Asror Arabjanov on his new startup Clarity Flo and prospects in Silicon Valley

What is happening in Silicon Valley right now

If you are in Silicon Valley, you always experience FOMO — fear of missing out — the feeling that you are missing out on something truly important. In 2024, at the Central Eurasian @ Silicon Valley conference, we discussed how our region — entrepreneurs and investors — missed many major processes: the development of personal computers, the internet, the .com revolution, and social networks. 

Currently, people in Silicon Valley fully understand the significance of the new wave — the artificial intelligence revolution — and strive to actively participate in it. These specialists from our region could work in any country, but more and more often they boldly choose the path of creating their own projects.

It is pleasant to observe that the startup Higgsfield AI, founded by guys from Kazakhstan and Russia, is influencing global trends through AI video. When it seems like everything is passing you by, you need to make a bold business decision in time. We must use this wave to move to the next level.

One thing is to invest in various startups, help them grow, and hope for success. Another is to focus completely on one project and make it your main bet. To date, such a project for me has become Clarity Flo — I plan to concentrate my efforts on it in the coming years to take the company to the next level and change the industry.

Over the past two years, by communicating with hundreds of startup founders in Silicon Valley, we studied their business approaches, strategies, and what investors pay attention to. This experience showed that everything — working on the project, legal issues, negotiations with investors — has become a good foundation for the tasks I am currently solving.

Most processes are not new to me. Of course, I have to master certain things: sales, negotiations, channel development. But overall, the workflows I will face are already familiar — I understand them, have experience, and am ready to apply them in practice.

Launching a startup

I am a lawyer by training, I have long managed a company, built factories, but the essence of the work always revolved around contracts — a boring, complex, and time-consuming process.

When I participated in a project to build a factory, the approval of contracts, edits, and negotiations took almost a year. This process consumed many resources and complicated the work of all participants.

In Silicon Valley, this task is being simplified using templates that are then customized for the client. We are different: processes remain complex and poorly organized. When changes are minimal, everything is simpler, but with edits and approvals, chaos begins.

In late 2022, a major technological breakthrough occurred — large language models appeared that can automate even complex processes. These models analyze context, recognize changes, and make edits more accurately and quickly than a human.

This is what I have always strived for — to bring order through technology. Over time, such automation will become cheaper and more accurate, and we have already moved in this direction.

Target audience

We are a B2B SaaS startup, working with logistics and real estate. We launched in June, are already implementing the beta version with several clients, and testing different directions. I am creating this startup with my co-founder — Sardor Tylakov. He is a graduate of Denison University, with seven years of experience working at the startup Navan, where he implemented AI agents and automated customer support.

In the US, 90% of contracts are processed in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, edits are approved via email, and all are signed using DocuSign and other similar platforms. If a company works this way, we easily integrate into this environment. If everything goes through messengers: Slack or WhatsApp — the platform adapts to them as well.

Our approach is not to break familiar business processes, but to effectively integrate AI into what is already being used. We are creating a tool that takes into account user needs and helps work simpler, more accurately, and faster — without radical restructuring of processes.

Previously, artificial intelligence only helped people work more accurately and quickly, but now it is capable of completely replacing a mid-level specialist, reproducing the work of the best — while doing so in hundreds of processes simultaneously and around the clock.

But it is important to understand: AI does not replace people, but helps people focus on the main things. According to statistics, 95% of companies do not have a specialist who handles legal issues — this work is forced to be done by sales representatives and account executives. We are not taking jobs away from lawyers, but giving people a tool that allows them to free up time for high-value tasks.

Now, a startup owner can focus on the product and business, rather than spending two to three hours a day on contract preparation, hiring, and onboarding. We help transition "from routine to strategy." Legal changes and negotiations remain the responsibility of a specialist, while technical edits can be performed by an AI agent working 24/7.

Promising startup trends in the valley

Creating billion-dollar companies is an honest process, and when choosing a direction, you need to look at areas that seem boring but have huge potential. It is important to think about how to use language models to optimize processes in traditional industries. In such niches lies the greatest opportunity for growth, because, for example, the banking environment in the US has hardly changed over decades.

FinTech is popular, but there is no giant that has fundamentally turned this field upside down yet. In Kazakhstan, a bright example of such an approach is Kaspi, which combined FinTech and banking services.

Also, Surfaice — a startup from Kazakhstan, founded by Alim Uderbekov, which uses AI to automate the construction process — one of the least technological fields.

One of the main features is that AI startups have been growing at a dizzying speed. Previously, many worried: "If one engineer can do the work of ten using AI, there will be less money in the industry, and investors will leave."

But it is the opposite — the process is similar to the introduction of tractors and combines into agriculture. When capital is used more accurately and efficiently, the volume of investments does not decrease, but is simply redistributed. Previously, a startup needed $5 million, but now $1 million may be enough, which allows financing 10-15 projects instead of one or two, while the average check will increase.

Another important point is the support of loved ones. When family and partners believe in the project, it is easier to take risks and step out of your comfort zone. Without such a rear guard, young entrepreneurs find it harder to move towards changes and achieve success.