
A small change in a text message sent Alex Vratskides down a long mathematical road. From Upstream to Persado, he has built a career around a deceptively human question: which words make us respond?
He left Stanford to build a database company, then built ActionIQ to put customer data to work. Now at Databricks, Tasso Argyros is taking another run at the delay between a useful fact and a useful decision.

He helped build Upstream, watched new companies emerge from its orbit, and became an investor. Now Marco Veremis wants Greek founders to have the money - and the confidence - to keep building.