1st10 Podcast #9, Andrew Munn, Lindy.ai Software Leader: Insight Into the Risk and Reward of Early Stage Startups
On the ninth episode of the 1st10 Podcast, hosts Boris Epstein and Alexis Munger interview Andrew Munn, who's currently a senior engineering manager at Lindy.ai. Andrew shares some wonderful insights from his decade-long career in tech, spanning major companies like Facebook, Uber, and Nextdoor. He discusses his journey from internships at 3 of the 5 FAANG companies, his experiences with different corporate cultures, and his decision to join and later lead engineering teams at different startups.
Here are some of the hidden takeaways from the episode:
Product vs Distribution - "The best apps are inherently viral. They have their own distribution mechanism." (13:30)
Late-stage vs Early Stage - "Maybe late stage companies are the sweet spot for impact because you're big enough to have a real product and so you're actually impacting people's lives out there. But you're not so big that you're just a tiny little cog in a big machine. You can still make big changes." - Andrew Munn (23:17)
Size vs Speed - "Small, high-performing teams will outperform a large mediocre team any day. And that is also the only reason why startups have a chance." - Andrew Munn (32:35)
Don't miss the super-fun segment we designed specially for Andrew, called "Andrew, Why Do You Hate This?!" because it resulted in a mind-blowing revelation about selfies and selfie-cameras!
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
04:46 - Early Career, Internship, and First Job at Facebook
08:35 - Transition to Trove, and Early Startup Experience
15:38 - Moving From Trove to Nextdoor
20:12 - Comparison of Late Stage and Early Stage Companies
24:00 - Reasons For Going Back To Early Stage
32:07 - Building High Performing Teams
34:00 - Advice To Founders And Early Engineers
41:05 - A Fun Segment About Andrew's Pet Peeves
46:04 - Conclusion
Connect with us
Website: www.1st10.com
Podcast: www.1st10.com/podcast
Twitter www.x.com/1st10engineers
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/1st10/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast
Links:
Andrew's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmunn/
Lindy Careers: https://www.lindy.ai/careers
Andrew's X/Twitter Profile: https://x.com/AndrewMunn
Music by Roman Senyk from Pixabay
Producer: Shrikant Joshi