Joris Poort is the CEO of Rescale, a digital engineering platform that provides supercomputing capabilities for engineers and scientists designing rockets, drugs, and computer chips. Starting from Y Combinator in 2012, Rescale has grown over 14 years to serve major aerospace and life sciences companies with over 200 employees and a platform that combines high-performance computing with AI physics capabilities.
What you'll learn:
Why "Default Alive" means cash flow positive, not just having runway or theoretical profitability
How to avoid false trade-offs by asking "why not both?" instead of accepting either/or decisions
Why the biggest startup mistakes are always people, especially bad executive hires
The hidden advantages of grinding through difficult early years versus overnight success
How to maintain frugal company culture while scaling from 4 to 200+ employees
Strategic approaches to long-term R&D investments, including AI physics and Department of Defense contracts
The difference between executives who built systems versus those who just ran them
Why promoting internal talent often works better than external executive hires
How to structure resource allocation decisions to force proper prioritization
The psychology of founder endurance and why some businesses are intentionally harder to build
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction to Joris Poort and Rescale
(01:04) Meeting Raj at Paul Graham's place in England
(04:36) What Rescale does: supercomputing platform for engineering
(08:02) How modern AI impacts scientific computing and physics
(12:31) Building for 15 years: the ups and downs of long-term company building
(14:20) The moment of becoming "Default Alive" and what it really means
(16:49) VCs versus founders on spending and growth philosophy
(22:03) Implementing frugal culture and budget discipline at scale
(26:56) The challenge of promoting internal talent to executive roles
(32:28) Interviewing every hire up to 200 people and building relationships
(34:30) Rapid fire: riskiest bets, biggest mistakes, and hard-won lessons
(42:31) AI investments, Department of Defense contracts, and strategic moats
(48:45) Why the hardest path often creates the strongest business
