We left Amazon to build a startup. A 5-day RTO mandate and the AI moment pushed us to act.
Business Insider
February 14, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
Joe Luchs and Nicole Landis Ferragonio, former Amazon executives, left their high-profile roles last year to launch Datalinx AI, an AI-driven startup aimed at helping businesses refine and utilize their data more effectively. The decision was driven by Amazon's strict five-day return-to-office mandate, which raised questions about career flexibility in big tech, and the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, which they saw as a unique opportunity to innovate. Luchs and Ferragonio, who had previously collaborated on data projects at Amazon, identified a common issue among businesses: fragmented and inconsistent internal data hindering decision-making. Their startup aims to solve this problem by providing tools that transform raw data into actionable insights.
The pair met over a decade ago in New York City through mutual friends and reconnected while working together at Amazon. Ferragonio, a senior manager overseeing a 55-person team in the Amazon Ads division, focused on data and measurement, while Luchs served as the global head of AWS and Ads partnerships. Both observed that many companies struggled to leverage their own data due to its fragmented nature. This observation sparked their conversation about launching a business together. Last March, Luchs resigned from Amazon to focus full-time on developing Datalinx AI, followed by Ferragonio in September when they formally launched the company with two other cofounders. In January 2026, Datalinx AI secured $4.2 million in seed funding led by High Alpha, with additional investments from Databricks Ventures and others. The startup is currently testing its product with a second group
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Originally published on Business Insider on 2/14/2026