Live Vibe Coaching with the LLM Pioneer Who Scaled Before ChatGPT | Will Manidis

Is your AI startup built to survive the next wave?

In this episode of Agentic, Will Manidis, the co-founder of ScienceIO, shares how he built for resilience from day one developing LLMs for healthcare and the frameworks that helped him scale before the world caught up.

He shares how local model training on office gaming PCs laid the unlikely foundation for ScienceIO’s reach across millions in digital health.

We also discuss:

• why OpenAI’s API continues to dominate Gemini

• the hidden fragility behind $500M fast scaling AI companies

• Will’s belief that founders must prove value before overbuilding for scale

Not often do you get to learn from someone who built an LLM before ChatGPT. Tune in now.

If you’re in the early innings of building something in AI, especially if you’re figuring things out from first principles—click here, we'd love to hear from you.

Connect with us here:

1. Will Manidis- https://www.linkedin.com/in/willmanidis/ 

2. George Bandarian- https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebandarian/ 

3. Untapped Ventures- https://www.linkedin.com/company/untappedventures/

00:00 Trailer

01:41 Introduction

02:45 Thiel Fellow

07:40 Pre-ChatGPT LLMs

10:27 Biggest lessons

12:37 Contrarian takes

13:56 Difficult to sell

15:59 First exit

16:38 Getting world-class talents

23:20 Risk mitigation strategy

25:48 Defensibility and moats

37:10 Basic MVP

44:01 Q&A

50:35 Outro