Rei Llazani is a serial technology founder who has built and scaled companies across software, online marketplaces, artificial intelligence, fine art, and procurement. Across these domains, the through-line is the same: taking an idea from concept to a working platform, and then growing that platform to meaningful scale — reaching millions of users and tens of thousands of business partners across his ventures.
He is the founder of 50Pros, a platform that is used by more than two million users each year. Building and sustaining an audience at that scale required end-to-end ownership of product, growth, and operations, and 50Pros stands as one of the clearest demonstrations of his ability to launch a consumer-facing technology product and grow it into a high-traffic destination.
He is also the founder of Cubbie.com, which he has built into what is best described as the “Amazon for software” — a platform where people discover, evaluate, and get software products and tools in one place. Just as a general marketplace organizes a vast catalog of products into something a customer can actually navigate and buy from, Cubbie does this for the software landscape, turning a fragmented and overwhelming market into a single destination for finding the right tools. The platform is supported by a network of more than 50,000 software companies, which gives Cubbie both the breadth of catalog and the supply-side depth that a discovery-and-acquisition platform of this kind depends on. Building a network at that scale required sustained execution across platform development, partnerships, and go-to-market strategy, and positions Cubbie among the larger software-discovery platforms in the market.
MadeMay, one of his earlier companies, is a marketplace platform that connects artisans with customers and supports the full transaction lifecycle — discovery and visibility for artisans, pricing, project workflow, and escrow-based payments. It extends his marketplace expertise into a different vertical, and he has led its platform development, product strategy, and supporting operations. Taken together with his other companies across software, marketplaces, AI, fine art, and procurement, his record reflects a founder who builds repeatedly and across very different problem spaces.
Beyond his companies, Rei serves as Chairman of the American Society for AI, where he leads the organization’s mission, strategic direction, and engagement across the artificial intelligence community. In that capacity he serves as a principal point of contact for the organization with leaders across industry, research, and government, and represents it in conversations on the responsible development and deployment of AI.
He is recognized as a trusted resource in Washington, D.C. on artificial intelligence. He engages with members of Congress, congressional staff, and members of the diplomatic and ambassadorial community, advising and briefing them on AI strategy, governance, safety, and the broader implications of emerging technology. This work places him at the intersection of building real AI-era technology companies and shaping how policymakers understand and respond to the technology — a combination of operating experience and policy fluency that is uncommon and central to how he is positioned today.