The announcement this month that Robert Herjavec (pictured) would become executive director of global strategy for data lakehouse company Zetaris Pty Ltd. was the culmination of a chance conversation the “Shark Tank” star had in a school pickup line.

Robert Herjavec, Exec. Dir. at Zetaris, talks with rheCUBE about the data lakehouse during Nvidia GTC.

The well-known investor was waiting to pick up his kids at school in Australia, where he resides now, and another parent approached him. Herjavec listened as the parent described a modern data lakehouse built for AI and was intrigued by the opportunity.

“I have six-year-old twins,” Herjavec said. “I’m standing in the school lineup, and a friend of mine picking up his daughter runs Goldman Sachs there. ‘Hey, you should look at this AI data company.’ One day when we exit, this will make a great story.”

Herjavec spoke with theCUBE’s Savannah Peterson at the Nvidia GTC event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the reasons behind Herjavec’s involvement in the startup and how the infrastructure supporting AI will be an important focus moving forward. (* Disclosure below.)

Market opportunity for data lakehouse

Herjavec’s involvement in Zetaris, which includes a personal investment of an undisclosed amount, was based on his interest in finding better ways to gain accurate, real-time data insights for powering AI-based projects. Asked if he had any qualms about competition with major, established companies seeking to provide similar technology, Herjavec was unconcerned.

“I like big competitors because it validates the space,” he said. “If we’ve learned anything … it’s how big this market is. All of this is based on data and moving your legacy data and getting it ready for AI. I think there’s a massive opportunity here.”

Earlier this week, B2B music streaming infrastructure provider Tuned Global announced a partnership with Zetaris to support businesses seeking to monetize data generated by streaming services. The news was further validation for the “Shark Tank” star that the company was positioned well to capitalize on AI technology’s next step forward.

“Every technology has these waves, and I think we’re in the third wave of AI,” Herjavec said. “The first wave was the consumer facing ChatGPT/Open AI where people hear about it. The second wave will be the application of use cases. The third wave will be the infrastructure wave. How do we use it? What I would say to the world is this is just another application that will make everyone’s life better.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Nvidia GTC event:

(* Disclosure: Equinix Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Equinix nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE