Episodes
Sitdown interview with Blake Scholl 3 days after filming Boom Supersonic's 3rd flight test.
Published 09/27/24
Interview with the @ridevalo team where we go in depth on hydrofoiling, reimagining mass transport logistics, and being a great team member at a deep tech startup.
Published 09/16/24
S3
Published 09/16/24
While filming with Neo in my apartment I sat down with VP of AI @ericjang11 to learn about 1X's approach to robot intelligence and his his curiosity around immortality. 0:00 Intro 1:27 1X Overview 2:12 Eric's Origin 5:15 Why humanoids? 11:30 Supercomputers & deep learning 12:45 World models 14:21 Neuromorphic computing 14:40 Immortality 20:15 Robotics at Google 21:35 Skepticism of humanoids 27: 00 Joining 1X 31:20 Benefits of LLMs 33:50 Training models 35:30 Tele-op to...
Published 09/11/24
After filming our S3 with 1X (https://youtu.be/2ccPTpDq05A) I sat down with Founder &CEO Bernt Bornich to go deeper on 1X's truly ambitious manufacturing plans. If you'd like to support our work, and look like a million bucks, you can buy our first ever S3 Episode Tee here for 7 days only: https://saturdaystartupstories.myshopify.com/products/s3-episode-53-tee-1x-technologies 0:00 Intro 1:16 Why humanoids? 5:40 AI transfer of knowledge 8:40 Power of scale 9:50 Heritage of Eve 11:50...
Published 09/01/24
Astranis just announced a new round of funding, led by A16z, to build more satellites! I sat down with John Gedmark, CEO of Astranis, to talk about how they'll use this $200M of capital and the future of building in America and space 🇺🇸🛰️🛰️ 0:00 I used to work here 1:02 Mission of Astranis 3:54 GEO? (Sci-fi) 8:43 Childhood to college 14:30 Silicon Valley for space? 19:14 Founding Commercial Spaceflight Federation 22:07 Why GEO is hard 24:42 Meeting Ryan, CTO 28:18 COVID story 32:40 Early...
Published 07/25/24
Interview with CEO and cofounder of Arbor Energy, Brad Hartwig for Episode 51 of S³ From training to be an astronaut, leading him to founding Arbor — how we'll soon build faster than regulatory can keep up with and how we can fix it.
Published 07/18/24
I sat down for an extended interview with cofounders @4TristanS @bennbuilds to talk in depth about @reflectorbital — If you're building for new space, in high school/college, or trying to figure out what to build, you should watch this!
Published 07/13/24
From working at Google, Microsoft, early at SpaceX and Relativity, Ed Mehr has always been forward-thinking about the future of manufacturing. Now, he's building it at Machina Labs — I sat down with him to learn more after filming Episode 49 of S³.
Published 06/30/24
From launching SpaceX's 1st rockets, to realizing the need for mobile-nuclear reactors, and founding Radiant — here's my interview with CEO and Cofounder of Radiant, Doug Bernauer for Episode 38 of S³
Published 06/18/24
Interview with Laura Demming & Hunter Davis for Episode 47 of S³ featuring Cradle 0:00 What is Cradle? 2:18 Laura & Hunter’s backgrounds 9:39 Timeline to reversible cry 13:04 Next milestone 15:33 Sci-fi inpsiration 18:35 3 Body Problem 21:10 More builders 24:38 How do you think? 29:39 Getting people into bio 31:25 Where in the future would you go? 32:55 Current life philosophy
Published 06/14/24
0:00 What is Fuse? 1:16 Background (pre-potato guns) 3:22 Founding at 19, why? 4:13 Why fusion? 5:47 Energy transportability 6:43 Potato guns 8:38 Main Fuse facilities 11:01 Intense Fuse culture 12:27 Why? 14:01 Fixing bureaucracy 15:28 How do you think 16:45 Learnings 20:06 US vs China in fusion 21:52 Deep tech issues 23:30 The S³ problem 26:52 Current life philosophy 
Published 06/06/24
0:00 Intro 0:43 Notes on the wall 2:50 What is Daylight 6:12 Duality 7:58 Why? 12:17 Biggest learnings 15:18 What to do in life 19:00 Kink?  23:52 Hardest technical challenge 26:20  31:00 Should we inspire people? 35:11 Current life philosophy
Published 05/26/24
Interview with CEO & Cofounder of Forward Adrian Aoun for Episode 44 of S³ 0:00 What & why is the CarePod? 3:21 A career in AI 6:01 Future of AI 7:47 The Google Problem 12:42 Larry Page’s right hand man 15:08 First principles thinking 17:16 Founder learnings 19:57 I wanted to start a police force 22:35 The future of society & AI 25:39 Inspiring people 29:34 How do you think? 31:28 Current life philosophy
Published 05/21/24
Interview with CEO & Cofounder of Hermeus AJ Piplica for Episode 42 of S³. 0:00 What is Hermeus 0:57 Why go fast? 5:09 Founding inspiration 10:16 Planning something big 15:50 First 6 months 18:44 Pain of building 21:45 Mental models for speed 24:41 Why haven’t we done this yet? 28:25 Keeping high speed travel 32:15 What to build 34:58 Current life philosophy 
Published 05/13/24
Interview with roboticist, fine fashion maker, 3D-weaving inventor, CTO & Cofounder of unspun Kevin Martin for Episode 42 of S³ 0:00 Oops, it’s dark now 0:32 What is unspun? 3:08 My dad crashed an F-16 4:08 K-pop, robots 6:52 Meeting cofounders 9:13 Inventing 3D weaving 11:08 Catching up to China 12:26 Founder learnings 16:22 How do you think? 18:15 Inspiring Gen-Z, maybe?  23:22 Future of robotics 26:33 How do we distribute automation wealth? 28:31 Current life philosophy
Published 05/06/24
Interview with quantum maxer, e/acc founder, thermodynamic pioneer, CEO & Cofounder of Extropic Guillaume Verdon for Episode 41 of S³ 0:00 What’s behind you? 1:29 What is Extropic? 4:08 Young Gill 7:12 Why Extropic? 11:25 Secret quantum lab experience 13:05 How does Extropic work? 16:20 Hardest technical challenge 17:50 Quantum & silicon strapping 20:56 Why decentralize AI 24:00 Doomerism 25:48 E/acc vitality 28:13 Regulatory capture 30:32 Founder learnings 31:36 How do you...
Published 04/28/24
Interview with founding member of Oculus, hardware-pioneer, and CEO of Framework, Nirav Patel. 0:00 Breaking into Framework HQ 1:11 Experience at Apple 2:05 Becoming employee 0001 at Oculus 3:20 What worked for Oculus?  4:30 Founding Framework 6:32 GTM for Framework & Linus 9:48 Advice for hardware 12:22 Nirav on AI Hardware 15:36 Raising little, huge impact 17:00 Hardest technical challenge 18:33 Emerging research/tech 19:06 How do you think? 20:26 Master plan 22:01...
Published 04/14/24
Interview with carbon-carbon printer, artificial solar sun schemer, space robotics guru, and future-space pirate Cole Nielsen-Cole, CTO of Orbital Composites. 0:00 Founding inspiration 4:53 Similarity between drones & satellites 6:20 Why Carbon Fiber is hard 9:42 Heat treatment for rocket nozzles 14:38 Cole’s artificial sun 16:59 List everything you’re doing 21:28 What first inspired you?  24:44 More projects 27:58 Orbital & Artemis mission 30:39 Why care about...
Published 04/08/24
Interview with Loyal CEO and Founder Celine Halioua for Episode 37 of S³. 0:00 Dogs! 1:05 Celine’s founding inspiration 5:37 Research vs. spinning out 7:20 Celine’s superpower 8:20 Hardest technical challenge 10:14 Can bio revolutionize? 15:32 Stories from raising 18:56 Bio vs Hardtech vs Software 21:38 How do you think? 24:14 Founder learnings 26:38 Solo vs Cofounding 27:23 What deep tech gets wrong 32:01 Current life philosophy
Published 03/31/24
0:00 Casey’s background 6:52 Casey’s Mars map 8:08 Terraform inspiration 15:04 Vision quest 17:32 Hardest technical challenge 19:35 How do you think? 24:48 Exciting future tech/research 31:11 Uncommon question 35:03 Inspiring the world 38:26 Current life philosophy
Published 03/24/24
0:00 Founding inspiration 2:46 Retro design vision 5:40 Decentralized manufacturing 10:26 Highlights building 12:30 How to design a beautiful car 17:20 Different customer demand 24:29 Supply chain 27:20 Updates for Olympian 30:44 What deep tech gets wrong 33:00 Hardest engineering problem 36:15 Our own “Gigapress” 37:42 Uncommon question 40:40 Current life philosophy
Published 03/18/24
0:00 Intro 0:42 Zane loves sensors 1:38 Zane’s experience with US Military 3:45 Improving the military industrial complex 5:19 I want an F-35 7:43 Founding inspiration 9:09 Hardest technical challenge 14:22 Future tech 17:40 Uncommon question (Funny VC dig) 20:30 What does deep tech get wrong? 23:28 Best Call of Duty games 24:25 How to know what to work on? 27:30 How do you think? 29:05 Current life philosophy
Published 03/10/24
0:00 Verdie! 1:05 Their approach 2:55 Your business model 4:17 Founding inspiration 5:22 Origin of the idea 7:13 Nag’s first company 8:59 Why didn’t you quit? 10:22 AGI & Singularity 12:02 The S³ mission 13:11 Cutting edge research 14:08 Hardest technical challenge 15:30 Fundamental AI shifts 16:43 What deep gets wrong 18:00 How do you think? 18:47 Uncommon question 20:20 Physical based AI 22:04 Biggest learning 25:38 Current life philosophy
Published 03/03/24
Interview with CEO and Cofounder Chris Power of Hadrian for Episode 32 of SÂł Apologies for how bad my audio is and Chris's camera angle in this episode, it was my 2nd time filming the SÂł podcast which resulted in some ~learnigng experiences~ 2:40 Why full-stack? 5:30 Hadrian tech stack 8:30 Software approach 11:10 Software importance 14:24 A general manufacturing solution 16:41 Exciting research & tech 17:38 Deep tech pitfalls 19:00 Biggest learning 20:41 Uncommon question 22:36...
Published 02/25/24