At Etsy, Zoë Weil assisted in orchestrating a multi-billion dollar surge in total sales value within just twelve months by refining the digital bazaar’s artificial intelligence prioritization mechanisms. Through her nascent venture, Sequen, she intends to extend her and her co-founders’ extensive experience in AI investigation and solution creation to various enterprises catering to end-users.
The firm, having recently secured $16 million in Series A investment, provides instantaneous customization solutions and prioritization frameworks — sophisticated tools employed by the globe’s foremost technology corporations, yet previously unavailable to many significant consumer-facing companies due to the vast data volumes necessary.
While individuals unfamiliar with the technology sector might not grasp the intricacies of this innovation, any user of popular digital applications such as TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube has experienced the influence of these mechanisms.
Weil, Sequen’s Chief Executive, clarifies, “Contemporary technology no longer merely suggests material. Instead, it gently sways your desires progressively to cultivate genuine demand for certain items. In fact, this technology has become so advanced that numerous individuals believe platforms are covertly listening to their discussions,” she states.
Weil attributes this occurrence to what is known as the extensive occurrence paradigm. While large language models (LLMs) employed by conversational agents such as ChatGPT abstract textual information, extensive occurrence paradigms abstract sequences of occurrences, specifically human actions. This technology possesses applications extending beyond crafting a superior algorithm.
Weil posits that Sequen might ultimately supersede the digital cookie — a monitoring mechanism that customizes online interactions for consumers, but in a way that has provoked data security worries and prompted regulatory actions.
“Our extensive event models assimilate insights from live user interactions, encompassing not merely clicks and scrolls, but also mouseovers, dialogues, and other activities within a particular session — rather than relying on static profiles or external cookies,” Weil states. “This enables real-time customization, even with limited information. So yes, we do demystify TikTok’s sophisticated algorithms for major corporations lacking the necessary framework … however, I contend we are advancing beyond that,” she adds.
Enterprises collaborating with Sequen merge with the nascent company’s RankTune system, which enables them to utilize Sequen’s cutting-edge prioritization models and instantaneous ranking models via application programming interfaces. (Sequen’s clientele currently employs internal APIs to operate their relevance infrastructure, thus, they merely exchange their existing API for Sequen’s.)
Furthermore, Sequen’s technology is less intrusive to privacy than the cookie, as it relies on immediate data — the individual’s identification is unnecessary for customizing the outcomes. Moreover, it operates swiftly, executing decisions in under 20 milliseconds.
“Our extensive event models can abstract from instantaneous event flows they receive,” says Weil. “The originator of these occurrences is inconsequential — they can comprehend and interpret events without depending on the user’s identification. Hence, the user’s identification is entirely extraneous.”
Notwithstanding this enhanced privacy consideration, Sequen asserts its technology can nonetheless exhibit “remarkable revenue increase,” Weil attests.
For instance, a prominent furnishings enterprise experienced a 7% boost in earnings following its adoption of Sequen, whereas previously, a mere 0.4% increase was deemed a triumph. A different client, Fetch Rewards, observed a 20% increment in net income in barely 11 days. The company is also collaborating with an entity in the digital streaming sector and a virtual travel firm.
The solution’s cost is determined by requests per second (RPS), featuring escalating levels providing up to 500 RPS or 1,000 RPS, and beyond, accompanied by reduced rates as higher tiers are reached. For its initial five clients, agreements stand in the seven-figure range.
“What has been observed universally and consistently is clients choosing the uppermost service level, since upon witnessing its utility in a single application, they seek to integrate it across their entire system,” Weil remarks.
Weil commenced her professional journey in this domain with a focus on investigation, but swiftly understood her preference for developing solutions. Her efforts until now have largely concentrated on assisting corporations in crafting these prioritization offerings to derive commercial benefit from them, a path that culminated in her founding Sequen.
Presently, in less than eighteen months, the firm has handled approximately 10 billion monthly queries and secured contracts with several prominent Fortune 500 corporations. Its suite comprises exclusive technology, encompassing extensive event paradigms, prioritization models, computational procedures, and additional features.
Within the nascent enterprise, Weil is accompanied by Ethan Benjamin, her former colleague from Etsy, and fellow founders Mo Afshar and Alexander Thom. Raphael Louca recently transitioned from Meta to assume the role of Sequen’s chief product executive. Headquartered in New York, the firm’s fourteen-member workforce comprises talents from DeepMind, Meta, Anthropic, among other notable organizations.
Sequen’s Series A funding round was jointly spearheaded by White Star Capital and Threshold Ventures, with involvement from its earlier financiers, notably Greycroft, who had helmed its initial seed investment. Currently, Sequen has accumulated $22 million in capital.
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