How proven CEO Trevor Sumner and i-Genie’s domain legends turned early chaos into conviction and scaled to $5M+ ARR with 180% NRR | Trevor Sumner, CEO, i-Genie

From catching the first internet boom out of Princeton, to taking a company public early in his career, to founding and exiting a venture-backed business acquired by Blackstone, Trevor Sumner has lived nearly every chapter of the startup journey.

Now he’s doing something rare: stepping in as a professional-grade CEO at an early-stage company that already had world-class domain founders and real enterprise traction.

In this conversation, Josh Linkner sits down with Trevor Sumner to unpack what it really takes to scale in an emerging AI category: the operator + domain legend partnership dynamic, how to run an elite fundraising process without becoming a hype merchant, and Trevor’s Plan Z to make i-Genie’s oversubscribed Series A, 28% quarter over quarter growth and 180% net revenue retention the new standard in a $35B market.

In this episode, we discuss:

1. How to “de-risk” a CEO transition and make the partnership a force multiplier.

What it takes for an operator-grade CEO to partner with legendary domain founders and turn tension into trust, speed, and momentum

2. Surveys Are Broken. Consumer Reality Isn’t.

Why surveys are slow, biased, and increasingly gamed—and how i-Genie turns real-world signals into decision-grade insight

3. Fundraising Is a Process, not a Prayer.

Practical tactics to create momentum, generate FOMO, and turn your “gaps” into strengths without becoming a hype merchant.

4. Alignment Creates Speed — And Speed Needs Time.

The counterintuitive truth: speed requires alignment — and alignment takes time. Trevor shares what he pushed too hard, too early, and how he recalibrated.

5. Plan Z Thinking: Win the Category, Then Rewrite the Rules.

A blueprint for what happens when everything goes right: win the enterprise, set a new industry standard, and use an agentic layer to scale distribution into a machine.

Meet Our Guest
Trevor, CEO of i-Genie.ai, is a NYC-based entrepreneur, product and marketing executive and recognized startup advisor and angel. His core specialty is understanding technology, what it is now and what it could be, and then driving its evolution and market delivery to maximize corporate value. His passion is in building high performing teams and organizations. Trevor has been published and is regularly cited in industry media such as Mashable, TechCrunch, Inc, Forbes, Business Insider and VentureBeat. He is a born and raised New Yorker, an avid fisherman who caught a 600 lbs Black Marlin, and an adventure scuba diver who has dived in every continent including Antarctica.

i-Genie.ai, the leading AI platform for consumer insights, is revolutionizing an industry that had been dominated with antiquated survey methodologies by synthesizing tens of billions of searches, social and video posts, ratings and reviews and market data for industry leaders like Kenvue, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Bayer, Clorox and more.

Meet Our Host

Josh Linkner is a rare blend of business, art, and science.

He's the New York Times bestselling author of four books, and widely regarded as one of the world's foremost innovation and leadership experts. On the business front, he’s been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which created over 10,000 jobs and sold for a combined value of over $200 million.

He’s also the co-founder and Managing Partner of Muditā Venture Partners — an early-stage venture capital firm investing in groundbreaking technologies. Over the

last 30 years, he’s helped over 100 startups launch and scale, creating over $1 billion of investor returns.

While proud of his business success, his roots are in the dangerous world of jazz music. He’s been playing guitar in smoky jazz clubs for 40 years and has performed nearly 2,000 concerts around the world.

About Mudita Venture Partners
Mudita Venture Partners is different by design.

We invest in early-stage, post-revenue, AI-first B2B companies — backing founders who are building what’s next. About 80% of our capital goes directly into operating companies. The remaining 20% fuels Mudita Studios, where we turn bold ideas into venture-backable businesses from the ground up.

We believe exceptional returns and meaningful impact can — and should — coexist.

Beyond capital, we bring deep operator experience, a philosophy of co-creation, and a hands-on team committed to moving at founder speed. We don’t just fund companies — we help build them.

This is venture built for the future.

Website: muditavp.com

Escape Velocity: muditavp.com/escapevelocity

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/muditavp

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@MuditaVenturePartners

Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
0:50 Trevor’s Origin Story
3:00 The Search for the Next Big Thing
4:05 The Unicorn Opportunity
06:30 Problems as Opportunities
8:15 Why the "Mess" Was Actually Attractive
9:15 The Stan Factor
11:00 Balancing Vision with Operations
13:20 The Three Pillars of Fundraising Success
14:15 Reflections on the First Nine Months
17:45 Plan Z
19:30 The AI Agent Vision
20:50 Think Like an Owner
22:10 Advice to Founders
23:30 East Coast Mentality & Work Ethic
24:45 Leadership Evolution
26:00 Building Trust with Technical Founders
27:50 Closing Remarks

Plan Z: Build for Upside, Not Survival | Trevor Sumner, CEO, i-Genie