High Bit

Initialized Capital
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Welcome to High Bit, a podcast hosted by Initialized Capital managing partner Brett Gibson about the art of technical problem-solving. A high bit is the most significant part of the binary representation of a number. In programming language, it is commonly referred to as the most important thing you need to understand about a problem. We spoke with our guests about just that. In each episode, we’ll break down a gnarly engineering problem and hear how the builder’s ingenuity and inventiveness led to a successful outcome.

  1. Closing the Adoption Gap in Factory Robotics

    HÁ 4 DIAS

    Closing the Adoption Gap in Factory Robotics

    “Robots are the only way my business survives, but it’s not viable for me.” Formic founder and CEO Saman Farid joins Brett Gibson, managing partner at Initialized to unpack why that mindset keeps factories from adopting automation and how Formic closes the gap. They cover: de-risking with financing, productizing complete robot work cells, and running fleets with teleoperation, intelligent error recovery, and careful staging to hit factory-grade uptime. You’ll hear why palletizing is the ideal first beachhead, how the team cut deployment costs roughly in half, and why they say no to one-off requests until they can be productized. Saman also shares how the company resists “fun” engineering in favor of scale, injects controlled chaos into his company, uses daily 8 a.m. meetings for problem solving, and bridges the culture gap between the manufacturing and software industries. Subscribe for more builder-level deep dives from High Bit. Follow Formic and Saman for more: Formic: https://x.com/goformic Saman: https://x.com/samanfarid Content 00:00 “It’s not viable for me”—closing the adoption gap 00:44 What Formic does & where robots work today 02:24 Engineer → VC → founder: why start Formic 04:38 Adoption vs flashy demos. Solve one task well 05:47 De-risking with financing; manual first, then automate 08:23 The playbook: scope, build modules, deploy, operate1 0:36 Work cells, not just arms 13:38 99.9% uptime15:01 Why palletizing was the first beachhead 16:49 Cutting costs per deployment 18:08 Saying “no” & expanding scope the right way 21:15 Resisting “fun” engineering to serve more factories 22:07 Injecting chaos into your company 23:34 Daily 8am to crack hard problems 25:40 Culture clash: manufacturing × software 27:24 Evaluating new robots, regional rollouts 31:24 Where AI helps across the org 37:11 What’s next: more robots, more tasks, more factories

    38min
  2. AI vs. Human Review: Why Machines Are Catching the Bugs We Can’t

    28 DE AGO.

    AI vs. Human Review: Why Machines Are Catching the Bugs We Can’t

    Daksh Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Greptile, joins Brett Gibson on High Bit and explains why human code review is essentially "security theater" and how Greptile uses AI to catch bugs by understanding entire codebases. He dives into why code generation and code review must stay separate, the surprising challenge of teaching AI what's a nitpick versus a severe issue, and how intelligence becoming "abundant and nearly free" is reshaping software practices.Plus: why some companies will be left behind if they don't adopt AI tools, what happens when human "taste" becomes the final bottleneck, and whether code legibility will matter in an AI-dominated future. Follow Greptile and Dkash for more: @greptileai @dakshgup Chapters 00:00 - About Greptile, the evolution to specialized bug detection 3:00 - Humans are bad at code review. Why AI works 6:00 - Intelligence becoming abundant 7:20 - Sneaky disruption - what people are looking for vs what they need 10:50 - Code gen and verification are different problems 14:00 - Code gen and code review should be separate 17:15 - Getting LLMs to understand code 24:15 - Claude 4's tool-using capabilities changed their approach 25:00 - Architecture: from flowcharts to agent tools 27:30 - What’s hard about code review - what’s a nitpcik vs. a severe issue 31:00 - What was the “High Bit” 35:06 - Whether code legibility will matter in an AI world 37:25 - Why Terraform and infrastructure code is particularly difficult 43:25 - Re-architecting systems to be AI-friendly vs. adapting AI to messy reality 45:55 - Human "taste" as the final bottleneck 47:14 - Rick Rubin level taste in software 47:55 - Human appetite for change - kitchen exhausts for stoves 50:50 - Working with companies that use AI to generate code

    54min
  3. New Frontiers in Orbit: Building Imaging Satellites for VLEO (Very Low Earth Orbit)

    14 DE AGO.

    New Frontiers in Orbit: Building Imaging Satellites for VLEO (Very Low Earth Orbit)

    AyJay Lasater, cofounder and CTO of Albedo, joins Brett Gibson on High Bit to talk about the challenge of building satellites for one of the toughest places to operate in space: very low Earth orbit (VLEO). He shares how the idea took shape, the importance of avoiding fear-based calls, why they decided to bring key systems in-house, and the physics-driven design choices that shaped their approach. Along the way, AyJay walks through the mirror mishap that could have delayed them a year, the supply-chain chess it took to recover in just two weeks, and what it means to take on a mission where there’s no playbook to follow. Follow Albedo on X for more. Chapters 00:00 – Knowing Everything – Why total system knowledge is the only way to do something that’s never been done 00:59 – Albedo’s Mission – Getting drone-quality imaging from space 04:21 – The Spark – From Lockheed to startup. How a single tweet ignited the VLEO idea 09:29 – Inside VLEO – Why it’s one of space’s toughest environments 14:46 – Breaking Down the Impossible – Applying first principles to the hardest orbit 18:17 – Ditching the Bullet – Rethinking design from physics up 21:09 – Make vs. Buy – The decision to take control in-house 28:55 – No Fear – Avoiding fear-based calls when stakes are high 35:37 – The Mirror Crisis – Saving a year’s work in two weeks 47:11 – 4D Supply Chain Chess – Creative problem-solving under pressure 50:38 – The Fun and Stress of Knowing It All – Why no detail can be left to chance 51:32 – What’s Next – Albedo’s path to VLEO and its first 10 centimeter images

    52min
  4. The Far End of the AI Adoption Curve

    8 DE JUL.

    The Far End of the AI Adoption Curve

    Amir Elaguizy, cofounder and CEO of Poker Skill, joins Brett Gibson on High Bit for a look inside the mind of someone who’s been all in on AI long before it was everywhere. He explains what’s possible when you’re not just using AI tools, but constantly learning, testing, and pushing them to their limits, and he shares how he’s used AI to build his startups. Follow Amir and Poker Skill for more: @amirpc @PlayPokerSkill Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:36 - Amir's background and passion for AI 06:00 - How the landscape is changing 17:00-How Amir uses AI day-to-day 30:33 - Why AI isn’t a “do my job for me” button 34:44 - Transforming a company into a lean, AI-driven machine 39:09 - Amir’s newest venture: Poker Skill 46:47 - Picking the right tools 51:38 - Closing Remarks

    51min
  5. Revolutionizing the Future of Reading with the Sol Reader

    05/11/2024

    Revolutionizing the Future of Reading with the Sol Reader

    Brett Gibson hosts Sol’s Ben Chelf and John Boiles on the "High Bit" podcast to discuss their groundbreaking work on the Sol Reader, the world’s first wearable e-reader. They dive into the unique engineering challenges of integrating e-ink technology into a head-mounted format, the intricate development process of creating their own e-ink driver, and the importance of optimizing for user comfort and the reading experience. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 02:16 - The Birth of Sol Reader: From Idea to Prototype05:19 - Comparing Sol Reader to Other Wearable Technologies09:59 - Technical Challenges and Innovations in E-Ink Displays20:30 - Manufacturing and Quality Control Processes23:12 - Software Development and Optimization33:40 - Future Plans

    36min
  6. How HomeVision is Disrupting Mortgage Underwriting with AI

    02/10/2024

    How HomeVision is Disrupting Mortgage Underwriting with AI

    Vince Chu, cofounder of HomeVision, joins the "High Bit" podcast to discuss how his team is automating real estate valuations at scale. From overcoming technical challenges to scaling AI-powered underwriting, Vince explains how HomeVision is changing the game for both lenders and appraisers.

    37min
  7. Democratizing the Future of AI in Image Generation with Suhail Doshi

    18/09/2024

    Democratizing the Future of AI in Image Generation with Suhail Doshi

    Our managing partner, Brett Gibson, spoke with Playground AI founder Suhail Doshi about advancements in AI-driven image generation and their new Playground v3 image foundation model. Suhail shared Playground’s mission to make graphic design more accessible, enabling users to create items such as T-shirts, logos, social media posts, and even memes. They discussed the gap between language and image models, as well as the underinvestment in AI for images. Check out the new Playground here: https://playground.com/design Playground’s white paper introducing their image foundation model Playground v3 here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.10695

    38min
  8. How Global Enterprises Are Going AI-Native With Arena’s Pratap Ranade

    09/09/2024

    How Global Enterprises Are Going AI-Native With Arena’s Pratap Ranade

    On the latest episode of our podcast “High Bit,” Brett Gibson spoke with Pratap Ranade, CEO of Arena, about the intricacies of using AI to convert data into real-time simulations for optimizing sales, pricing, and marketing strategies. Pratap explained how Arena navigates the complexities of large-scale enterprises, including those in the consumer goods and advanced manufacturing industries. He also shared insights from his background in quantum physics and machine learning and discussed future partnerships and product developments for Arena. 00:00 Introduction 00:47 Meet Pratap Ranade, CEO of Arena 01:58 Understanding Arena’s core functionality 02:44 Challenges in building Arena 05:03 Consumer goods and advanced manufacturing 07:09 The importance of abstraction and metadata 13:50 Pratap's journey and vision 19:35 The future of Arena

    21min
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Sobre

Welcome to High Bit, a podcast hosted by Initialized Capital managing partner Brett Gibson about the art of technical problem-solving. A high bit is the most significant part of the binary representation of a number. In programming language, it is commonly referred to as the most important thing you need to understand about a problem. We spoke with our guests about just that. In each episode, we’ll break down a gnarly engineering problem and hear how the builder’s ingenuity and inventiveness led to a successful outcome.

Informações

  • Criado por
    Initialized Capital
  • Anos de atividade
    2023 - 2025
  • Episódios
    19
  • Classificação
    Livre
  • Copyright
    © Initialized Capital
  • Site do podcast
    High Bit

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