Augusto “Aghi” Marietti, Cofounder and CEO of @Kong, has one of the most remarkable founder stories in Silicon Valley, from starting out of a garage in Milan to sleeping on Travis Kalanick’s couch to building an AI unicorn. We sat down with Aghi to discuss the near-death moments that defined Kong’s journey, the seven-year grind before breakout success, and how APIs became the “assembly line of software.” Aghi also explains how Kong evolved into the backbone of modern API and AI connectivity, and why the coming wave of AI agents will make APIs more essential than ever. 00:00 Introduction 02:57 Cold emailing 400 investors overnight 04:49 Negotiating at Travis Kalanick’s house 06:46 Living on 1,000 a month in San Francisco 09:18 Pivoting to the API marketplace 11:00 The seed round with NEA, Index, and Bezos 14:19 Getting U.S. visas and help from Sam Altman 21:55 Raising the Series B with a16z 23:40 Hitting growth milestones and the car bet 25:57 Kong’s breakout and API leadership 34:27 Lessons for founders @sonicaghi @martin_casado(a16z)