Engineering Founders

By: The Engineering Leadership Community (ELC)
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  • Summary

  • The show for engineering leaders making the leap to start their own company! We dive into the stories, pivotal moments and critical insights from former eng leaders turned founders, that helped them take those early leaps to launch their own company!
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Episodes
  • Inspiring BIG ideas and deconstructing ambitious projects into smaller questions, core tech, and POCs w/ Ivan Poupyrev & Jamie Lien @ Archetype AI

    Inspiring BIG ideas and deconstructing ambitious projects into smaller questions, core tech, and POCs w/ Ivan Poupyrev & Jamie Lien @ Archetype AI
    Dec 20 2024
    In this episode of Engineering Founders, Archetype AI’s Ivan Poupyrev, Ph.D. (CEO & CTO), and Jaime Lien, Ph.D. (Head of Hardware & Signal Processing), join us to discuss insights on transitioning as a larger-scale founder team, inspiring big ideas / questions, communicating your product’s thesis as a founder, and how to ensure your actions are tracking toward your ultimate goals & questions. Jaime and Ivan also break down smaller steps founders can take toward answering the big question, how to adapt your product’s narrative as you iterate, communicating complicated theses in a way people can easily digest them, and what the next big ideas at Archetype AI look like.ABOUT IVAN POUPYREVChief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Archetype AI where he leads the team in developing a physical world foundational AI model, a direction known as 'Physical AI.' An award-winning inventor, engineer, and technical leader, he has 20+ years of experience in research and product development, as well as interaction design, advanced sensors and natural interaction, mobile and wearable devices.Prior to Archetype AI, Ivan spearheaded technology development for Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects, Walt Disney Imagineering, Sony, and others. He holds over 100 US patents, has over 100 scientific publications, and has been recognized with the National Design Award, Cannes Lion Grand Prix, and SXSW Innovation Award. Ivan was named 'one of the best interaction designers in the world' by Fast Company, and his work has been enshrined in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum.ABOUT JAIME LIENHead of Hardware & Signal Processing, Jaime Lien, Ph.D., holds a wealth of experience in research and hardware product engineering. A visionary leader with a proven track record in inventing, developing and shipping radio frequency sensing technology and techniques for human perception and interaction, Jaime has an extensive background in radar systems design and signal processing.Prior to Archetype, Jaime was the Radar Research Lead of Project Soli with Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects and a Communications Engineer with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Jaime received a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where her research focused on interferometric synthetic aperture radar theory and techniques.SHOW NOTES:Ivan & Jaime’s co-founder story & founding Archetype AI together (3:45)What it was like transitioning collectively as a larger-scale team (6:56)How to inspire big ideas & what tackling ambitious projects looks like at Archetype AI(9:36)Learn how to embrace “crazy” ideas / questions without constraints (11:41)Creating a founder team with a diverse set of interests & experiences (13:14)Deconstructing Archetype AI’s early-stage big questions (14:27)Strategies for finding the right metaphor to describe what you’re trying to build (16:52)Why the iterative process is like archeology (18:52)The inspiration behind & conversations that led to Archetype AI (20:25)How to communicate the thesis of Archetype AIin a way people understand (21:45)Unlocking your vision around the core technologies available (24:18)Where to start when working toward answering the big question (26:07)Use prototypes to see if you idea makes sense in the real world (27:56)Frameworks for deconstructing & re-synthesizing your big ideas (30:10)What it means for AI to understand physics (32:41)Tracking tools for ensuring your actions align with your big question (34:17)Archetype AI’s next big ideas (37:29)Rapid fire questions (40:24)LINKS AND RESOURCESNormal People - Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.The Overstory - A sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond.What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics - Adam Becker’s gripping book following the battle to understand the meaning behind quantum physics.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/
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    46 mins
  • De-risking the co-founder relationship & experiments to stress-test your partnership w/ Jake Schwartz @ Endorsed

    De-risking the co-founder relationship & experiments to stress-test your partnership w/ Jake Schwartz @ Endorsed
    Dec 12 2024

    Jake Schwartz (Co-Founder @ Endorsed) joins us to talk about de-risking the co-founder relationship! We cover how they built in stress-tests to validate co-founder fit, how to host a hackathon to stress-test your partnership, and why reference calls are an important component of finding a co-founder. Plus the story behind Jakes's transition from Life360 to co-founding Endorsed, prioritizing which projects to focus on, early-stage product strategy considerations around AI, and why you need to approach your customers with a genuine sense of curiosity.

    ABOUT JAKE SCHWARTZ

    Jake is an engineering leader, entrepreneur, and technology investor based in San Francisco. From building his first website at age 8 to shipping large-scale software at Apple and overseeing the development of the flagship Life360 app, Jake has tackled engineering challenges at every scale. At Life360, he jump-started the European engineering office, helping scale the company from 50 to 500 people and reaching an audience of 70M users worldwide. He is now the co-founder of Endorsed.com, an AI recruiting platform that helps teams hire better and faster.

    SHOW NOTES:
    • The origin story behind Endorsed (1:59)
    • What inspired Jake to dive into the world of hiring (6:05)
    • The whiteboarding conversation between Jake & his co-founder (7:12)
    • Jake’s transition from Life360 to starting Endorsed (9:24)
    • Insights on experimentation & stress-testing the co-founder relationship (11:23)
    • Deciding what experiments to pursue further or toss (13:16)
    • Strategies for de-risking the co-founder relationship & transition to a startup (14:30)
    • Organizing a hackathon to test the co-founder relationship (16:50)
    • What Jake learned from the co-founder hackathon & tips for trying your own (18:07)
    • Main objectives for co-founder reference calls (19:59)
    • Dissecting Jake’s decision-making process behind the different pivots (21:27)
    • Why they decided to commit to selling direct vs. building an API layer (24:38)
    • Recommendations for sorting through problems & deciding which to solve (25:57)
    • Approach your customers with curiosity (29:31)
    • Early-stage considerations for AI in terms of product strategy (30:33)
    • Rapid fire questions (33:34)
    LINKS AND RESOURCES
    • Steve Jobs “Keeper of the Vision” quote
    • The Three-Body Problem - Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/
    Show More Show Less
    36 mins
  • Scaling costs & being enterprise ready from day 1 w/ Nancy Wang

    Scaling costs & being enterprise ready from day 1 w/ Nancy Wang
    Nov 7 2024

    Nancy Wang, Venture Partner @ Felicis and Former GM @ AWS, joins us to discuss strategies & considerations for scaling costs, becoming enterprise ready on Day 1, maintaining business health, and more. We cover Nancy’s journey as a founding product manager at AWS and how those lessons have guided her throughout her career & how she coaches founders. We address why it’s paramount to prioritize scaling costs early on as a founder, how to make design decisions with cost considerations in mind, and what tools you can employ to identify the features that most benefit your customers. Finally, Nancy & Patrick talk about how to land on your V1 while being enterprise-ready from the get-go and trends / growth opportunities that founders should be aware of today.

    ABOUT NANCY WANG

    Nancy is a product & engineering executive, advisor, and investor who is passionate about creating seats at the table for women, especially within engineering and technical roles. Most recently, as General Manager of Data Protection at AWS Nancy scaled her engineering teams from 18 to 100+, all while averaging over 45% female and delivering triple-digit YoY growth businesses that delivered over $1B+ ARR including its integration into Amazon’s suite of AI products.

    Previously, Nancy launched Rubrik’s (NYSE: RBRK) first Cloud SaaS business, growing their company valuation to over $4B in less than 2 years. Rubrik IPO’ed in Q22024, as one of the fastest-growing enterprise SaaS businesses. As Founder and Board Chair of the non-profit Advancing Women in Tech since 2016, Nancy helps prepare women and underrepresented minorities for leadership roles. She is currently a Venture Partner at Felicis, looking after their infrastructure and cybersecurity investments.

    SHOW NOTES:
    • Nancy’s journey as the founding product manager for AWS (2:57)
    • Why AWS was launched & how it scaled (5:31)
    • How to build a successful business within the confines of your org (7:41)
    • Insights into the people side of scaling your business (10:25)
    • Understanding the cost component of scaling / founding (13:12)
    • Ensure your processes aid the overall health & mission of the company (15:43)
    • Why founders need to prioritize scaling costs early (17:15)
    • Breaking down different cost scenarios founders may face (20:08)
    • Avoiding design decisions that create exponential cost but linear revenue (22:51)
    • Considerations for being enterprise-ready from Day 1 (28:10)
    • Think of hyperscalers like a T-rex (32:31)
    • Nancy’s lessons learned on landing your V1 while being enterprise-ready (34:05)
    • Questions founders can ask to help identify their market & where to start (39:24)
    • Current trends / growth opportunities for founders to consider (40:59)
    • Rapid fire questions (43:31)
    LINKS AND RESOURCES
    • CEO Excellence - McKinsey & Company led a research effort to identify those CEOs whose companies grew demonstrably healthier during their tenures, looking across more than 20 years’ worth of data on 7,800 CEOs from 3,500 public companies across 70 countries and 24 industries to further identify those whose actions have led to breakaway success.
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/
    Show More Show Less
    46 mins

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