Inside the expert network training every frontier AI model | Garrett Lord

Garrett Lord is co-founder and CEO of Handshake, which started as a career network for college students and new grads but recently discovered something extraordinary: they were sitting on the world’s largest network of academic experts—exactly what frontier AI labs desperately needed. With 500,000 PhDs and 3 million advanced degree holders creating training data, in just eight months they’ve built a new business that hit $50 million in revenue in its first four months and is on track to blow past $100M in the first 12 months. *What you’ll learn:* 1. How Handshake found an opportunity to leverage their proprietary network of experts to launch a data-labeling business that’s on track to blow past $100 million ARR in 12 months 2. Why AI models need human experts (e.g. physics PhDs) to improve, and what this “data labeling” actually involves 3. Inside the actual work: what a biology PhD does for 8 hours that makes GPT-5 smarter 4. The playbook for building a startup inside a startup: separate teams, separate offices, separate everything 5. Why the shift from “generalist” to “expert” data labeling created a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity 6. Why AI won’t eliminate entry-level jobs—it’s creating “Iron Man suits” that make junior employees 10x more productive *Brought to you by:* CodeRabbit—Cut code review time and bugs in half. Instantly: https://coderabbit.link/lenny Orkes—The enterprise platform for reliable applications and agentic workflows: https://www.orkes.io/ Claude.ai—The AI for problem solvers and enterprise: https://www.claude.ai/lenny *Transcript:* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-handshake-garrett-lord *My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers):* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/171410958/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation *Where to find Garrett Lord:* • X: https://x.com/garrettlord • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettlord/ • Email: Garrett@joinhandshake.com *Where to find Lenny:* • Newsletter: https:/