Christina Qi, SB ’13, is the co-founder and CEO of Databento and the first undergraduate Sloanie to appear on this podcast. Her path runs from day-trading out of a Harvard dorm room, where her HFT firm Domeyard peaked at 25,000 trades a day, to founding Databento and nearly losing it: a bridge round raised with almost negative runway, investors who signed financing docs and never wired, and finally a $97M Series B that made it all look inevitable.

The heart of the conversation is what Databento actually does and why it wins: harmonizing market data across exchanges so that, in her phrase, "all the books are in one language." Qi is candid about the industry’s lack of competition, customers who leave over price come back, she says, because there’s nowhere else to go, and about what the product still lacks. She also takes aim at AI hype ("maybe this is why I hate AI": companies incorporated today claiming $100M ARR by November), and explains how AI data-center demand priced her disaster-recovery site out of Utah and into Portland.

Woven through is the Sloanie thread: serving with host Christopher Reichert on the MIT Sloan Boston Alumni Association board, getting a C-minus in Bob Merton’s class, and the parents who came from China and settled in northern Utah. It closes on her definition of success, the number of hours you can spend doing the thing you truly want, without consequences.

Key Topics:

•⁠ ⁠Harmonizing market data across exchanges into one API

•⁠ ⁠Surviving near-zero runway to a $97M Series B

•⁠ ⁠Why market data has almost no real competition

•⁠ ⁠AI hype versus building something durable

•⁠ ⁠From dorm-room day trading to founding Databento

•⁠ ⁠How AI demand is reshaping data-center geography

•⁠ ⁠MIT Sloan, family, and defining success as time spent playing video game

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Michael Autery, SFMBA ’26, a United States Navy Civil Engineer Corps officer with fifteen years of active service, joined host Christopher Reichert, MOT ’04, on Sloanies Talking with Sloanies to discuss his journey from active duty to entrepreneurship. Coming from a working-class background and skeptical of the business world, Autery enrolled in the MIT Sloan Fellows program not knowing what came next, but determined to find work that gave him the same sense of purpose he had found in the Navy. It was in 15.390 New Enterprises (also known as “Entrepreneurship 101”) taught by Bill Aulet, SF ’94 (Ethernet Inventors Professor of the Practice; Managing Director, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship)—through a deceptively simple assignment to generate twenty business ideas—that he landed on the one that would define his next chapter.

That idea became Gander Robotics, a venture-backed company building an autonomous underwater rescue swimmer to address one of maritime safety’s most persistent and deadly problems. Drawing on his Naval Academy electrical engineering background, a master’s in ocean engineering from Texas A&M, and firsthand experience with man overboard situations at sea, Autery identified a gap that technology had yet to fill: locating a person in the water before they disappear from sight. With survival rates of just 28% in the Navy and 17% on cruise ships, the urgency was clear. Autery and co-founder Lael Ayala won the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition unanimously—taking both the top prize and the Audience Choice Award—and secured over a million dollars in investment within a month.

Autery closed the conversation with advice for incoming MIT Sloan Fellows and a look at the road ahead for Gander. He urged prospective students to use every available moment before and during the summer term to clarify their direction, since the one-year program leaves little room to pivot. For himself, he summed up a life philosophy of continuous self-improvement without a fixed destination—enlisting in the Navy after failing out of college, earning his way into the Naval Academy as an enlisted sailor, and now building a company he believes can save lives at scale. His near-term goal is to land government contracts and get Gander’s autonomous rescue swimmer deployed on Navy ships, with the long-term ambition of broad commercial adoption and, eventually, the rank of admiral in the Navy Reserve.

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Thanks for listening! Find more episodes on the Sloanies Talking with Sloanies website.

Learn more about MIT Sloan Alumni on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Threads.

To support this show, or if you have an idea for a topic or a guest you think we should feature, drop us a note at sloanalumni@mit.edu

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In this episode of Sloanies Talking with Sloanies, host Christopher Reichert, MOT ’04, speaks with Adela Jamal, SFMBA ’22, and Sebastian Barriga, SFMBA ’22, co-founders of MileMark Capital, about their journey from diverse global careers to launching an applied AI-focused venture fund. They reflect on how their time at MIT Sloan—particularly during the transitional post-pandemic period—brought them together through shared values, complementary backgrounds, and a mutual commitment to meaningful innovation. Their story highlights the importance of authenticity, long-term relationship-building, and the often-overlooked reality that reputations are built long before founders formally step into the spotlight.

The conversation also explores MileMark’s investment philosophy, centered on “applied AI”—specialized, domain-driven applications of artificial intelligence that deliver tangible business value. Rather than chasing broad, capital-intensive models, the firm focuses on founders with deep expertise and strong networks, emphasizing people as the key driver of success. Looking ahead, Jamal and Barriga express optimism about AI’s global impact, predicting increased accessibility, productivity, and innovation across industries. Ultimately, they underscore that while technology evolves rapidly, trust, human judgment, and purpose-driven leadership remain at the core of building enduring ventures.

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Find more episodes on the Sloanies Talking with Sloanies website.

Learn more about MIT Sloan Alumni on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Threads.

To support this show, or if you have an idea for a topic or a guest you think we should feature, drop us a note at sloanalumni@mit.edu

© MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT