- Co-founder and CEO of Sepanta, an AI operating system built with his brother Dr Nima, evolving from their earlier product suite Goodfolio into a unified enterprise AI platform.
- Focused on turning AI from isolated tools into scalable systems that drive real business growth, with people and governance kept firmly at the centre.
- Led Sepanta through a key rebrand and strategic refocus, shifting from a multi-product approach to a disciplined “AI operating system” model designed for long-term scale.
- Mission-driven founder who emphasises purpose over product, aiming to use AI to create positive impact, unlock growth, and build trust in how organisations adopt emerging technology.
Website: www.sepanta.io
Tell Me About Yourself and Sepanta
I am Omid Pakseresht, co-founder and CEO of Sepanta, which I built with my brother, Dr Nima. We started life as Goodfolio, a family of AI products, and we recently became Sepanta to reflect what we had really built underneath them: an AI operating system that learns where AI gives an edge and builds the systems that scale.
Sepanta comes from an old Avestan word meaning that which acts for good, and that is the whole idea. We help ideas turn into systems that actually scale in enterprise, with people firmly in control. Our purpose is simple: to unleash AI for growth, not as a cost-cutting tool, but as a genuine engine.
What Inspired You To Start Sepanta, and What Problem Were You Trying To Solve?
Nima and I kept running into the same things: companies struggling to adopt AI, misunderstanding what these systems actually are, forgetting that the whole point is growth, and capital quietly flowing to the few. And we just thought, surely there’s good to be done here. Not in a charitable way, but stuff that genuinely works, that shifts the flow of capital, that helps people and organisations become better versions of themselves, that benefits everyone with a stake in it. The problem we are solving is the distance between what AI can do and AI that actually creates growth.
What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far, and How Did You Overcome It?
Our hardest challenge was focus. When you build a platform this broad, every conversation opens another tempting direction, and early on that pulled us too many ways at once. The rebrand from Goodfolio to Sepanta was part of overcoming it. It forced us to be honest about what we actually want to be and where we can go: not a portfolio of products, but one operating system. Naming that gave us a spine. We got disciplined about solving for scale. Focus, we learned, is not the enemy of ambition. It is how ambition gets built.
Can You Describe a Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of Sepanta?
The turning point was realising the most valuable thing we had built was not any single product, but the system that produced them all. We had shipped one product, then another, then scaled one, and underneath them the same motif kept reappearing: discover where AI helps, build it, govern it, improve it.
The moment we saw that pattern clearly, everything changed, including our name. Becoming Sepanta was us saying out loud that the platform was the point. A sharper sense of what we were did more for our direction than any single feature ever could.
How Do You Define Success?
For your business: For the business, success looks like being woven into the ecosystems we work in, as the systems that quietly power their growth, the applied AI partner enterprises trust most to keep creating real ROI for them and their partners.
As a founder: For myself, it’s about legacy. So much is changing so fast right now, and a lot of people are frightened of AI. I want to know we touched the world positively and reminded people of hope rather than the fear that hangs around AI today. Building something my brother and I are proud of, treating people well, and staying true to what Sepanta means.
What Advice Would You Give To Someone Thinking About Launching Their Own Startup?
Fall in love with and get really, really comfortable with why you are doing it, not the idea, not even the problem you are solving, your real and true why. Your initial idea will almost certainly be wrong, and the founders who win keep changing the answer while staying loyal to the why. Talk to real customers far earlier and far more often than feels comfortable. Find a co-founder or a small group you genuinely trust, because the lows are lonely and the highs are better shared. And do not be afraid to rename, refocus, or rebuild as you learn. The willingness to keep editing yourself is not a weakness. It is the whole job.
What’s Next for Sepanta? Any Exciting Developments We Should Watch Out For?
We are deepening Sepanta as a true operating system, so its layers, understanding the organisation, building systems, governing them, and improving the models underneath, keep compounding with every deployment. We are expanding into new sectors and new markets where this approach is needed most, and we are scaling the deeply specialised point solutions that are impossible to create from scratch. Without giving too much away, the most exciting work is the ecosystem and AI at the edges of entities.
Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.
Founder’s 5 with Omid Pakseresht
We wanted to know a bit more about the man behind Sepanta, so we’ve put together the exclusive Founders’ 5 with Omid Pakseresht.
Favourite business tool
Sepanta itself, naturally…
One lesson you learned the hard way?
Saying yes to everything is a slow way of saying no to what matters. 90% of what you do day-to-day at early stages has near zero positive ROI. And you need to get comfortable with having to choose only the highest positive ROI activities and not all of them.
One future trend you’re watching?
The shift from AI as a tool you reach for to AI as the system a company is built around. Most software has not caught up to that idea yet, and that gap is where the next decade lives.
One quote you live by
“Start again.” When I was starting out I had it stuck on my wall. I never knew where it was from, but the startup journey teaches you fast that you need that mindset every single day.
One book/podcast you recommend
Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.
