When Cristóbal Valenzuela founded AI company Runway back in 2018, investors, filmmakers, and advertisers openly questioned his ambitious idea for AI-driven video and photo editing and generation. After his convincing pitch, Runway has since secured nearly $100 million in funding at its current $500 million valuation. It has also played key roles in award-winning blockbusters like Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.
The Runway team, led by Valenzuela, stands at 44 people strong, with a mix of researchers, scientists, engineers, and artists. The team is able to easily collaborate, allowing video and creative teams to quickly validate insights for researchers.
To create their tools, Runway focuses on three components. The first is to build their own foundational models that can create videos from text, images or video clips. The second is deploying the models to customers in a safe and reliable manner. The third is an application layer of tools used by filmmakers and artists. Sarah Guo, founder of Conviction, commended Runway’s ambition and scope in achieving the full video editor.
It wasn’t a typical tech founder that created Runway–it took Valenzuela’s economics and business management background, plus a master’s degree in design and a stint as a professor at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Santiago, Chile to make it all possible.
As of now, customers like New Balance have found success in using Runway’s tools for brainstorming, storyboarding, and prototyping. Valenzuela states that Runway’s goal is to build “creative augmentation tools” to make video creation accessible to everyone.
Runway’s success shows that with the right skillset and determination, companies can push the bounds of innovation and make revolutionary products. With Cristóbal Valenzuela leading the way with his diverse background, knowledge and understanding of AI, the future looks promising for Runway.
