TechCrunch Disrupt

Mastering the Enterprise Agentic Layer Innovation moves fast, but enterprise adoption moves with calculation and caution. David Park, CEO and co-founder of Narada, is proving that the next wave of disruption isn't just about smarter chatbots; it's about reliable execution. Narada functions as an agentic process automation platform designed to tackle the manual friction points that plague HR, finance, and operations. While many startups get caught in the hype of generative fluff, David Park focused on the "unattended" execution of multi-step workflows. The core of the technology stems from groundbreaking research at the UC Berkeley AI Lab. Unlike standard probabilistic models that provide varying answers to the same prompt, Narada utilizes large action models. These models don't just suggest text; they reason through complex web portals, legacy applications, and APIs just as a human would. They click, scroll, and analyze data across disparate systems to complete tasks like hire-to-retire or order-to-cash. This isn't just automation; it's digital labor at scale. The Fallacy of the 80% Solution In the consumer world, an 80% success rate is a triumph. In the enterprise, it's a disaster. If an AI agent fails one out of every five times it processes an insurance claim or a financial record, it creates more work for human oversight than it saves through automation. David Park identifies this as the "last mile problem." Most AI models struggle with the messiness and variance of real-world corporate environments. Narada differentiates itself by hitting 99.99% reliability. Achieving this required moving away from hard-coded scripts toward natural language reasoning. By using prompts instead of rigid code, the system adapts to UI changes in web portals that would break traditional RPA (Robotic Process Automation) tools. This high-octane focus on production-ready consistency is what allows Narada to penetrate high-stakes industries like healthcare and finance where errors carry massive liabilities. Solving for Pain Before Raising Capital Too many founders build a "flashy deck" and chase VCs before they understand their own product. David Park took a different route. Drawing from his experience exiting Coverity, he opted for a lean, customer-first approach. He and his co-founders, including Amir Gholami and Kurt Keutzer, conducted nearly 1,000 customer calls before seeking institutional funding. This discipline creates a "mean building machine." When you are cash-constrained, you listen harder. People will tell you your product is great to be polite, but only a desperate need for a solution will make them open their wallets. By slogging it out in the "dark corners" of the enterprise, the Narada team identified the exact pain points that management would pay to solve. This validated their product-market fit before they ever hit the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt. The Strategic Pivot to Scale Once product-market fit is established, the game changes from discovery to distribution. David Park emphasizes that raising money should be an act of insurance and fuel for proven ROI, not a license for a spending spree. Even after securing funding from Monavista Capital, he maintains a "cheap" mentality to ensure every dollar drives growth. Scaling effectively in the enterprise sector requires more than just a direct sales team. It requires a channel strategy. Instead of fighting through long, treacherous sales cycles with every new client, Narada leverages partnerships with established firms that already hold the keys to large enterprise contracts. Piggybacking off existing relationships allows a lean startup to go from "one to many" in record time. This strategy bypasses the friction of new vendor onboarding and positions the technology as an essential add-on to the tools companies already trust. Building on Integrity and Grit The startup journey is a gauntlet of failure. David Park attributes survival to two things: grit and values. A founder must be willing to fail 85 times and still show up with the same energy on the 86th attempt. This level of persistence is impossible without genuine passion for the problem being solved. Beyond technical prowess, the foundation of a lasting company is its culture. David Park warns against the "fake it till you make it" mantra if it leads to cutting corners or compromising integrity. Customers and employees see through superficiality. By focusing on people and their development, a CEO ensures that even if the market shifts, the team has the experience and the wherewithal to pivot and win. High-growth startups are built on trust, and trust is the hardest currency to earn back once it's spent. The goal isn't just to be rich or famous; it's to drive real change that impacts how the world works.