Ivan Esmeral, co-founder of Podqi, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. Ivan works at the intersection of intellectual property and AI, leading product development for systems that detect, prioritize, and enforce against infringement across marketplaces, domains, social media, advertisements, and app stores. He began his career at Microsoft before leaving to build Podqi with his freshman year roommate from Penn and a friend from high school. The idea came out of an intellectual property law class he and his roommate took together.

Ivan speaks daily with in-house brand protection and legal teams on marketplace enforcement, domain takedowns, and trade dress and counterfeiting risk. He also works closely with outside counsel at AmLaw 100 and global law firms, coordinating enforcement programs that run alongside litigation and prosecution strategy.

Podqi is backed by General Catalyst, Afore Capital and Soma Capital, and was selected for Warner Bros. Discovery's 2025 Accelerator Program and the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs portfolio. Ivan is actively engaged in anti-counterfeiting work for leading names in the entertainment, fashion, gaming, consumer products and hospitality industries, as well as for law firms running enforcement on behalf of their own clients.