The Agent C with Supriya Gupta

In this episode of AI I've Got Questions, Stacey Epstein interviews Supriya Gupta, founder of The Agent C, who shares her journey from engineering to entrepreneurship in the AI space. They discuss the importance of authentic communication in business, the challenges executives face in maintaining their voice, and how AI can transform ghostwriting and executive communication. Supriya explains the workflow of her AI-assisted writing service and its potential to amplify human ingenuity and innovation across industries.

Transcript

Stacey Epstein:
I’m super excited today to have Supriya Gupta from Agent C on the show. I met Supriya just last week—we were both at an event for the Operators Collective, which is an awesome organization we’re both part of. We ended up sitting next to each other, started talking, and I was immediately fascinated by what she’s working on. So welcome to the show, Supriya!

Supriya Gupta:
Thank you so much, Stacey.

Stacey Epstein:
Let’s start with you. Tell us a little bit about your background—how did you come up with this idea and start the company?

Supriya Gupta:
Sure! So I’m the founder of Supriya AI—an AI advisory and also Agent C, which is my AI studio. And we’re just about to release our flagship product: a personal executive ghostwriter. You're actually hearing it here first!

A bit about me—I started in a totally different space. My career began in engineering—I was literally working on satellites. But I transitioned into product and moved to Silicon Valley, where I’ve spent the last 20 years—15 of them in AI.

My first exposure to AI was during an internship at IBM while I was in business school. I worked on AI products there, and that really set the direction for the rest of my career. Since then, I’ve worked at multiple companies, often in very entrepreneurial roles, and the feedback I kept getting was, “Maybe you should start your own thing.”

When large language models really hit the scene, I was leading AI product teams at Credit Karma—hundreds of people—and that’s when I had this lightbulb moment. I realized this was the moment to make the leap and build something of my own. Something that felt more aligned with who I am—using advanced tech to create novel value by solving real problems.

Stacey Epstein:
That’s amazing. I’ve been there—running big teams and scrappy startups. Both are hard and exhilarating. But this product you’re building—it's not what people might expect from your background. So what led you to ghostwriting?

Supriya Gupta:
Great question. After I left my role, I took a couple of vacations—then started thinking seriously about what I wanted to work on. I had this broad idea of building a studio to reshape how people work with AI. So I started talking to friends—many of whom are founders, execs, and business owners—and I noticed a pattern: they all wanted help amplifying their voice to grow their businesses.

People are a little weary of ads. They still work, of course, but people trust people more. We see it all the time on the consumer side with influencers—and it’s just as true in B2B. You need to be the face of your brand, but you also have a day job running the company. These are smart, insight-rich leaders, but they don’t have the time—or sometimes the skill—to consistently show up authentically.

That’s where the idea came from. I’d been that exec at Credit Karma. I knew firsthand how hard it is to find the time, and through my conversations, I realized how widespread the problem was. AI still can’t solve this well on its own, so we built a solution that could.

Stacey Epstein:
Yeah, I think that’s so true. At first glance, people might think this is a super niche problem. But as someone who’s run comms and worked with a lot of execs, I know how important it is. Some of the strongest brands out there have vocal, visible leaders sharing their ideas—not just hyping product, but sharing their POV on the world.

I always think of someone like Aaron Levie from Box—he built so much brand just by sharing opinions and sparking conversation. I’ve worked with CEOs, heads of product, sales, engineering—you name it. No one argues with the value of being vocal. The problem is time… and authenticity.

Because you can go to ChatGPT and say, “Here are my five bullets—write me a post.” But it’ll sound like ChatGPT. And it won’t sound like you. I’ve had comms teams try writing for me, and even when it was close, I’d read it and think, “Nope. I don’t sound like that. I wouldn’t say that.”

It’s personal. Voice is style. It’s tone. It’s identity. That’s not something you want to outsource to a generic tool.

Supriya Gupta:
Exactly. And that’s the gap we’re solving for.

Stacey Epstein:
You mentioned a CRO at our table last week who had a different use case—more about helping her craft personalized follow-ups for deals in motion. So I imagine you’re seeing all kinds of interesting applications?

Supriya Gupta:
Yes, absolutely. There’s the ghostwriting for social, of course. But also founders doing founder-led sales—they need to be the face of the company early on. Their voice, their energy—it’s a huge part of how they win deals.

Then there are niche consulting firms or small agencies—one- to ten-person shops with deep expertise in a specific space. I have one client who runs a boutique FinTech consulting firm. He told me he was spending 40% of his time on content creation to drive leads. Now? He’s down to 4%. And we’re talking about how to 20x his business because he has that time back.

So it’s not just saving time—it’s real business leverage.

Stacey Epstein:
Yes! I’ve said a million times, if I only had 10 extra hours in the week... Writing—even if you’re fast—takes time. I’ve written articles for Fast Company that took half a day. That’s a big investment for any exec.

Now imagine writing five articles a week that are still authentic, thoughtful, in your voice—just created with help. That’s a 5x efficiency boost. And that’s everything if you’re in a brand role.

Supriya Gupta:
Exactly. And we’re seeing use cases beyond external content—internal memos, investor updates, even big announcements. One CEO I work with needed to address his company about their Gartner Magic Quadrant ranking. It wasn’t just a brag—it was a nuanced message: here’s what it means, here’s who to thank, here’s how to talk about it externally. You can’t get that from a generic tool. But with the right input, you can absolutely draft something deeply personal, quickly.

Stacey Epstein:
So how does it work, exactly? Let’s say I’m an exec who wants to get started. What’s the process?

Supriya Gupta:
We onboard you by training a set of AI agents that learn how you think. We don’t just ingest writing samples to capture your tone—we gather your perspective, your market context, brand guidelines, and your audience.

One CEO I work with sends a quick voice memo every Monday morning with his thoughts for the week. Now, he just emails our AI assistant. Within minutes, it comes back with five posts that sound like him—because it was trained on him.

And this isn’t a one-size-fits-all model—it’s an AI “comms team” that triangulates multiple factors, just like a real team would.

Stacey Epstein:
That’s amazing. A lot of people don’t realize that onboarding a human comms person often starts with shadowing. They need to understand how you talk, what you care about, your mindset. That’s what makes a voice sound real—and it’s why this works.

Grammar and polish are easy. Authenticity is hard. But if you can capture that, it’s magic.

So—last question: where do you see all of this going? What’s your vision?

Supriya Gupta:
What excites me most is the leverage AI creates. The top performers in every field—engineers, marketers, creatives—can now 10x or even 1000x their impact. AI lets you focus on thinking, creativity, and insight—not grunt work.

Our product helps thought leaders share their sparks—ideas that have the power to drive change. The business ROI is clear, but the societal ROI? That’s the spread of ideas that spark innovation across industries. That’s what fires me up.

Stacey Epstein:
Yes! I was just talking to my nephew—he’s in college studying data science—and he said the same thing. “I don’t use AI to cheat, I use it to code 10x faster.” That’s the mindset. It’s about getting more of your brilliance out into the world.

Supriya Gupta:
Exactly. It’s going to be amazing.

Stacey Epstein:
It really is. Supriya, thank you so much for joining the show. I know you’re early in the journey—but it’s such an exciting one. Let’s definitely check back in six or 12 months and hear how it’s all going.

Supriya Gupta:
Sounds great. Thanks so much for having me, Stacey.

Stacey Epstein:
Thanks for joining. Talk soon!