# Nicolai Ouporov

> Nicolai 'Nic' Ouporov is Co-Founder and CEO of Fleet AI, a startup building reinforcement learning training environments - or 'RL gyms' - that let AI agents practice operating real software tools like Salesforce and Excel before deployment. Fleet raised ~$45M total and grew from $1M to $60M+ annualized revenue in under a year. Nic is also a 3x YoungArts Award winner in photography and visual arts, a former pre-professional ballet dancer trained at Boston Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, and a QuestBridge Scholar from Columbia University. He previously served as Founding Engineer at Respell (acquired by Salesforce in 2024) and published AI research at Stanford's Robotics and Embodied AI Lab.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Fleet AI
- **Organizations:** Fleet AI, Respell, Columbia University, Stanford Robotics Lab
- **From:** Boca Raton, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA, Computer Science, Columbia University, High School Diploma (Dance Major), Dreyfoos School of the Arts, Middle School (Dance Major), Bak Middle School of the Arts
- **Known for:** 3x YoungArts Award winner (highest honor for artists under 18) in Visual Arts and Photography categories, Work exhibited at Art Miami, Published AI research in IEEE journal (Stanford Robotics and Embodied AI Lab)

## Career timeline

- **2008** — Begins ballet training at age eight, Boca Raton, Florida
- **2018-2019** — Honorable Mention and Finalist, YoungArts Foundation (photography and visual arts)
- **2020** — Enrolls at Columbia University as QuestBridge Scholar, initially pursuing biophysics
- **2020-2022** — Researcher at Columbia Creative Machines Lab - physics simulations, self-assembling robots, multi-material digital fabrication
- **2022-2023** — Researcher at Stanford Robotics and Embodied AI Lab - embodied AI, human-robot collaboration simulations, published in IEEE
- **2023** — Founding Engineer & First Hire at Respell, a generative AI automation startup
- **2024** — Respell acquired by Salesforce (January 2024)
- **2024** — Co-founds Fleet AI with Fred Havemeyer; company raises seed funding
- **2025** — Fleet AI raises Series A (~$45M total funding, led by Craft Ventures with Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, SV Angel)
- **2026** — Fleet AI annualized revenue surges from $1M to $60M+; negotiating new round at ~$750M valuation led by Bain Capital Ventures

## Achievements

- 3x YoungArts Award winner (highest honor for artists under 18) in Visual Arts and Photography categories
- Work exhibited at Art Miami
- Published AI research in IEEE journal (Stanford Robotics and Embodied AI Lab)
- QuestBridge Scholar at Columbia University
- First hire and Founding Engineer at Respell before its Salesforce acquisition
- Co-founded Fleet AI which grew annualized revenue 60x in under one year
- Raised $45M+ in funding for Fleet AI from top-tier investors including Craft Ventures, Sequoia, Menlo Ventures
- Pre-professional ballet training with Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Ballet West

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Fleet AI negotiating new funding round of $50M+ at ~$750M valuation led by Bain Capital Ventures, with Sequoia, Menlo Ventures and SV Angel as follow-on investors
- **2026-04** — Fleet AI's annualized revenue surges from ~$1M (end of 2025) to $60M+ - a 60x increase
- **2026-03** — Appeared on YouTube discussing Fleet AI's mission and RL gym infrastructure
- **2025** — Fleet AI raised Series A; total funding reached ~$45M. Company builds RL training environments for top AI labs.

## Links

- Website: https://www.nicolas.info/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-ouporov
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/nicolas_ouporov
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNl9m-8qtfg
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nic.rso

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/nicolai-ouporov
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-13