1st10 Podcast

The biggest shift in software isn't AI itself - but the moment software started *talking back*... semantically!On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, Boris Epstein sits down with Peter Terrill, former Stripe engineering leader and CTO/Co-founder of Grounded Agents, to unpack the real meaning of "agentic software" in 2026. Peter systematically breaks down the transition from "words-to-JSON" software into fully semantic systems where both the input and the application itself are powered by LLMs and shares his opinion on why the industry may still be underestimating what AI agents can actually do.Tune in to hear them talk about:Why AI agents are not just "better chatbots" - they represent a fundamentally different software architecture.How the role of software engineers is shifting from writing code to reviewing and steering generated systems.How coding agents already produce productivity gains that many teams describe as transformational.Why enterprise AI adoption will be constrained mostly by trust, privacy, and security.Why the companies winning in AI are often the ones most willing to rethink old assumptions about software structure.This episode is a rare look at the bleeding edge of AI-native software engineering from someone who is *actively* building it!Chapters00:00 - Episode Preview 00:40 - Introducing... Peter Terrill!02:10 - Peter's Entrepreneurial Instinct04:30 - How Peter Spots Major Tech Shifts Early07:47 - The 20-Year-Old (Prescient) AI Textbook10:05 - The Framework: Tools vs. Applications13:40 - End of The "Words-to-JSON" Era17:28 - Where Agents Should NEVER Be Used20:11 - What It Really Means To Be "AI-Pilled"25:57 - Who Thrives Inside Grounded Agents29:32 - What You'd Actually Build at Grounded Agents32:51 - Peter's Bold Prediction For AI Agents in 202635:51 - Where to Find Peter and What to SayQuotes:"I think of LLMs as a tool in some ways, and then agents are applications - they're software applications!" - Peter Terrill (10:23)"You're not looking for files anymore. You're reviewing the files that already changed." - Peter Terrill (23:48)"Seven people coding in this environment versus seven people building a Ruby on Rails app in 2015 - it's a different scale of change and process!" - Peter Terrill (25:08)"I'm not sitting here with a secret playbook that I'm interviewing people to see if they get the right answer! We're hiring people to figure out the answer with us!" - Peter Terrill (31:12)Follow:Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1st10podcast Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7e8ec9af-f38c-4cd9-8c68-1c1dd4516b 27/1st10-podcastApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st10-podcast/id1760411207 Podcast: https://www.1st10.com/podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f951319c/podcast/rss YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Links:Peter Terrill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterterrill/Grounded Agents: https://www.groundedagents.ai/Music by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

Alex Vogenthaler built a billion-dollar product at Google, ran the P&L for 93% of Stripe's revenue and then... simply walked away from it all because he wanted to build the exact AI tool that could improve his job!On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, Boris sits down with Alex Vogenthaler, Co-Founder and CEO of Grounded Agents. Alex's career is fascinating - it begins with NAND gates and research assistance for policy papers for the Fed and reaches the operator's seat at two of the most admired companies in the world, and then takes an abrupt left turn into the founding of Grounded Agents - a stealth AI startup tackling a class of problems most companies have simply accepted as "unsolvable.".Tune in to hear them talk about:What made Stripe exceptional The traditional career advantage signal rapidly losing relevanceSolving "Big company stuff" (i.e., enterprise dysfunction) using the right AI architectureThe real bottleneck in companies - Invisible Coordination FailureA historical parallel of the current agent ecosystem's inflection point.The importance of ability to operate in genuine open-ended ambiguity over "pedigree".Alex breaks down how the rise of agentic AI is reshaping not just individual productivity, but the very structure of organizations. So, if you think AI is just about copilots and productivity boosts, this episode will force you to rethink the game entirely. Chapters00:00 Teaser and Introductions01:46 From NAND Gates to the Fed to Google06:51 Why the Old Career Advice Is Breaking11:23 The Hidden Dysfunction Inside Enterprises17:28 What Grounded Agents Is Actually Solving24:55 The Past, Present, and (Possible) Future of Agents32:15 A Peek Behind The Grounded Agents Curtain36:19 The Engineer Profile Alex Is Actually Hiring38:47 "You Will Get Left Behind"Quotes:"Everything you've learned in school is going to be completely outdated in three years." - Alex Vogenthaler (08:01)"I don't think anyone cares about the brand on the resume. What people care about is, 'Have you built agents?'" - Alex Vogenthaler (09:27)"Stripe is nice to people... but they're super-freaking ruthless about the ideas." - Alex Vogenthaler (12:39)"I just felt compelled to go bring this thing into existence - and that's what we're doing!" - Alex Vogenthaler (20:43)"Everything that needs to get built is getting built... you just don't know which 10% matters." (29:10) "It's like if you're only working on mainframe software in 1999. [...] You just gotta be on board or you're gonna get left behind." - Alex Vogenthaler (38:47)Follow:Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1st10podcast Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7e8ec9af-f38c-4cd9-8c68-1c1dd4516b 27/1st10-podcastApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st10-podcast/id1760411207 Podcast: https://www.1st10.com/podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f951319c/podcast/rss YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Links:Alex Vogenthaler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexvogenthaler/Grounded Agents: https://www.groundedagents.ai/:Grounded Agents on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/108753115Music by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

A new class of AI-native startups is accelerating at a pace that feels unnatural, while SaaS companies that looked "perfect" two years ago are suddenly stuck… On this episode of the 1st 10 Podcast, Luke Beseda goes into detail about why the traditional logic of startup hiring - build headcount, develop junior talent, scale the pipeline - has been quietly dismantled by AI. Luke is Partner, Talent Infrastructure at Lightspeed Venture Partners and he anchors Lightspeed's Launch Program for seed-stage founders. He has spent over a decade supporting hundreds of founders from pre-incorporation through pre-IPO. Tune in to hear Boris and Luke discuss:Why the "safe middle" for startups is disappearingHow and why hiring strategies are quietly excluding early-career talentWhy venture is becoming a "barbell game"Why the "headcount" as a metric of success is deadONE crucial mistake that locks a founding team's ceiling permanentlyIf you're building, hiring, or trying to break into startups, this episode is the new baseline you need to learn and incorporate very quickly into your own journey!Chapters00:00 Episode preview and Introductions03:46 The "Dystopian" Phase of AI?09:48 What Lightspeed Actually Does11:24 A Tale of Two Startup Worlds16:04 The Lightspeed Launch Program19:49 The Founder Attribute Nobody Talks About25:04 Collapse of the Entry-Level Pipeline29:05 Startups Can't Afford to "Develop Talent" Anymore32:11 New Comp Strategy: Fewer People, More Equity!34:19 What Winning Early Teams Look Like Today37:12 Rapidfire Round: The Early-Team Blueprint44:31 Luke's Bold Predictions for 202646:38 AI + Hardware = Real Robots??Quotes:"If you're not AI-native, you're in dystopian land." - Luke Beseda (11:24) "Being a little more junior and not having preset notions of how things are done, how an industry can move, what you can build - is actually an advantage to a large extent." - Luke Beseda (16:54)"That ability to learn things and do things really quickly is the make-or-break skill set for any founder." - Luke Beseda (19:35)"Very few of our companies - and the ones outside our portfolio - are prioritizing fresh-grad junior hires in the same way, because the tooling's already gotten so good that it can do a lot of this junior-level work for you, in almost any function." - Luke Beseda (25:04)"It's both easier to be a founder and much harder to be a founder than ever." - Luke Beseda (33:59)Follow:Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1st10podcast Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7e8ec9af-f38c-4cd9-8c68-1c1dd4516b 27/1st10-podcastApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st10-podcast/id1760411207 Podcast: https://www.1st10.com/podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f951319c/podcast/rss YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Links:Luke Beseda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lbeseda/Luke’s Official Bio on Lightspeed Venture Partners: https://lsvp.com/team-member/luke-beseda/Launch - Lightspeed Venture Partners: https://lsvp.com/launch/Music by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

Almost every founder is hunting the exact same 5000 people. And most of them are losing without even knowing it?On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, Samantha Price breaks down the uncomfortable reality of early-stage hiring: it's not meritocratic, it's not efficient, and it's definitely not passive.Samantha Price is the Founding Talent Partner at Audacious Ventures and she has spent 15 years in the trenches of engineering recruitment - scaling teams at Intercom and OneLogin. and now embedding herself inside seed-stage startups to do the actual work of team-building. Tune in to hear them talk about:The secret scoreboard most founders never see.A three-part formula that most founders skip entirely.Why most founders avoid the most prestigious engineering resumes. 🚩The cruel paradox in Silicon Valley junior employees encounter when 'graduating' to senior leadership.The popular hiring ritual costing seed companies $15K a pop.Together, Boris and Samantha offer a ground-level view of startup hiring in 2026: aggressive, asymmetric, and brutally competitive.Chapters00:00 Introductions02:51 Fight Harder Than Your Recruiter06:00 Candidates Don't Know What They Want10:24 Venture Talent's "Ivory Tower" 18:11 The "5,000 Engineer" Bottleneck20:13 FAANG Isn't Enough Anymore21:47 "Force-of-Nature" Founders24:09 The Perfect Early Engineer Profile27:14 The 55% Comp Spike 31:11 "Excitement Convergence"37:30 Work-Trials Are A Trap40:19 Samantha's Predictions for 202643:05 A Paradox And A ConclusionQuotes:"You don't get the team you deserve. You get the team that you fight for!" - Samantha Price (02:40)"We have companies offering $250K to new grads and 1% of the business." - Samantha Price (27:14)"Everything dies at seed! You have a great couple of meetings and then the candidate doesn't hear back from you for six days? That's death at our stage." - Samantha Price (34:55)"On one hand, we're telling these kids, 'Go all in. Go 9-9-6. Be obsessed.' But then, on the other side, when you become an executive, you better show that you have personal growth too!" - Samantha Price (43:27)Follow:Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1st10podcast Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7e8ec9af-f38c-4cd9-8c68-1c1dd4516b 27/1st10-podcastApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st10-podcast/id1760411207 Podcast: https://www.1st10.com/podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f951319c/podcast/rss YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Links:Samantha Price on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-price-5b453532/Audacioius Ventures: https://www.audacious.coSamantha on X/Twitter: https://x.com/hellospriceSamantha’s Blog Post on “Timing Your Offer: https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/timing-your-offer-rightMusic by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

You've sent hundreds of applications and landed ZERO jobs because you are playing a game that quietly ended years ago... On this solo episode of the 1st10 Podcast, Boris Epstein dismantles the dominant narrative that AI is killing entry-level jobs and replaces it with a harsher truth: companies aren't rejecting candidates - they're ignoring them. Tune in to hear Boris explain:Why your 200 applications are returning barely any replies.Why companies aren't hiring entry-level talentHow a fresh grad can outcompete a 10-year veteranHow to get a hiring manager to want you even if there's no open job.Why becoming a compelling candidate has never been easier(BONUS: For high-agency grads, Boris outlines a business opportunity that the market is craving - and most graduates haven't even considered it!)The real bottleneck isn't demand, it's relevance. Companies are still aggressively searching for people who can move their AI adoption forward.PS: If you're a graduate stuck in the "apply and wait" loop, you need to see AND share this episode right now!Chapters00:00 200 Applications! 3 Replies?!02:00 Why Companies Stopped Investing in Entry-Level Talent04:22 The Unfair Advantage That Fresh Grads Are Sitting On06:49 The "Black Hole" of Job Applications09:22 The Playbook For Fresh Grads That Gets You Hired12:02 ...And What Happens When You Add AI to It15:14 Should Universities Be Doing More?18:16 The AI Bear Case - A Brutal Reality Check20:55 What an Employer Actually Wants to Hear From You22:46 "Extra Credits" for High-Agency Grads27:11 A Warning For 2026 (And The Way Out)Quotes:"No! AI is not taking all the entry-level jobs! The market is not broken. If anything, companies are in a full-blown talent crisis." - Boris Epstein (00:17)"You don't have to go to college to learn AI. AI could teach you AI! You don't have to go to college or even have a job to learn how to do that job. AI can teach you how to do that job." - Boris Epstein (05:08)"I don't think anybody is finding jobs through job applicants right now. It's a matter of luck. It's... Play the lottery." - Boris Epstein (09:03)"My prediction is that college graduates should prepare to not have a job for longer. They should prepare to live at home with their parents or find ways to make ends meet or consider alternative ways to earn income while the workforce does find a way to employ them." - Boris Epstein (27:11)Follow:Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1st10podcast Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7e8ec9af-f38c-4cd9-8c68-1c1dd4516b 27/1st10-podcastApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st10-podcast/id1760411207 Podcast: https://www.1st10.com/podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f951319c/podcast/rss YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Links:Music by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

What if everything your financial advisor ever told you was designed to benefit *them*, not you? On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, Boris Epstein sits down with Shashank Chiranewala, founder of Plutus, to unpack the unconventional journey that took him from investment banking to product leadership at Microsoft and Meta - and ultimately into building fintech startups. Shashank takes us through an unconventional founder journey: spotting a painful gap in U.S. immigration software while applying for his own green card at Meta, building a SaaS solution in a week out of sheer intellectual curiosity, getting acquired within 18 months - and then launching his *next* company before the ink on the acquisition paperwork had dried. Shashank is currently building Plutus to tear down the wall between everyday investors and the kind of sophisticated, research-driven portfolios that only hedge funds and ultra-wealthy individuals have historically been able to access.Specifically, don't miss the part where Shashank delivers blunt insights on Big Tech bloat, startup culture, hiring founding engineers, and how small elite teams can outperform massive organizations.PS: At Plutus, Shashank and his lean team of six are building a marketplace that matches everyday investors with bespoke, research-backed portfolios across 60+ themes and risk profiles, executing those strategies automatically inside the investor's own brokerage account. And right now, they're looking for their next founding engineer.Chapters00:00 Teaser02:04 Introductions & Ice-breakers06:04 The personality trait that keeps pushing him into startups09:22 A startup to solve his own problem12:06 The uncomfortable reality of Big Tech17:25 "AI probably won’t kill too many jobs"18:57 How a startup accidentally got acquired22:43 A spreadsheet with 70 startup ideas24:11 The investing problem that sparked a new company28:31 An investing system that's been rigged against you34:23 How Plutus is helping unlock hedge-fund-style portfolios37:58 Big Banks sell you stuff you don't need42:35 The DNA of Plutus' six-person startup team45:04 What it takes to join this team - and what you'll get50:48 Why Plutus doesn't sell AI (but uses a ton of it)53:13 The 5x-10x productivity boost from AI toolsQuotes:"I was routinely in meetings with 15 engineers getting paid over a million dollars a year!" - Shashank Chiranewala (13:42) "If you don’t have $100 million, you’re basically locked out of elite investment strategies." - Shashank Chiranewala (32:30) "No AI is ever supposed to be the customer product." - Shashank Chiranewala (51:12) "The broker has nothing to do with an actual investment strategy. Their incentives are completely misaligned. They want you to trade. They make money on commissions." - Shashank Chiranewala (39:49)"We're just building for the customer. And my customer needs to manage their money better." - Shashank Chiranewala (51:12)Follow:Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1st10podcast Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7e8ec9af-f38c-4cd9-8c68-1c1dd4516b 27/1st10-podcastApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st10-podcast/id1760411207 Podcast: https://www.1st10.com/podcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Links:Shashank Chiranewala on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shashank-chiranewala/Plutus (website): https://www.runplutus.comPlutus (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/company/runplutus/Seattle entrepreneurs raise cash for new startup aiming to democratize thematic portfolio investing - GeekWire: https://www.geekwire.com/2025/seattle-entrepreneurs-raise-cash-for-new-startup-aiming-to-democratize-thematic-portfolio-investing/Citrini Research: https://www.citriniresearch.comMusic by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

What happens when you realize in middle school that the greatest impact you can make is solving humanity's most complex diseases? On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, host Boris Epstein sits down with Alice Zhang, founder and CEO of Verge Genomics, to unpack why drug discovery has been stuck for decades - and why AI, used the right way, might finally change that. Alice dropped out of a prestigious UCLA MD-PhD program to build an AI-powered drug discovery company that's rewriting the rules of biotech. In this conversation, Alice reveals:Why relying on mouse models to predict human drug responses has led to a 90% failure rate in clinical trialsHow conducting 1,200+ interviews helped Alice build a rare team of engineers and scientists fluent in both machine learning and biologyThe conscious culture framework that eliminates workplace dramaHow Verge compressed the traditional 8-year, hundreds-of-millions-dollar journey from discovery to clinical trials down to just 4 yearsWhy it is a problem that we fundamentally don't understand what causes the diseaseSpecifically, don't miss the part where Alice predicts why the pharmacological research industry will move away from the current hybrid model and what it is likely to split into!Chapters:00:00 - Episode Preview02:05 - Introductions05:05 - Small Questions, Big Implicationsg13:18 - "Just Start" ALWAYS Beats Confidence16:21 - The Mouse Problem22:40 - Beating ChatGPT To The ChatGPT Moment28:26 - 3 Areas for AI-IMpact In Drug-Development33:22 - Why Are Drugs Are So D*** Expensive?!35:07 - Building A Dataset That No One Else Has39:31 - "Conscious Culture" Careers at Verge49:35 - A 2026 Prediction Most Founders Won't Like52:09 - Contact Details and Life LessonsQuotes:"The feeling I wanted to have was that I had made a big impact and left a legacy on the world." - Alice Zhang (05:27)"A mouse swimming in a water bath is not going to predict whether a human loses their memory faster or slower." - Alice Zhang (16:14)"No transformative technology from day one has ever been a smashing success." - Alice Zhang (23:49)"The problem with Alzheimer's disease is not that we don't have a drug against it. It's that we completely have no idea what causes Alzheimer's disease." - Alice Zhang (33:52)"Sometimes the best trick for catching a wave isn't actually working hard, it's being at the right position at the right time." - Alice Zhang (52:09)Follow:Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1st10podcast Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7e8ec9af-f38c-4cd9-8c68-1c1dd4516b 27/1st10-podcastApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st10-podcast/id1760411207 Podcast: https://www.1st10.com/podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f951319c/podcast/rss YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Links:Alice Zhang on LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-zhang-2087862b/Verge Genomics: https://www.vergegenomics.com/Alice Zhang on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alice-Zhang-8Music by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

The startup world is splitting into two radically different realities - and 2026 will be the year this divide becomes impossible to ignore. On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, Boris grades his 2025 forecasts (4.5/5 - not bad!), revealing which bets paid off and where he missed the mark on Bitcoin's meteoric rise. But the real focus is forward: FIVE bold predictions for 2026 that cover everything from crypto's regulatory renaissance and the coming IPO tsunami to a troubling "tale of two cities" emerging between those building the AI-powered future and those struggling to break in. Tune in to hear Boris share incredibly insightful takes that explain:Why last year's "wild guesses" suddenly look obvious in hindsightThe quiet shift that makes this moment historically differentA comeback story most people are calling too earlyWhy talent, not ideas, becomes the real bottleneckHow "efficiency" and "hiring booms" can both be trueThe emergence of TWO Americas - the AIs and The AIn'tsWhether you're a founder chasing funding, an engineer choosing your path, or simply trying to understand where the tech world is headed, this episode cuts through the hype to reveal what's really at stake in 2026.Chapters00:00 Introductions02:18 Grading the 2025 Crystal Ball05:04 When AI Agents Became Non-Negotiable08:58 The Meme That Accidentally Explained the Job Market12:28 A Framework That Suddenly Explains Everything14:20 Prediction #1: A Controversial Bet. (Again.)19:06 Prediction #2: "Floodgates Opening..."21:10 Prediction #3: A Wave of... Consolidation?27:05 Prediction #4: Hiring Will... Boom?!30:02 Prediction #5: The Tale of Two Cities35:10 Is the American Dream Really Over?Quotes:"This year, every single company that's building in the AI space needs their engineers to have agentic development experience. So it's crazy how, in just one year, the world went from, 'No one needs to know how to do this' to 'Everyone needs to know how to do this.'" - Boris Epstein (06:31)"I get it, Stripe. But at the same time think of the public, think of the people! The people want to be in on your success. And that's what getting to go public provides for the actual public. And so do it for the people, Stripe!" - Boris Epstein (20:46)"It's very easy to see today that the future is being built NOT. AT. FAANG. Right? And so the episode really just talks about the important choice that an engineer has to make and it is: 'Do they want to be a part of the future?' Or, 'do they want a very cushy compensation and work-life package?'" - Boris Epstein (26:33)Follow Us On:Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1st10podcast Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7e8ec9af-f38c-4cd9-8c68-1c1dd4516b 27/1st10-podcastApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st10-podcast/id1760411207 Podcast: https://www.1st10.com/podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f951319c/podcast/rss YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Connect with usWebsite: www.1st10.comPodcast: www.1st10.com/podcast Twitter www.x.com/1st10engineersLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/1st10/YouTube: www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Episodes Referenced:- S3E01 feat. Philip Su: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWtcGUJJgOE- S3E03 feat. Daniel Rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUCYRa6YqDc- S3E04 feat. Sara Ali: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ZEHOGbSjk- S3E09 feat. Anastasios Angelopoulos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPoqP5fiqYoSources:- 2025: The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise | Menlo Ventures - https://menlovc.com/perspective/2025-the-state-of-generative-ai-in-the-enterprise/- The State of AI: Global Survey 2025 | McKinsey - https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai- Rise | Top Global Hiring Trends for Startups (2025 Data) - https://www.riseworks.io/blog/top-global-hiring-trends-for-startupsMusic by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

What happens when three PhD students accidentally build the infrastructure that every major AI lab depends on? OR What if the AI benchmarks everyone trusts are measuring the wrong thing entirely?On this episode of the *1st10 Podcast*, host Boris Epstein sits down with Anastasios Angelopoulos, co-founder and CEO of LMArena, to unpack LMArena went from a Berkeley side project built with free pizza and zero revenue to a $100M company with 42 employees and tens of millions of users in under two years.Tune in to hear them talk about:- How Academic AI benchmarks measure the wrong things and real-world user feedback is - fundamentally changing how models compete- Why $100M wasn't crazy for a "seed" round - especially when a company has already proven product-market fit- The diversification play in AI, or why dozens of winners will emerge, not just one dominant player- Why Personalized AI i.e., individual leaderboards that route you to the best model is the obvious next step.- The uncomfortable automation truth - Rote jobs WILL disappear, period.- What happens when academic rigor meets commercial speed. (HINT: An unfair advantage in AI evaluation!)Specifically, don't miss Anastasios' surprisingly pragmatic advice on what AI's acceleration means for jobs, companies, and individuals and why being early to the AI revolution means you still have 20 years to position yourself.Chapters00:00 Introductions and ice-breakers05:41 The Academic Path That Accidentally Led to AI's Center08:36 A Side Project That Refused to Stay Small12:04 When Academics Realize They Built a Company15:50 The Bradley-Terry Model: Turning Preferences Into Ranked Data19:22 Your Personal AI Leaderboard Is Coming23:48 "We're 20 Years Ahead of the Pack"26:17 Why a $100M Seed Round Was the Rational Move29:58 Who Makes Up LMArena? And Why?34:47 The LMArena Hiring Philosophy36:56 The Jobs AI Will Definitely Kill40:12 Surf the Wave or Get Pulled UnderQuotes:"We're at Berkeley we're eating pizza, free pizza, making no money but Sam Altman cares what we're doing!" - Anastasios Angelopoulos (10:49)"We're academics by nature. We don't care about aggrandizing or enriching ourselves." - Anastasios Angelopoulos (12:28)"Who cares how well it does on a Math Olympiad? I do mathematics in my work, and even I don't care about it!" - Anastasios Angelopoulos (14:36)"We're very, very early... There's trillions of dollars of economic value that are waiting to be created." - Anastasios Angelopoulos (23:59)"If you're somebody who's proofreading text for grammatical mistakes [...] yeah, you should expect that that job is not going to be there in, like, 20 years!" - Anastasios Angelopoulos (38:19)"The right thing to do is probably to lean in, to try to use the technology, become an expert in it, and be at the forefront of modernizing your field. Because if you do that, then you can be carried with the wave. The problem is if you don't surf the wave, you might get caught in the pullback!" - Anastasios Angelopoulos (40:29)Follow:Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1st10podcast Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7e8ec9af-f38c-4cd9-8c68-1c1dd4516b 27/1st10-podcastApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st10-podcast/id1760411207 Podcast: https://www.1st10.com/podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f951319c/podcast/rss YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Links:Music by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

What if the biggest failure of AI today isn't creativity - but math?On this episode of the *1st10 Podcast*, host Boris Epstein sits down with Sreerama Tripuramallu, a repeat founder whose career spans NVIDIA, a Sequoia-backed startup exit to Harvey AI, and now a stealth consumer product tackling one of the most painful problems professionals face: taxes.Sree walks through his unconventional career path - from being the person whose personal-finance post is still pinned inside NVIDIA's Slack, to building Mirage through the pre-ChatGPT era, pivoting fast during the AI boom, and ultimately exiting just two years in. And now, after seeing first-hand how broken tax planning is, Sree makes a contrarian claim: general-purpose LLMs will never be good at taxes. Not because they aren't smart, but because accuracy and precision matter more than language.The discussion dives into a myriad of topics, such asThe Hidden Cost of General AI: Large language models achieve only 27-33% accuracy on tax computations, revealing a massive gap between general AI capabilities and domain-specific precision.The Acqui-Hire Formula: Getting acquired is sometimes about building relationships with shared investors and finding cultural fit with fast-growing companies at the right moment.The Impending CPA Crisis: 75% of CPAs will retire in the next 10-15 years with no clear succession plan.The User-First Building Philosophy: Founders who optimize for end-user experience over technology choices automatically make better trade-offs. The Serendipity of Startup Inception: The best startups often emerge from problems founders can't stop thinking about, combined with unexpected investor interest.Don't miss the part where Sree explains why he believes we're in an AI bubble that won't actually pop, while making a clear comparison to the dot-com boom (and bust) of early-2000s!Chapters00:00 Introductions02:01 From Personal Finance Guru to NVIDIA Engineer06:06 When "Stop Trying" Worked Better Than Hustling10:12 Building Side Projects Until Burnout Forced a Choice14:05 NVIDIA → Mirage → Harvey20:23 Finding Community Inside a Rocketship26:51 A Side Obsession Turns Serious32:17 A Very Different Kind of AI Product37:25 Careers @ Sree's Stealth Startup: Applied AI Engineers42:41 AI Won't Kill Jobs And The AI Bubble WON'T Pop46:05 Conclusion & Contact Details

Quotes:"I stopped worrying about the job and I started worrying about enjoying what I was doing. And it's kind of how I approached everything in my career." - Sreerama Tripuramallu (07:25)"It's not that I'm against paying tax - I just want control over how it's paid." - Sreerama Tripuramallu (30:31)"The LLMs have anywhere from like a 27 to 33% hit rate when it comes to tax computation... My hypothesis from the very beginning was that these models are not going to be able to solve tax." - Sreerama Tripuramallu (34:40)"Excel didn't take away a bunch of CPAs and accountants. It created more of them. [AI is] going to be transformative for all professional work, but it's going to change how we do work." - Sreerama Tripuramallu (43:08)Follow:Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1st10podcast Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7e8ec9af-f38c-4cd9-8c68-1c1dd4516b 27/1st10-podcastApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st10-podcast/id1760411207 Podcast: https://www.1st10.com/podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f951319c/podcast/rss YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Connect with usWebsite: www.1st10.comPodcast: www.1st10.com/podcast Twitter www.x.com/1st10engineersLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/1st10/YouTube: www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Links:Sree's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sree-tripuramallu/Mirage - acquired by Harvey AIHarvey AI: https://www.harvey.aiSequoia Arc: https://www.sequoiacap.com/arcMusic by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi