What if the smartest people in finance and law never had to do “stupid tasks” again? In this episode, we sit down with George Sivulka, founder of Hebbia, the AI company quietly powering 50% of the world’s largest asset managers and some of the fastest-growing law firms.

George reveals how Hebbia’s Matrix platform is automating the equivalent of 50,000 years of human reading — every year — and why the future of work is hybrid teams of humans and AI “agent employees.” You’ll get the inside story on how Hebbia went from a stealth project at Stanford to a multinational company trusted by the Department of Defense, and why their spreadsheet-inspired interface is leaving chatbots in the dust. George breaks down the technical secrets behind Hebbia’s ISD architecture (and why they killed RAG), how they process billions of pages with near-zero hallucinations, and what it really takes to sell AI into the world’s most regulated industries.

We also dive into the future of organizational design, why generalization beats specialization in AI, and how “prompting is the new management skill.” Plus: the real story behind AI hallucinations, the myth of job loss, and why naiveté might be the ultimate founder superpower.

Hebbia

Website - https://www.hebbia.com

Twitter - https://x.com/HebbiaAI

George Sivulka

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivulka

Twitter - https://x.com/gsivulka

FIRSTMARK

Website - https://firstmark.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/FirstMarkCap

Matt Turck (Managing Director)

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/turck/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/mattturck

(00:00) Intro

(01:46) What is Hebbia

(02:49) Evolving Hebbia’s mission

(04:45) The founding story and Stanford's inspiration

(09:45) The rise of agent employees and AI in organizations

(12:36) The future of AI-powered work

(15:17) AI research trends

(19:49) Inside Matrix: Hebbia’s flagship AI platform

(24:02) Why Hebbia isn’t just another chatbot

(28:27) Moving beyond RAG: Hebbia’s unique architecture

(34:10) Tackling hallucinations in high-stakes AI

(35:59) Research culture and avoiding industry groupthink

(39:40) Innovating go-to-market and enterprise sales

(41:57) Real-world value: Cost savings and new revenue

(43:49) How AI is changing junior roles

(45:55) Leadership and perspective as a young founder

(47:16) Hebbia’s roadmap: Success in the next 3 years

AI That Ends Busy Work — Hebbia CEO on “Agent Employees”

The MAD Podcast with Matt Turck