Rephonic
Artwork for Engineering Founders
Artificial Intelligence
Crafting
Go-To-Market
Enterprise Sales
Autify
Inventory.ai
Sumeet Vaidya
Software Testing
Merge
Propel
Hiring
Early Team Building
AI Agents
Developer Tools
Product-Market Fit
Span
Graphite
Pivots
Product-Led Growth
X-Matters

The show for engineering leaders making the leap to start their own company! We dive into the stories, pivotal moments and critical insights from former eng leaders turned founders, that helped them take those early leaps to launch their own company!

PublishesTwice monthlyEpisodes62Founded4 years ago
Number of ListenersCategories
BusinessManagementEntrepreneurship

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Artwork for Engineering Founders

Latest Episodes

Anhang Zhu, CEO & Co-Founder @ TierZero, joins Jerry to share his background as a founder of two different companies! They discuss his transition from Facebook, and how he used his time within a large, successful org to learn how to build from zero t... more

In this special Engineering Founders episode, we’re featuring a live panel of some of the ELC community’s longstanding members who share insights from their founder journeys: Pete Nichols (Co-Founder @ Lightfield), Lizzie Matusov (Co-Founder / CEO @ ... more

Tomas Reimers, Co-Founder & CPO @ Graphite, reveals his journey to becoming a founder and some of the major moments from Graphite’s product development story. He dissects frameworks for determining when it’s time to quit your full-time job to pursue ... more

In this episode of Engineering Founders, Pooja Brown (Founder @ Inventry.ai) shares her founder journey and insights on balancing being a founder & technologist, especially within the mid-market manufacturing industry. We cover why founders need to l... more

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Recent Guests

Pete Nichols
Co-founder / Lightfield partner featured in intro
Lightfield
Episode: How to know when your company needs to pivot and the signals/principles that will help guide you through pivoting w/ Pete Nichols, Lizzie Matusov, and Tony Dong
Lizzie Matusov
Engineering leadership researcher and founder
Independent/Research
Episode: How to know when your company needs to pivot and the signals/principles that will help guide you through pivoting w/ Pete Nichols, Lizzie Matusov, and Tony Dong
Dennis Pilarinos
Founder and CEO at Unblocked
Unblocked
Episode: Determining bets, using customer insights to pivot, and gaining developer buy in & trust w/ Tomas Reimers @ Graphite
Pooja Brown
Founder focused on building AI-native platforms for real-world operations
Inventry.ai
Episode: Applying Agentic AI to the Supply Chain, Building Systems to Withstand Chaos, and Leveraging your Curiosity w/ Pooja Brown @ Inventry.ai
Russ Dassault
CEO and co-founder of LiveKit
LiveKit
Episode: The Product Paradigm Shift: How LiveKit Navigated High Stakes Scaling Challenges to Build the Future of Voice-First AI Interfaces w/ Russ d’Sa
Gil Feig
Co-founder and CTO of Merge
Merge
Episode: Demo-led validation, charging from day 1, selling to AI-native companies, and finding resilient co-founders w/ Gil Feig @ Merge
Ryo Chikazawa
CEO and co-founder of Autify
Autify
Episode: Finding your customers’ burning needs, validating ideas, expanding products & navigating new markets w/ Ryo Chikazawa @ Autify
Sha Ma
CEO and founder at Topogy
Topogy
Episode: CEO as Experiment Officer, Design Partner Personas & Rebranding w/ Sha Ma @ Topogy
James Birchler
Executive leadership coach and technical advisor
Actuate Partners / NYSER
Episode: Why founders should invest in coaching, communication & leadership mechanisms before you scale w/ James Birchler

Hosts

Jerry
Host of Engineering Founders and a recurring voice across episodes.
Patrick
Lead interviewer and primary host on multiple episodes; appears in various capacities across the catalog.

Reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars from 5 ratings
  • Help for engineer entrepreneurs

    I work with a lot of technical experts-turned-entrepreneurs who are really good at their craft but have some significant holes in their business know-how. This podcast is a great place to pick up ideas and hacks for marketing, sales, operations and other non-product areas. Well-curated, well-managed interviews. Check it out - it’s worth the time.

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    PeteSteg
    United States2 years ago
  • 5 Stars All the Way!

    A top-notch podcast for engineering leaders venturing into entrepreneurship, offering real stories and crucial insights from founders who've taken the leap – a must-listen for those starting their own companies! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    Gay&Sweaty
    United States3 years ago

Listeners Say

Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.

Great real-world founder stories with actionable takeaways for GTM and fundraising.
High-quality guests with deep engineering leadership experience and candid pivot lessons.
Insightful discussions on enterprise sales, AI tooling, and product strategy from seasoned founders.
Well-curated, practical interviews that help engineers translate tech skill into business impact.

Chart Rankings

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Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Applying Agentic AI to the Supply Chain, Building Systems to Withstand Chaos, and Leveraging your Curiosity w/ Pooja Brown @ Inventry.ai
Q: What is your view on the balance between building for scale and solving bespoke, last-mile customer needs?
Pooja argues for a bespoke-first approach in the early stages to win adoption, citing Palantir's forward-deployed model as an example of handling last-mile needs, then gradually identifying reusable patterns as the product matures. This prevents prematurely building a one-size-fits-all platform that may miss nuanced customer pain points.
Applying Agentic AI to the Supply Chain, Building Systems to Withstand Chaos, and Leveraging your Curiosity w/ Pooja Brown @ Inventry.ai
Q: How do you approach fundraising and customer validation in a capital-intensive industry?
She explains starting with time and a few committed colleagues, then securing an early design partner and investor who believed in the long-term vision. The key signals were customer interest and the willingness to bet on a relationship rather than just a product, leading to a lean ARR growth and a path toward a larger round as adoption grows.
The Product Paradigm Shift: How LiveKit Navigated High Stakes Scaling Challenges to Build the Future of Voice-First AI Interfaces w/ Russ d’Sa
Q: What scaling challenges during the big OpenAI and third-party deployments stood out, and how did you address them?
We faced a major cross-continental state synchronization bottleneck during peak usage, which we solved in about a week by optimizing routing and gradually reducing load with partners when needed; the experience underscored the importance of architecture designed for global, low-latency coordination across data centers.
The Product Paradigm Shift: How LiveKit Navigated High Stakes Scaling Challenges to Build the Future of Voice-First AI Interfaces w/ Russ d’Sa
Q: Can you explain the rationale behind LiveKit's decision to go multi-cloud from the very beginning?
The core idea was to be the backbone for real-time audio and video on the internet; to guarantee availability and avoid a single point of failure, we deployed across multiple cloud providers and built an overlay network to route around outages, accepting initial pain for long-term resilience.
Balancing shifting priorities, leveraging your founder network, and navigating cost vs. value w/ Sumeet Vaidya @ Crafting
Q: What does your approach to prioritization and time management look like in the context of a long enterprise sales cycle?
The process involves daily and weekly reflection, crystallizing tasks in writing, and continuously auditing how time is spent against impact. It's about choosing actions that unlock growth and reduce costly delays, while maintaining enough flexibility to adapt as deals progress or face delays.

Audience Metrics

Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Engineering Founders

What is Engineering Founders about and what kind of topics does it cover?

A leadership-focused show that centers on engineering leaders who transition into startup founders. Episodes frequently cover pivots, GTM strategies, raising capital, and building AI-native or engineering-heavy products, with concrete war stories about product-market fit, customer discovery, and scaling in enterprise contexts. Notable moments often involve tough pivots, founder partnerships, and pragmatic approaches to recruiting, budgeting, and go-to-market in fast-moving tech spaces. The format tends to blend practical engineering leadership lessons with founder journeys, making it useful for listeners aiming to start or scale technical companies and for sponsors seeking technically minded, founder-curious audiences.

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Which podcasts are similar to Engineering Founders?

These podcasts share a similar audience with Engineering Founders:

1. No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups
2. Coaching Real Leaders

How many episodes of Engineering Founders are there?

Engineering Founders launched 4 years ago and published 62 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on Engineering Founders?

Recent guests on Engineering Founders include:

1. Pete Nichols
2. Lizzie Matusov
3. Dennis Pilarinos
4. Pooja Brown
5. Russ Dassault
6. Gil Feig
7. Ryo Chikazawa
8. Sha Ma

To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.

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