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  "markdown": "Co-founder and CEO.\n\nRuss d'Sa is co-founder and CEO of LiveKit, an open-source framework and cloud platform for voice, video and physical AI agents founded in 2021. Forbes reports he met co-founder David Zhao at Y Combinator in 2007, later worked at Twitter, and with Zhao built Evie Labs, a news recommendation app sold to Medium in 2019.\n\n- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russelldsa/\n- X: https://x.com/dsa\n\n## What Russ builds\n\n- [LiveKit Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/livekit-agents.md), graded BB, 72.5/100, in Conversational voice agents. LiveKit Agents is LiveKit's open-source Python and Node.js framework for realtime voice and video agents that join LiveKit rooms, with STT, LLM, TTS and realtime-model plugins, turn detection, MCP tools and telephony through LiveKit SIP. Co-founder and CEO, researched 2026-10-26.\n- [LiveKit Telephony](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/livekit-telephony.md), graded B, 67.6/100, in Phone calling \u0026 voice transport. LiveKit Telephony connects phone calls to LiveKit rooms as SIP participants. On LiveKit Cloud it covers SIP trunks to outside carriers, US inbound phone numbers, dispatch rules and transfers, managed through a Twirp API, server SDKs and the `lk` CLI. Co-founder and CEO, researched 2026-10-27.\n\n## Works with\n\n- [David Zhao](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/david-zhao/), Co-founder and CTO\n\n## Backed by\n\n- [Altimeter Capital](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/altimeter-capital/)\n- [Redpoint Ventures](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/redpoint-ventures/)\n- [Index Ventures](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/index-ventures/)\n- [Salesforce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/salesforce/)\n- [Hanabi Capital](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/hanabi-capital/)\n- [Jeff Dean](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/jeff-dean/)\n- [Elad Gil](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/elad-gil/)\n- [Aravind Srinivas](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/aravind-srinivas/)\n- [Amjad Masad](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/amjad-masad/)\n- [Guillermo Rauch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/guillermo-rauch/)\n- [Logan Kilpatrick](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/logan-kilpatrick/)\n- [Mati Staniszewski](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/mati-staniszewski/)\n- [Erik Bernhardsson](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/erik-bernhardsson/)\n- [Rohan Anil](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/rohan-anil/)\n- [Mckay Wrigley](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/mckay-wrigley/)\n- [Demi Guo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/demi-guo/)\n- [Matt Shumer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/matt-shumer/)\n- [Garrett Camp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/garrett-camp/)\n- [Ev Williams](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/ev-williams/)\n- [Justin Kan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/justin-kan/)\n\n## Questions\n\n### Who is Russ d’Sa?\n\nRuss d'Sa is co-founder and CEO of LiveKit, an open-source framework and cloud platform for voice, video and physical AI agents founded in 2021. Forbes reports he met co-founder David Zhao at Y Combinator in 2007, later worked at Twitter, and with Zhao built Evie Labs, a news recommendation app sold to Medium in 2019.\n\n### What does LiveKit Incorporated make?\n\nAnchor Terminal lists LiveKit Agents and LiveKit Telephony from LiveKit Incorporated. LiveKit Agents is LiveKit's open-source Python and Node.js framework for realtime voice and video agents that join LiveKit rooms, with STT, LLM, TTS and realtime-model plugins, turn detection, MCP tools and telephony through LiveKit SIP.\n\n### Who has invested in LiveKit Incorporated?\n\nThe sources our research read name Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Index Ventures, Salesforce, Hanabi Capital, Jeff Dean, Elad Gil, Aravind Srinivas, Amjad Masad, Guillermo Rauch, Logan Kilpatrick, Mati Staniszewski, Erik Bernhardsson, Rohan Anil, Mckay Wrigley, Demi Guo, Matt Shumer, Garrett Camp, Ev Williams and Justin Kan.\n\n### How are Russ's tools graded?\n\nLiveKit Agents is graded BB, 72.5 out of 100; LiveKit Telephony is graded B, 67.6 out of 100, on Anchor Terminal's benchmark, which scores every listing against the same checklist.\n\n## Sources\n\n- https://www.linkedin.com/in/russelldsa/\n- https://livekit.com/\n- https://x.com/dsa\n- https://docs.livekit.io/intro/community/\n- https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidzhao/\n- https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?keywords=LiveKit%20founder\u0026spellCorrectionEnabled=false\n- https://livekit.com/about\n- https://livekit.com/pricing\n\nThese are the people building the tools we list, named for their public role in the company or project behind a listing, from public pages, with the date it was researched. They don't work for Anchor Terminal (our own team is on the about page, /about/#author). We show public roles, public profiles and what the listing pages show, nothing private. To correct something, send an about or a photo, or have a page removed, write to privacy@anchorterminal.com.\n",
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