Laz Fuentes

Lazaro (Laz) Fuentes is the founder and CEO of SQOR (sqor.ai), an AI-native Decision Intelligence platform that Gartner placed in the "transformational" categories of its 2026 Hype Cycle for Data Science and Machine Learning.

SQOR connects directly to a company's existing data systems and delivers natural language answers, predictions, recommendations, and deep analysis out of the box.

It eliminates from enterprise analytics the complexity, the millions in infrastructure spend, the multi-quarter implementations, and the army of FTEs required to build and maintain the house of cards that is currently required. Two provisional patents protect the platform's core architecture. SQOR was accepted to Techstars 2022 and completed the Google Cloud ISV Startup Springboard program.

The platform was born from a decade Laz spent leading turnarounds for top private equity and venture capital firms globally, at companies including Warner Bros., YouGov, Vertro, and others.

Inside company after company, he saw the same failure: leadership teams spending millions on data infrastructure and still unable to answer basic questions about their own business. He leveraged that experience and the processes he built to fix those failures to create SQOR, giving senior leadership, boards, and investors the confidence to act decisively.

Before the turnarounds, Laz was a three-time entrepreneur, building and exiting multiple VC-funded and public companies, creating outsized value for investors, boards, and senior leadership. Before that, an investment banker at Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers on Jamie Dimon's team.

He started his career as an enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army and rose to become an Infantry officer and Company Commander in the 10th Mountain Division. He holds a degree in Philosophy, Economics, and Political Science from Columbia University.