Lorenzo Thione

AI founder and product architect: Lorenzo co‑founded Powerset, an early natural‑language search startup, and served as product architect there. Powerset’s technology and team were acquired by Microsoft in 2008 and helped seed capabilities in Bing — this early technical foundation establishes him as an OG AI entrepreneur who moved from research (FXPAL) to building product and shipping search technology at scale. wikipedia+2

Investor and inclusive‑capital advocate: As a managing director at Gaingels and co‑founder of StartOut, Lorenzo focuses on increasing representation and access in venture. He helps source investments, advise portfolio companies, and advance board and leadership diversity — positioning himself at the intersection of capital, community and inclusion. gaingels+2

Storyteller and Broadway producer: Beyond tech and investing, Lorenzo is an active creative producer on Broadway through Sing Out, Louise! Productions (Allegiance, Hadestown, The Inheritance, Days of Wine and Roses, &Juliet, The Notebook). His producing credits and Tony recognition show a parallel career in storytelling and large‑scale live/filmed theatrical work. playbill+2

Academic / research grounding in NLP and discourse: Lorenzo’s early career included research roles at FXPAL and as a graduate research assistant at UT Austin; he co‑authored papers on discourse processing and related NLP topics, demonstrating formal research training that underpins his later product work in semantic search. aclanthology+2

Public speaker and communicator: Lorenzo writes and hosts 'The Humanly Possible' and is a frequent keynote speaker on AI, ethics, entrepreneurship and inclusion — reflecting an emphasis on clear public-facing storytelling about technology and social impact. thione+1