1st10 Podcast

1st10podcast

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

    4D AGO

    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

    45 min
  2. The REAL Reason College Grads Can't Find Jobs in 2026

    5D AGO

    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

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

    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

    55 min
  4. How AI Cut Drug Discovery From 8 Years to 4 Years | Alice Zhang's Moneyball Approach

    FEB 17

    How AI Cut Drug Discovery From 8 Years to 4 Years | Alice Zhang's Moneyball Approach

    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

    53 min
  5. 2026 Startup Predictions: Why This Year Changes Everything (Bitcoin, IPOs & The Great Divide)

    JAN 23

    2026 Startup Predictions: Why This Year Changes Everything (Bitcoin, IPOs & The Great Divide)

    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

    39 min
  6. The AI Leaderboard Every Top Lab Watches - Inside LMArena's Real-World AI Battleground

    JAN 7

    The AI Leaderboard Every Top Lab Watches - Inside LMArena's Real-World AI Battleground

    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

    43 min
  7. This Founder built at NVIDIA, Exited to Harvey - Now He's Betting AI Can Finally Fix Taxes

    12/24/2025

    This Founder built at NVIDIA, Exited to Harvey - Now He's Betting AI Can Finally Fix Taxes

    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

    47 min
  8. Inside the AI Startup Tackling the U.S. Radiologist Shortage - Rustin Rassoli

    12/12/2025

    Inside the AI Startup Tackling the U.S. Radiologist Shortage - Rustin Rassoli

    What kind of founder decides to build a full radiology practice, an AI research lab, and a software company - all at once?On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, Boris Epstein sits down with Rustin Rassoli, founder of Epsilon Labs to talk about why solving the U.S. radiology crisis requires breaking the rules of traditional healthcare tech. Rustin recounts his early entrepreneurial experiments, the lessons learned at Atomic VC, and the childhood experiences that exposed him to the failures and bottlenecks inside medical imaging. He details how Epsilon manages a daily throughput of 500+ patients, why existing AI models fail at medical imaging, and what it really takes to build a hybrid org where radiologists, ML researchers, and world-class engineers operate as one unit. Rustin’s unconventional path led him from drop-shipping at age 10, to cold-DMing his way into venture studios, to tackling one of healthcare's most critical problems. And he’s now betting that his integrated 3-in-1 approach might be the only viable path to solving a medical crisis accelerating toward disaster.Inside you’ll find answers to some fascinating questions, such as:Why a "normal" AI startup approach simply cannot solve one of healthcare's fastest-accelerating failures. How a childhood insight inside an imaging center quietly shaped a multi-layered startup strategy years later. What happens when engineers and radiologists attempt to collaborate without speaking the same language. Which single overlooked bottleneck has the potential to determine whether AI can meaningfully affect patient outcomes at scale. Why Rustin believes a tectonic shift is coming for AI startups - and why most won't survive it. Specifically, don’t miss the part where Rustin shares candid views on the current AI bubble. Spoiler alert, he isn’t very happy with Silicon Valley and its ‘throw-cash-at-everything’ VC culture!Chapters00:00 Introductions02:16 An Unexpected Origin Story05:18 Learning the Hard Way in Zero-to-One Land08:31 "Getting the First Job" Might Be the Wrong Goal12:15 The Radiology Crisis Is Impossible to Ignore17:14 What Happens When Demand Explodes and Supply Collapses20:41 Solving This Problem Requires Building a 3-in-123:07 The Strange Dance Between Radiologists and AI Engineers27:52 "Just Make the Model Better" Isn't How AI Works31:46 Medical AI Accuracy & Hidden Technical Battles35:56 Building a Team for an "Impossible" Mission38:47 A Brutal Reality of the AI Talent War41:53 Predictions for 2026 (HINT: The Bubble Must Burst!)Quotes:"I want my tombstone to say, 'This guy solved the radiology shortage and did some other kind of impactful things with medical imaging.'" (16:43) "I think engineers don't fully appreciate how nuanced radiology is and the fact that it's not binary. And a Radiologist A can be very kind of differently opinionated on something than Radiologist B." (28:08) "99% of what's being created today is not very valuable to the world." (39:25) 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:Music by Roman Senyk from PixabayProducer: Shrikant Joshi

    45 min
See All (37)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

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
    37
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 1st10podcast
  • Show Website
    1st10 Podcast