Deel–Rippling Update, Microsoft Bets on Agents | Shawn “swyx” Wang, Augustus Doricko, Brad Porter, Kian Sadeghi, Kathleen McMahon, Chungin “Roy” Lee
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This chapter explores the intense rivalry between two startups engulfed in a legal dispute marked by accusations of corporate espionage. As each company defends its reputation, the unfolding drama highlights a surprising apathy within Silicon Valley towards this contentious saga.
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- (03:02) - Deel-Rippling Drama
- (09:58) - Microsoft Bets on Agents to Fuel AI Growth
- (30:43) - Snowflake Buying Crunchy Data for $250M
- (45:57) - Augustus Doricko. Augustus is the founder and CEO of Rainmaker, a California-based startup using drones and advanced modeling to modernize cloud seeding and address water scarcity in the American West. A former UC Berkeley physics student and Thiel Fellow, he previously co-founded Terra Seco, a company that automates groundwater compliance. Doricko integrates his Christian faith with a mission to "terraform" arid regions, aiming to revitalize agriculture and infrastructure through scalable weather modification.
- (01:00:46) - Brad Porter. Brad is the founder and CEO of Collaborative Robotics (Cobot), a startup building AI-powered collaborative robots designed to work safely and intuitively alongside humans in sectors like logistics, healthcare, and manufacturing. Before founding Cobot in 2022, Porter served as VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Robotics, where he led the deployment of over 500,000 robots across global fulfillment centers. Cobot's first robot, Proxie, launched in late 2024 and is already in use by companies like Maersk, Mayo Clinic, and Moderna.
- (01:18:04) - Kian Sadeghi. Kian is the founder and CEO of Nucleus Genomics, a consumer health platform offering whole-genome sequencing and polygenic risk scores for over 800 conditions, aiming to make personalized medicine accessible to all. Motivated by a cousin's sudden death from a suspected genetic disorder, he left the University of Pennsylvania in 2020 to start Nucleus from his bedroom, later securing $32 million in funding from investors like Founders Fund and Seven Seven Six. In 2025, Nucleus launched a service analyzing embryos for disease and longevity risk, sparking ethical debates about the future of reproductive genetics.
- (01:32:03) - Kathleen McMahon. Kathleen is the Head of Life Sciences at Palantir Technologies, where she leads product strategy, customer operations, and business development for the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. Under her leadership, Palantir's Foundry platform has been instrumental in supporting organizations such as the National Institutes of Health and the UK's National Health Service in areas including clinical research, vaccine distribution, and biomanufacturing. McMahon has also co-founded a stealth startup focused on AI and platform technologies.
- (01:48:06) - Chungin “Roy” Lee. Roy is the co-founder and CEO of Cluely, a San Francisco-based startup that offers an AI tool designed to assist users during tasks like job interviews, exams, and sales calls. Originally developed as "Interview Coder" while Lee was a student at Columbia University, the tool led to his suspension and eventual departure from the university. Despite the controversy, Cluely has raised $5.3 million in seed funding and reports over $3 million in annual recurring revenue.
- (02:09:59) - Shawn “swyx” Wang. Shawn is the founder of Smol.ai and editor of Latent Space, a newsletter and podcast exploring the rise of the AI engineer. After transitioning from a finance career, he led developer experience at AWS, Netlify, Temporal, and Airbyte, and authored The Coding Career Handbook to guide developers in career growth. Wang is known for his “Learn in Public” philosophy and for organizing the AI Engineer Summit, fostering a global community of applied AI practitioners.
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