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Andrew Berman

Andrew Berman is a New York-based technology entrepreneur known for founding several companies spanning consumer hardware, workplace collaboration software, and AI infrastructure security, and for his current role as co-founder and chief executive of Runlayer, a company focused on securing AI agents and the Model Context Protocol [1][3][4]. Before Runlayer, Berman spent time at Zapier as Director of AI following that company's acquisition of Vowel, a meeting-collaboration platform he had co-founded and led as chief executive [3]. Berman began his career in investment banking at Lehman Brothers, joining in 2007 shortly before the firm's collapse during the 2008 financial crisis, an experience he has described as formative in shaping his subsequent path [6]. He then moved into venture investing at Norwest Venture Partners, where he worked on consumer and enterprise deals, including investments in video-communications companies such as Lifesize and BlueJeans, before deciding he wanted to become a founder himself and enrolling in business school [6].

Berman's first company, Nanit, was founded in 2014 as a computer-vision-based baby monitor tracking infant breathing, sleep, and movement; the company went on to raise a Series C backed by Google Ventures and became a leading product in its category [6]. He has said the venture originated through an introduction to co-founders with technical backgrounds in machine learning and computer vision, including one who had previously built wafer-inspection systems using computer vision at Applied Materials, which gave him confidence the hardware could be engineered even though the consumer product experience was less certain [6]. Early funding came largely from friends and former business-school classmates, several of whom had backgrounds in private equity and hedge funds, and Berman has described spending roughly six to eight months conducting dozens of investor meetings to raise operating capital before securing an institutional seed round [6].

In 2019, Berman left Nanit to found Vowel, a platform designed to make meetings searchable, shareable, and clippable by turning recorded audio and video into instant post-meeting artifacts for distributed teams [6]. He has framed the product as addressing a gap in workplace video tools, arguing that while audio and video quality had improved industry-wide, the underlying product experience for meetings had not meaningfully changed since 2009 [6]. Vowel was later acquired by Zapier, after which Berman took on the Director of AI role there before departing to start Runlayer in 2025 [3][4].

Beyond his company-building work, Berman has spoken publicly about personal accountability and daily routines, describing a consistent early-morning schedule, often waking around 4:20 a.m., that includes meditation, exercise, journaling, and goal review, which he ties to a broader philosophy that self-accountability underpins accountability to colleagues, clients, and family [5]. He has also reflected on the sale of an earlier company in 2020, describing a personal review of ideas and plans he did not execute on at the time as a sobering exercise that reinforced his focus on execution in later ventures [5].

Founded

Experience

  1. CEO & Co-Founder
    RunlayerAug 2025 to Present
  2. Co-Founder
    Nanit2014 to Present
  3. Director of AI
    Zapier2023 to 2025
  4. Investor
    Angel2018 to 2024
  5. CEO & Co-Founder (acquired by Zapier)
    Vowel2019 to 2023
  6. Investor
    Millennium2013 to 2014
  7. Investor
    Norwest Venture Partners2009 to 2011
  8. Investment Banker
    Lehman Brothers / Barclays Capital2007 to 2009

Education

Media & appearances

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