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Latent Space · 2 min · Oct 20, 2026

Moshi is prioritizing customers over hiring

AS

Anekha Sokhal

Founder & CEO, Moshi

  • Shawn Wang (swyx)Host · Co-founder, AI Engineer

    Wrote “The Rise of the AI Engineer” and founded Smol AI, maker of AI News.

About this segment

Sokhal says customer discovery is the priority; one job listing drew 2,500 applicants in four days. She distinguishes people with a problem from those ready to buy.

From “The Recommendation Engine for Commodity Traders — Anekha Sokhal, Moshi”, Oct 20, 2026. Watch the full episode

“We had one job up. We had to close it. It was open for four days. We had 2,500 applicants.”
ASAnekha Sokhalat 24:07 · Latent Space24:07

Takeaways

  1. One job post brought 2,500 applicants in four days.
  2. The current priority is meeting prospective customers.
  3. Having a problem does not mean someone is ready to buy.
Watch 2:21 from 23:34

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 5:39Moshi turns market data into portfolio-specific insights3:28
  2. 8:56Moshi recommends connected market insights, not just dashboards4:36
  3. 14:36Conflicting sources can be a signal, not just a problem3:51
  4. 18:28Conference conversations expose a product adoption gap2:12
  5. 20:29Roundtables can make conference meetings more efficient2:25

  6. 23:34Moshi is prioritizing customers over hiring2:21

Up next · No PriorsFrontier training costs rise 4x per generation, and AI speeds the work4:09

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 23:40

    I think that's an important element. Like we want to make this something that's useful for you for both hiring and selling, you know? And I don't know how to balance that because what's more important to you, hiring or selling? So in terms of we've just hired and we plan to hire, we're always meeting people, but the priority right now is to meet clients. That's a priority, not necessarily hiring. Because I think what we have with hiring is we get continuous inbound from LinkedIn.

  2. 24:13

    Really? Yeah. We had one job up. We had to close it. It was open for four days. We had 2,500 applicants. Okay. And so it's like, that's tough to deal with in itself. But meeting people who like want to buy and people who, because I think there's people who have the problem, but they don't want to buy. And there's people who have the problem and want to buy. And then you who are trying to find that match, that is, I haven't found any person who's done that well.

  3. 24:43

    So I really like your one-on-one idea. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so basically I'm transferring over what I used to have as a hedge fund person to this market, which is AI and finance. Yeah. Well, we'll try to do that next year. We'll try to be the definitive thing. and I think on the hiring side so that's buying and that's clear I think I can definitely help you better there on the hiring side I also want to help you like $2,500 is too much and most of it is noise and so you need a better filter I have a strong opinion the amount of people who are also doing it in a way where it's like undercover they're shopping they're spying You have that, but you also have, they're like legally not allowed to work.

  4. 25:31

    So there's so much noise in that. Visas. Visas. And there's so much noise around that as well. And so when I was a first time, like I am a first time founder, when I first started, you don't know those things. You don't know the like market, right? And there's a lot of noise related to that. Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll try to get that higher signal for you. We want to be a high signal conference.