Ben Wolfson Podcast

Ben Wolfson Podcast

By Ben WolfsonTechnology
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Ben Wolfson Podcast episodes

  • Lessons from Silicon Valley: Inside the Mind of a YC Founder | Evis Drenova - Ben Wolfson Podcast #5

    Evis Drenova is the CEO and Cofounder of Neosync, a YC-backed open source data anonymization and synthetic data platform.

    In this episode we talk about stories from his career, what it's like to be a founder, getting into Y Combinator, and more.
    Please like and subscribe if you like the video, more content coming soon!
    Evis' Socials:
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@evisdrenova
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evisdrenova
    X: https://X.com/evisdrenova
    Ben's Socials:
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benwolfson
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benswolfson
    X: https://X.com/benjwolfson
    00:00 Teaser
    0:38 Intro
    1:02 How to get rich in Silicon Valley?
    2:47 Evis' Path
    4:43 MBAs and Intuition
    8:40 Founder Mode vs. Manager Mode
    13:30 Hardest part about being a Founder
    19:02 Trust and Responsibility
    25:21 Y Combinator
    34:26 Lessons from Silicon Valley
    37:51 Having a Wife and Running a Startup
    43:42 Cryptocurrency
    46:11 Finding alpha
    49:00 Social media and dopamine detoxing
    54:19 Podcasting
    1:00:11 Time management
    1:03:18 Startup Decisions and Intuition
    1:08 Coding and AI
    1:13:35 Exploration and finding meaning
    1:17:20 Evis' Albanian Origins
    1:20:23 Tech Bros

    1 hr 27 min
  • Social Media, Startups, and Finding Life's Global Maxima | Baxate - Ben Wolfson Podcast #4

    Had the chance to sit down with my good friend Carter Abdallah (Baxate) and catch up after a long hiatus.

    Baxate has grown his social media platform to over 750,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok while juggling a full time job as a software engineer. One year ago his life changed forever when he quit his job in big tech to join Brev.dev as a founding engineer. The company was acquired by NVIDIA earlier this year.
    In this episode we talk about how building a following on social media has changed our lives, the acquisition, and many more topics around tech, success, and life. We filmed this episode the day before his 25th birthday.
    Carter's IG: https://www.instagram.com/baxate_carter
    Carter's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@baxate_carter
    Ben's IG: https://www.instagram.com/benswolfson
    Ben TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benswolfson
    00:00 Teaser
    00:38 Overview
    1:20 What is it like being internet famous?
    9:15 How Carter met his girlfriend
    14:25 Should you build a personal brand? Product vs. Distribution
    19:55 Social responsibility in making content
    22:17 Carter's path to virality
    27:45 How to go viral on social media
    30:15 Why does Georgia Tech produce so many tech influencers?
    33:49 Blind discussion (teamblind.com)
    38:33 Carter's time in Big Tech and moving to SF
    44:40 Software Engineering or Influencer?
    48:18 Finding Life's Global Maxima
    53:38 Carter's North Stars
    58:07 Ambition and Dating
    1:02:37 Dating apps
    1:08:26 Life in Silicon Valley
    1:14:46 Wealth drivers in the US and Internationally
    1:17:57 Creativity, originality, and isolationism in content creation
    1:23:49 How to provide value in making content
    1:27:09 Carter's Acquisition and Joining NVIDIA
    1:32:39 How Ben uses being an influencer at work at IG
    1:34:25 Squashing the beef

    1 hr 42 min
  • How Me and My Best Friend Cracked Big Tech in College | Rohan Banerjee - Ben Wolfson Podcast #3

    Recently took a trip out to Seattle visit one of my best friends from college. In today's podcast we reflect on our journeys getting into BIg Tech, the formative moments in our friendship, and ultimately what drove us to succeed together at Georgia Tech.

    Rohan Banerjee works as a Mechanical Engineer at Microsoft and previously interned at Tesla, Microsoft, and Panasonic. He graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Georgia Tech, where we met during our freshman year.
    I sincerely hope you enjoy the episode. Please leave any and all feedback in the comments! Much appreciated.
    Rohan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohan-banerjee1/
    Ben's IG: https://www.instagram.com/benswolfson
    Ben's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benswolfson
    Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjwolfson/
    00:00 Intro
    1:30 Rohan's untraditional path to Tesla
    8:55 How we became friends
    18:08 Ben's indecision around computer science
    23:00 How to find your path in college
    30:49 Hardware vs. Software in Big Tech
    40:04 Performing under pressure
    41:58 Going to war for multivariable calculus
    46:08 Don't back down mentality
    51:17 Elon Musk stories from Rohan's time at Tesla
    56:09 Ben's influencer lore
    1:15:10 Achieving balance
    1:17:44 The trap of trying to maximize income
    1:25:05 Building quality friendships
    1:37:44 Impact of skipping a grade during childhood
    1:44:04 The importance of self-reflecting
    1:50:10 What makes a great friendship
    2:00:44 General advice on breaking into Big Tech
    2:08:10 Closing remarks

    2 hr 10 min
  • Jensen Huang's Nephew Created an AI Startup... PearAI | Nathan Ang - Ben Wolfson Podcast #2

    Had the chance to interview the infamous Nathan Ang (Nang) during his last week in NYC, before he and his co-founder Duke Pan moved to San Francisco to join Y Combinator's Fall 2024 batch.

    After launching PearAI on X, they faced immediate backlash from the open source community for a number of mishaps. Here's the original tweet that stirred up controversy: https://x.com/CodeFryingPan/status/1840203597478539477
    You can check out PearAI here: https://trypear.ai/
    This episode was filmed two weeks before any of the controversy happened, and I had no context of the specifics of the situation at that time. Their legal team asked for me to hold off on posting until things smoothed over.
    I appreciate your patience and hope you enjoy this episode. More to come soon.
    Nang's IG: https://www.instagram.com/not_nang
    Nang's YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nang88
    Ben's IG: https://www.instagram.com/benswolfson
    Ben's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benswolfson


    00:00 Intro

    0:10 Nang’s YouTube journey

    2:12 Why Nang quit his job

    6:19 Expectations Reset

    11:18 What does PearAI do?

    14:07 How Nang met Pan

    16:42 Decision making process

    18:11 Finding an idea

    20:25 Why they pivoted

    22:27 CMU

    24:40 Work life balance

    29:57 Importance of self care

    31:40 Sacrifice

    34:48 Social Meter

    37:35 Innovation

    40:30 Cursor?

    45:48 When Nang learned to code

    46:48 Big Tech or Startup?

    48:30 Financial security

    50:17 Game Plan

    52:30 Jensen Huang

    54:45 Personal advice

    1:04:46 Nang Family Lore

    1 hr 15 min
  • He Graduated Berkeley at 19 to Work at a Hedge Fund | Michael Khaykin - Ben Wolfson Podcast #1

    Recently moved to NYC so figured it would be good to sit down with my friend Michael Khaykin and ask him some hard hitting questions. Check out his story of graduating Berkeley EECS at age 19 to go work for a hedge fund in NYC, his advice on how to break into tech, whether computer science is cooked, and more.


    Michael's IG: https://www.instagram.com/michael.khaykin

    Michael's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@michaelkhaykin
    Ben's IG: https://www.instagram.com/benswolfson
    Ben TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benswolfson


    00:00 Graduating Berkeley at age 19

    2:14 How Michael landed an internship as a freshman
    4:50 Leetcode discussion
    9:45 Do coding languages matter?
    13:30 Interviewing prep tips
    20:00 What to do if you don't have a job
    26:36 Is Computer Science cooked?
    27:30 Doing research might get you an internship
    30:40 The importance of making a connection with your professors
    34:54 Life in San Francisco vs. NYC
    41:10 Closing remarks

    42 min

About Ben Wolfson Podcast

From the publisher's feed

Trying to find the optimal solution to life. This podcast includes discussions on technology, business, philosophy, self-improvement, and more. Ben Wolfson is a 25-year-old software engineer.