From Engineer to Leader: AngelList Lead Engineer Kevin Liu on Building, Managing, and Innovating in Startups

Mar 21, 2025

43:42

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Summary

On this episode of the 1st10 Podcast, hosts Boris Epstein and Alexis Munger sit down with Kevin Liu, Engineering Lead at AngelList and a seasoned builder in the tech industry. Kevin shares his journey from being a fresh computer science graduate during the post-dot-com bust to becoming a key player in high-growth startups like Klout and Nextdoor. He discusses the importance of staying hands-on as a builder, even while transitioning into leadership roles, and how AI is reshaping the engineering landscape.

Here are some key insights that Kevin shared during this conversation:

Staying Hands-On In Leadership: Maintaining technical skills even as you move into management roles is important. Kevin describes his style as that of a "coach-player", where he continues to code and build alongside his team.
Early-Stage Startups Are Rocketships For Early-Careers: Joining a startup early in your career can accelerate your growth and open doors to diverse experiences, from engineering to business strategy.
AI Can Be A Productivity Booster: AI tools like Cursor have significantly boosted Kevin's productivity, but he cautions that they are most effective when used by skilled engineers who know how to direct them.
Career Progression Needn't Be Linear: Career growth doesn't always follow a strict upward trajectory. Kevin advocates for following your interests and embracing lateral (or even backward) moves if they align with your passions and skills.

Chapters:

Additionally, don't miss Kevin's reflections on the shifts in the tech industry, from the dot-com bust to the social media boom, and the meteoric rise of AI in recent times.

00:00 Introductions & Icebreakers

06:02 From ColdFusion to AI: A Tech Journey Through the Decades

10:14 Klout, "Influencers", And Lightning-In-A-Bottle

16:20 Joining Nextdoor And The Power of Lateral Moves

25:03 Web 1.0, Web 2.0, And... Web AI?

29:06 Is Kevin Worried About AI Taking His Job?

34:30 Working Through The Startup Ecosystem Food-Chain

37:36 Kevin's Career Wisdom: Your Path Need Not Be A Straight Line

41:12 Kevin's Contact Details & Career Prospects At AngelList

Quotes:

"When you join a high-growth company in a 'right-place-right-time' thing, as the company grows, you grow. You are forced to grow." - Kevin Liu (14:36)
"Don't get soft. Whatever that means to you, whatever you need to do to make sure you don't get soft, that's on you." - Kevin Liu (19:40)
"How can you be there for your people if you cannot empathize with what their day-to-day is? So I think it's a prerequisite to be an engineer before you can manage engineers." - Kevin Liu (23:13)
"[AI] is a power tool. And if you don't know what you're doing, or if you don't know where you want to place that tool, it's not going to help you." - Kevin Liu (31:49)
"Your job is to maximize the congruence between how you spend your days and what the company is willing to ask of you!" (40:51)

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