In this episode from the Autopilot podcast, Sergiy Nesterenko, founder of Quilter (backed by Benchmark), discusses designing PCB circuitboards end-to-end using reinforcement learning. "Autopilot" host Will Summerlin and Nesterenko cover how current PCB boards are designed and how Quilter’s tech stack enables faster board design, what better circuit boards enable in the future, their GTM and where they are seeing most market pull right now, and much more.

Subscribe to Autopilot:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6YQZkKHN7EP2yWedAvSxBC?si=18377c69a2804333&nd=1&dlsi=18fee5e95b284d02

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autopilot-with-will-summerlin/id1738163836

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AutopilotwithWillSummerlin

Check out Nathan's new chatbot on www.cognitiverevolution.ai

SPONSORS:

The Brave search API can be used to assemble a data set to train your AI models and help with retrieval augmentation at the time of inference. All while remaining affordable with developer first pricing, integrating the Brave search API into your workflow translates to more ethical data sourcing and more human representative data sets. Try the Brave search API for free for up to 2000 queries per month at https://bit.ly/BraveTCR

Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off https://www.omneky.com/

Plumb is a no-code AI app builder designed for product teams who care about quality and speed. What is taking you weeks to hand-code today can be done confidently in hours. Check out https://bit.ly/PlumbTCR for early access.

Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

LINKS:

Quilter: https://www.quilter.ai/

Autopilot Ventures: https://www.apv.vc/

X/SOCIAL:

@labenz (Nathan)

@WSummerlinAI (Will)

@sergiynest (Sergiy)

@quilterai (Quilter)

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Intro & Sergiy’s Background

(04:31) What Sergiy learned from SpaceX

(05:53) Founding thesis of Quilter and Quilter’s journey

(06:57) Where would one find circuit boards?

(08:11) What is the process of designing a circuit board?

(09:39) Design process today with Quilter

(14:34) Sponsor: Omneky

(16:01) Quilter’s thesis and designing more complex circuits

(18:25) How much are humans currently paid for board design

(19:41) Labor dynamics in board design

(20:30) Do most companies have board designers in-house?

(21:14) Incentive structure

(22:44) What does a high-performance circuit board look like vs low-performance?

(26:37) Quilter’s technology stack

(29:15) Sponsor: Plumb | Squad

(31:15) How Quilter can grow with scale?

(33:50) Where is circuit manufacturing happening

(37:17) What other parts of knowledge work can be solved with reinforcement learning

(41:03) GTM and who Quilter is selling to

(42:48) Pricing

(44:04) Where Quilter is seeing the most market pull right now

(45:21) What makes Quilter an exciting company to work at or invest

(47:14) The effects of closed research in private companies for the industry

(49:25) Open source vs closed source

(51:14) What Sergiy would advise to himself in his early founder

(53:59) What drew Sergiy to working with Benchmark

(56:19) Wrap

Note from Rachel 10/9: Wrongful Convictions and Capital Punishment