Lingelbach dropped out of his Stanford PhD right before his defense
Michael Lingelbach · His Video AI app hit $10M+ ARR in Months—with 0 outbound sales. | Michael Lingelbach, Founder of ... · PMF Show · Aug 18, 2025 · at 7:03
Hedra founder Michael Lingelbach explains why he stepped away from completing his doctorate right before defending his dissertation.
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“I had submitted my green light meeting to go do my defense, and then I told my advisors, like, hey, like, I want to take some time off immediately, because, like, I feel like if I wait to do my defense in, like, five months I'm gonna miss this, like, big opportunity and they're really receptive to that, and so originally I was gonna go back, like, I was gonna go set up the company, like, do, build some stuff, and then, like, go back, and then I just, like, ended up raising money”
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