Why CEO Greg Rutty refused to ship “good enough” AI and made human-level quality non-negotiable. | Greg Rutty, Co-Founder & CEO, SignAI

Greg Rutty didn’t set out to build “cool AI.”
He set out to close the access and dignity gap millions of sign-language users face every day.

Instead of building for the community, SignAI was built with it, putting Deaf team members in charge of product strategy, quality standards, and the roadmap itself. Drawing on lessons from publishing and Amazon, Greg rejected Silicon Valley’s instinct to hoard data. The real bottleneck wasn’t scale—it was trust, earned by leaning into the Deaf community’s tight-knit “small world” network.

In this episode of Escape Velocity, Greg Rutty, Co-Founder & CEO of SignAI, joins Josh Linkner to argue for simplicity over sophistication and why human-level quality, not demo-level flash, is the new bar for AI innovation.

In this episode, we jam on:

1. Why “human-level” is the only bar that matters
   And why anything less fails the people it claims to serve.

2. Community-led product development > founder-knows-best
   How making SignAI deaf-led unlocked better ideas and faster breakthroughs.

3. Trust as the real data moat
   Why small-world networks beat data hoarding when you’re solving the hardest problems.

4. Simplicity as a competitive advantage
   What Greg learned from publishing and Amazon about making complex technology usable—and human.

5. Building AI that gives people a voice
   Not just access to information, but the ability to communicate back.

Meet Our Guest

Greg Rutty, Co-Founder and CEO of Sign AI, started his career as a children’s book editor at Scholastic before joining Amazon and working in a number of business and product roles. After Amazon he founded Perfect Loop, a tech-enabled recruiting service, then led product development at Karat, a technical interview platform.

Sign AI is a deaf-led AI company building the world’s largest multimodal ASL models to enable real-time, bidirectional translation between sign languages and spoken and written language. SignAI recently launched its first paid pilot with Amazon Prime Video / MGM with the goal of validating quality and delivery ahead of scaling.

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.

Meet Mudita
Website: muditavp.com
Escape Velocity: muditavp.com/escapevelocity
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/muditavp
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@MuditaVenturePartners

Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
1:20 A Human-Level AI Sign Language Interpreter, Anytime Anywhere
3:06 The Interpreter Shortage and the Cost of Isolation
5:27 Profit and Purpose: Why Sign AI Is a Massive Opportunity
6:27 From Real-Time Translation to Sign Language Avatars
8:15 Unlocking Emergency Alerts, Conferences, and Movies for Deaf Audiences
9:41 Building a Deaf-Led Company from Day One
12:01 Human-Centric Leadership
13:15 Servant Leadership Without Losing High Standards
15:25 What Startups Can Learn from the Publishing World
15:50 Crafting Products Like Books: Editing, Teamwork, and Quality
18:17 Working Only with People You Truly Like and Respect
19:37 Simplifying Complex Technology Without Dumbing It Down
20:35 The Harsh Reality of Startup Roller Coasters
21:07 Collaborating Without an Interpreter
23:13 Using Technology to Deepen Human Connection
24:23 A Future Where Deaf Children Never Start Life in Silence
27:13 Gratitude, Impact, and the Promise of Sign AI at Scale