1st10 Podcast

1st10podcast
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Welcome to 1st10 Podcast, where we dive deep into the world of building early engineering teams. Join us as we sit down with engineers, founders, and investors to uncover the strategies, challenges, and successes behind assembling and nurturing the foundational teams that drive innovation. Whether you're a startup enthusiast, a tech leader, or an aspiring entrepreneur, our conversations provide valuable insights and practical advice on crafting the perfect engineering team from the ground up. Tune in to learn from the best and get inspired to build your own successful early-stage team.

  1. Aug 11

    AI Is Making Top Performers MORE Overworked, Not Less! | Ex-Amazon VP Ethan Evans

    An Amazon VP who helped build Prime Video from a team of six is now telling people inside the FAANGs to seriously consider leaving... On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, Boris Epstein sits down with Ethan Evans, former VP at Amazon, to talk about the conventional wisdom around AI, management, and career growth and how it may all be backwards. Ethan spent over 15 years at Amazon - rising from engineering manager to VP, launching Prime Video, the Amazon AppStore, and Prime Gaming. He retired in 2020 to coach the next generation of leaders through his "Level Up" community. Tune in to hear them discuss:The Illusion of Efficiency: The assumption that AI-driven productivity means fewer managers has run headfirst into a very different realityThe New Fiefdom Bottleneck: AI has accelerated individual productivity but ONE bottleneck is choking the market agility of AI tools.The "Reverse Centaur" Danger: Artificial intelligence is leaving top-tier ICs feeling overworked rather than liberated. Riding the Wrong Tide: A blunt, numbers-based question Ethan uses to tell people whether it's time to leave their companyThe Coming Cleansing: One of AI's longest-standing believers still thinks "Winter is coming..."Ethan spent fifteen years riding a wave that lifted an entire generation of Amazon careers along with his own. Now he's doing the math, out loud, for anyone still waiting for the water to rise again. Whether you're an engineer, founder, hiring manager or executive navigating the AI era, Ethan's sharp insights are definitely the candid look you need into where technology careers (and the companies behind them) may be heading next.Chapters00:00 Preview: A Prediction That Challenges AI00:51 Introducing Ethan Evans04:04 A Blind Job Offer That 'Unboxed' Amazon08:12 Amazon's 700 VPs (Who Are Actually CEOs)10:08 "Terminal Status" Versus The "Climbers"13:28 Amazon vs Startups - Hack vs Hustle18:18 Amazon Has Always Been "Relentless"23:50 Is AI Killing The Management Career?27:57 The 24/7 Assembly Line In The New Age31:39 FAANG Employee? Play This Chapter NOW!34:52 Teams of 90 People - Teams of 90 Agents39:29 Is This an AI Bubble?43:13 Who Will Win the AI Revolution?45:23 A Simple Math to Help Plan Your Exit49:21 "Winter Is Definitely Coming BUT..."50:55 Connect With Ethan EvansQuotes:"If one worker now does the work of ten... great! But you have to organize 10 times as much work!" - Ethan Evans (26:22)"The current belief, at least for many mid-to-senior level ICs, is AI has made them more productive, but also more overworked." - Ethan Evans (29:15)"I'm relatively negative on the same large corporations that, frankly, made me successful and wealthy. I'm rooting for those companies because I own their stock, but I'm actually like in this podcast talking myself into some selling!" - Ethan Evans (32:41)"Many of the big companies are in trouble. They are in the IBM position and it's going to be very hard to be nimble into the future." - Ethan Evans (41:22)"Waves sweep deadwood into shore. It's what they do! And I'm not saying be deadwood. I am saying at least be a surfer or a swimmer." - Ethan Evans (48:43)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:Ethan Evans on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/Website: https://www.ethanevans.com/Newsletter: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EthanEvansVPEthan Evans AI Announcement Post: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/p/announcing-ethan-evans-aiMusic by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

    AI Is Making Top Performers MORE Overworked, Not Less! | Ex-Amazon VP Ethan Evans

  2. Jul 28

    Inside OpenAI, Google Gemini & the Next AI Gold Rush With Google DeepMind's Logan Kilpatrick

    What do you do when the guy who helped launch GPT-4 (and now leads Google Gemini) tells you that competing with trillion-dollar AI labs is actually the EASY part?!On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, Boris Epstein sits down with Logan Kilpatrick, a leader who has been stationed at the absolute epicenter of the Generative AI revolution. Logan Kilpatrick has helped shape the AI tools that millions of developers use every day. And he thinks most founders are thinking about competition completely wrong. Now leading Gemini AI Studio, the Gemini API, and Kaggle as part of Google DeepMind, Logan breaks down why the ground shifting beneath our feet creates unprecedented opportunities for early-stage founders. Tune in to hear them talk about:The Big Lab Paradox: Why competing against elite AI frontier labs is much easier than it appears.The Understanding Boundary: The critical cognitive boundary you shouldn't let AI coding assistants cross.Accidental Research: Everyday software tinkering could be accidental cutting-edge research exploration.An Underdog Story: Logan's "mind-bending" decision to choose Google at the height of OpenAI's momentumPrompting vs Understanding: The difference that will separate good engineers from the great ones.Abundance to Exits: Why AI-powered software creation will unlock a 1000x explosion of new markets and massive startup exits.AI labs may be building the future - but Logan Kilpatrick genuinely believes the biggest winners will be the founders who build on top of them!Chapters00:00 Preview Of The Episode00:48 Introducing Logan Kilpatrick01:52 AI & The 4-Day Work Week Hypothesis 04:09 Why Is Staying On The Frontier SO Hard?*06:22 The Habit That Keeps Logan Ahead of AI09:19 From Apple to OpenAI, via PathAI14:45 Being Inside The Room When ChatGPT Exploded17:04 How to Pick the Right Startup 20:48 What DevRel @ OpenAI Really Looks Like23:10 Should Founders Fear OpenAI and Google?23:56 Competing With Trillion-Dollar AI Labs28:39 Why Logan Left OpenAI for the "Underdog" Google31:43 Inside Google DeepMind's AI Culture36:07 What A Successful Developer Looks Like Today38:38 Logan's Bold Prediction for 202640:12 What To Say When You Connect With LoganQuotes:"I have a hypothesis that actually if everyone was only working four days a week, we would probably have greater AI adoption in the world." - Logan Kilpatrick (02:17)"The delta between engineering work, product work, and research discovery is actually very blurry." - Logan Kilpatrick (04:23)"I'd be really excited to go build a coding startup right now." - Logan Kilpatrick (25:26)"You can outsource intelligence, but you can't outsource your understanding." - Logan Kilpatrick, quoting Andrej Karpathy (36:42)"It's not like, 'Software creating is solved and thus there's no opportunity anymore!' It's actually like, 'Software creating is solved and thus there's a 1000x more opportunity than it was before!'" - Logan Kilpatrick (39:18)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:Logan Kilpatrick on:- LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/logankilpatrick/- Twitter/X: https://x.com/officiallogank- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Kilpatrick- GitHub: https://github.com/logankilpatrickMusic by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

    Inside OpenAI, Google Gemini & the Next AI Gold Rush With Google DeepMind's Logan Kilpatrick

  3. Jun 19

    OpenAI Backed These Founders Before They Were Old Enough to Buy a Beer

    The long-trodden path to wealth-creation (through job-security) is completely broken. So, the next generation of elite founders is taking control of their own trajectories in a different way!On this episode of the *1st10 Podcast*, Boris Epstein sits down with Alkis Toutziaridis and Shashi Salavath, the prodigy co-founders of Tacit Intelligence, a stealth AI startup backed by Entrepreneurs First, Berkeley Skydeck, and the OpenAI Startup Accelerator. Tune in to hear them talk about:Alkis' opinion on critical difference between "doing a startup" and "starting a company".Shashi's theory for how he decides which work is worth doing which has nothing to do with salary or prestige.A refreshingly unique (and surprisingly mature) way to think about using AI in your codebase from two young builders.Their mutually-agreed take on why founders should never be in a hurry to hire a salesperson.A framework for thinking about startup valuations or "the Collapse of Terminal Value" as Alkis calls it!A mutually-shared deep optimism about what AI unlocks for human creativity and job creation.From winning national Economics Olympiads and publishing clinical AI research as teenagers, to dropping out of school to build in the relentless San Francisco startup ecosystem, Alkis and Shashi share what it truly takes to pursue outlier greatness.Chapters00:00 Preview: Three Lines That Set the Tone00:48 Introductions and ice-breakers04:03 Alkis and Shashi's Origin Stories 09:26 Of Battery Drain and Michael Jordan14:19 Managing Family Fear and Financial Realities17:32 Joining an Accelerator vs. Going It Alone22:09 The Accelerator Timeline29:16 "Collapse of Terminal Value"32:56 What Is Tacit Intelligence?36:23 When Do They Start Hiring?39:14 On Being AI-Pilled 41:23 Bold Predictions for 2026 43:51 How to Get in Touch with Alkis & ShashiQuotes:"You drain your battery every single day when you're doing a startup!" - Shashi Salavath (09:59)"TL;DR, the reason I'm doing it is for the pursuit of greatness." - Shashi Salavath (10:44)"A very, very small subset of people have the confidence and the delusion - the early-stage delusion - to take the risk to start a company." - Alkis Toutziaridis (13:26)"If we're Mr. Robot, huddled in a corner, hoodies on, just like coding 24/7... there is a mental aspect that needs to be serviced to make this successful." - Shashi Salavath (21:05)"If you're a founder and you can't sell your own product - or you don't learn what's your go-to-market motion and structure - then who's going to do it?" - Alkis Toutziaridis (37:15)"We don't outsource any of our thinking to AI. None of it. We outsource 0% of our thinking to AI." - Shashi Salavath (39:46)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:Alkis Toutziaridis on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alkistoutzi/Shashi salavath on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/shashi-salavath/Tacit Intelligence: https://www.tacitintelligence.ai/Music by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

    OpenAI Backed These Founders Before They Were Old Enough to Buy a Beer

  4. Jun 9

    The Founder's Guide to Hiring World-Class Engineers l Boris Epstein

    Boris Epstein built the tech-recruiting firm Binc over 19 years and got acquired by Robinhood in 2021. Then, he walked away from all of it...On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, host and founder of 1st10, Boris Epstein, shares the origin story of 1st10 and why he decided to get into the hardest version of Tech Recruiting viz., recruiting for early-stage startups. Tune in to hear Boris share super-valuable insights from the world of early-stage recruiting such as:Why most recruiting firms are optimizing for the wrong thing entirelyWhy the ceiling on the quality of your team is set well before your first engineering hire.Why founders consistently lose top candidates at the offer stage.Why it's a HUGE mistake to rely on the most popular industry compensation databases.What makes early-stage hiring SO "ridiculously hard".What *actually* makes a founder attractive to top engineering talentAlong the way, Boris shares a VERY uncomfortable truth about startups and founders that reveals why the ultimate ceiling of any startup is a very specific skill possessed by its leadership - tune in to find out!Chapters00:00 Episode Preview 00:42 Starting a Recruiting Firm After the Dot-Com Bust02:04 Dropping Recruiting SWAT Teams into Pinterest & Airbnb04:53 The Decision To Walk Away...07:09 The 1st10 Origin Story10:01 How 1st10 Decides Who They Work With11:53 Embedded & Retained Recruiting16:21 5 Startups From The 1st10 Portfolio22:53 "Talent Magnet" Founders And Their Blueprint25:56 3 Recruiting Mistakes Made by Startup Founders32:10 Why IS Early-Stage Hiring "Ridiculously Hard"? 36:32 3 Values That Define How 1st10 Operates39:56 The Truth of Truths For ALL Startup Founders41:28 A 30-Year Vision for the Next Tech Renaissance43:41 Contact Details & ConclusionQuotes:"I watched Stripe go from these two founders building this early team, to now where they're one of the most-storied technology companies in Silicon Valley worth $50 or $100 billion right now. And it all started from the ambition of the founder, the recruiting ability of the founder, and the talent-dense team that they built." - Boris Epstein (09:00)"We've made the decision to work with a fewer number of startups at a deeper level than working with a broader number of startups at a more superficial level. I believe one of the problems with recruiting is that they optimize for the latter." - Boris Epstein (11:53)"You have to be THE ONE for these candidates to want to join you! Not the 'one of many', not 'the ones building in this space'... You have to be THE ONE!" - Boris Epstein (30:19)"The startup's ceiling - from a talent perspective - is the recruiting abilities of the founder." - Boris Epstein (38:04)"Not AI, not technology, not executive assistance, not even third party recruiters - NOTHING will replace the founder's need to invest at that level. And the founders who invest at that level are the ones who build the standout teams." - Boris Epstein (40:42)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:Boris Epstein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/borisepstein/Contact Form: - Founders: https://www.1st10.com/wt-founders- Engineers: https://www.1st10.com/wt-engineersEpisodes Referenced:Alice Zhang - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcejiN-6JOAAshley Pelzel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hyOIi8h95cShashank Chiranewala - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwDaut7XGHcMusic by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

    The Founder's Guide to Hiring World-Class Engineers l Boris Epstein

  5. Apr 28

    What a Top VC Actually Looks for Before Writing a Check

    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

    What a Top VC Actually Looks for Before Writing a Check

  6. Apr 14

    The 5,000 Engineers Every Startup Is Fighting For | The Brutal War for Early Startup Talent

    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

    The 5,000 Engineers Every Startup Is Fighting For | The Brutal War for Early Startup Talent

  7. Apr 14

    The REAL Reason College Grads Can't Find Jobs in 2026

    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

    The REAL Reason College Grads Can't Find Jobs in 2026

  8. Mar 12

    He Was BORED at Meta so decided to Built 2 Startups | The Story of Shashank & Plutus

    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

    He Was BORED at Meta so decided to Built 2 Startups | The Story of Shashank & Plutus
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About

Welcome to 1st10 Podcast, where we dive deep into the world of building early engineering teams. Join us as we sit down with engineers, founders, and investors to uncover the strategies, challenges, and successes behind assembling and nurturing the foundational teams that drive innovation. Whether you're a startup enthusiast, a tech leader, or an aspiring entrepreneur, our conversations provide valuable insights and practical advice on crafting the perfect engineering team from the ground up. Tune in to learn from the best and get inspired to build your own successful early-stage team.

Information

  • Creator
    1st10podcast
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    42
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 1st10podcast
  • Show Website
    1st10 Podcast