unlock customer behavior and feedback loops to build scalable, profitable companies with market fit.
She has collaborated with over 100 companies and is a frequent speaker on the topic of building and scaling companies with product-led growth and AI, most recently for Slauson & Co.
She’s invented and implemented algorithms on a global scale, led global data and AI teams, and taught graduate students best practices for developing real-time AI algorithms.
Irina mentors over 100 start-ups a year at many accelerators, including Techstars, the Founder Institute, and the UCLA Venture Accelerator.
She is an advisory board member for a pediatric MedTech accelerator (CTIP) and the UCLA Master of Data Science program.
She holds a PhD in Statistics from UCLA, where she invented a novel image compression algorithm for her PhD thesis — and found similarities between two storms on Jupiter, a finding confirmed by NASA Juno’s mission years later. It is now a special case of the many popular AI models today.
Articles by Irina Kukuyeva, PhD
Zero → 100: The Exact Steps We Took to Close Our First 100 Paying Customers
Going from zero customers to 100 in just four months sounds impossible—unless you’re a founder willing to roll up your sleeves and hustle relentlessly. I’m Gaurav Bhattacharya, co-founder of Jeeva.ai,...
Unblocking Startup Growth: Best Practices for Sales Discovery & Qualification with Richard Harris
Startups are in a constant race against time and resources, navigating complex sales environments with lean teams and limited margins for error. In a recent session from the Mucker Growth...
The LinkedIn Playbook: How Startup Founders Can Stand Out & Scale
This LinkedIn Playbook is based on insights from a recent one-time Mucker Growth Session webinar featuring LinkedIn growth experts Alec Paul (Founder of SalesBrand) and Kyle Williams (Founder of Brickstack)....
DeepSeek vs OpenAI: Comparison Breakdown and What It Means For Your Tech Startup With Dan Cleary
In this recent webinar of our Mucker Growth Series, we discussed the evolving AI landscape with Dan Cleary, founder of PromptHub. He provided an in-depth breakdown of DeepSeek vs. OpenAI,...
Building Product Without Knowing Code With Adam New Waterson
In a deep dive into AI-driven product development, Adam New-Waterson, a former CMO turned Chief Product Officer and now solopreneur, shared how non-technical founders can harness the power of AI...
How To Build An Automated Sales Outreach Engine For Startups with ColdIQ
Many B2B startups (and even larger organizations) are unable to be successful with their outbound sales strategy because they take a lazy, “batch-and-blast” approach. In a recent Mucker Growth Series...