# Cecilia Ziniti

> Cecilia Ziniti is the co-founder and CEO of GC AI, a legal AI company she started with former Replit colleague Bardia Pourvakil in 2023. A former general counsel at Anki, BloomTech and Replit, she previously worked on Amazon Alexa, advised Cruise and represented Apple at Morrison & Foerster. Her work combines legal practice, product development and teaching lawyers how to use AI.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at GC AI
- **Organizations:** GC AI, Replit, BloomTech (formerly Lambda School), Cruise, Anki, Amazon, Morrison & Foerster, Yahoo, TechGC
- **Nationality:** Italian
- **Education:** BS in International Economics, Georgetown University, London School of Economics, JD, UC Berkeley School of Law
- **Known for:** Named inventor on four US patents associated with her Amazon Alexa work., Served as general counsel at Anki, BloomTech and Replit., Co-founded GC AI with Bardia Pourvakil in 2023.

## Career timeline

- **2002** — Moved to Silicon Valley and worked as a paralegal at Yahoo before law school.
- **2009** — Earned her JD at UC Berkeley; subsequently practiced at Morrison & Foerster, including representing Apple in smartphone litigation.
- **2013** — Joined the early Amazon Alexa team as its founding lawyer.
- **2017** — Featured as director and head of legal at Anki in Morrison & Foerster’s July alumni publication; became a founding member of TechGC.
- **Before August 2019** — Served as director and lead counsel at Cruise.
- **2019-08** — Joined BloomTech, then Lambda School, full-time as general counsel.
- **2022–2023** — Served as general counsel at Replit and experimented with early large language models.
- **2023-11** — Left Replit on November 1; incorporated GC AI a week later, co-founding with Bardia Pourvakil.
- **2025-11** — GC AI announced a $60 million Series B led by Scale Venture Partners and Northzone.
- **2026** — Named to Inc.’s Female Founders 500 list.

## Achievements

- Named inventor on four US patents associated with her Amazon Alexa work.
- Served as general counsel at Anki, BloomTech and Replit.
- Co-founded GC AI with Bardia Pourvakil in 2023.
- GC AI reported more than $10 million ARR and over 1,000 customer companies in its November 2025 funding announcement.
- Named to Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500.
- GC AI’s biography reports more than 8,000 lawyers completed its courses as of August 2026.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — GC AI’s official biography dates its count of lawyers completing company courses at more than 8,000.
- **2026-04** — An Engage interview discussed her teaching-led route to market, family influences and approach to founder decisions.
- **2026-02** — GC AI published a recap of her summit demo, including contract playbooks, Word redlining and a Slack workflow demonstration.
- **2025-11** — GC AI announced a $60 million Series B at a $555 million company valuation, with $73 million total funding.

## Links

- Website: https://ceciliaziniti.carrd.co/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceciliaziniti/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/CeciliaZin

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/cecilia-ziniti
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-25