Mai Bui

Little can be added to those statements. Hardware can be one of your best competitive advantages, if done right.

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Today, GTMfund’s is excited to announce to launch of Operator, its first incubated company. Max Altschuler (founder of GTMfund) teamed up with co-founder Adam M. (design engineer and 0-1 builder) and co-founder Mark Kosoglow (Outreach employee #1 and former SVP of Global Sales) to create Operator.ai alongside an insanely talented team Pleasant Middelhof, Jeremy Jonas, Carl Gunderson. We've entered a period called “The Great Ignore”. Spam and irrelevant, poorly-automated outbound campaigns are running rampant.   Operator gives you an easy-to-use Growth Engineer that allows you to build and enrich lists with accurate data, and run experiments and queries using AI to generate highly targeted outreach.    Check out their website to get updates, early access, and see how they are taking the world back to 2 touches meant to attract buyers into conversations that convert, instead of 20 touches meant to make sure you hit your activity number: https://www.operator.ai/

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California's Carbon Champions in this week's Climate Tech Roundup number 21 #climatetechquartet. Cool stuff happening in our state to fight #CO2. Here are 4 #California early-stage companies working on clever ways to capture or utilize carbon. Check them out: Ebb Carbon HQ: California Founders: Ben Tarbell, Matthew Eisaman, Todd Pelman Ebb Carbon uses #electrochemistry to remove carbon dioxide from the ocean while also reducing ocean acidity. Their innovative approach not only helps combat climate change but also addresses the growing problem of #oceanacidification, benefiting marine ecosystems. Blue Planet Environmental Systems Inc. HQ: California Founder: Brent Constantz Blue Planet Systems is creating carbon-negative #concrete by mineralizing CO2 in building materials. Their process captures CO2 from industrial sources and permanently stores it in synthetic #limestone aggregate, which can then be used in concrete production, effectively turning a carbon problem into a valuable #construction material. Curious about more climate tech startup updates? Stay in the loop, I publish a new episode of my #climatetechquartet every week. Twelve HQ: California Founders: Kendra Kuhl, Etosha (Eee-tah-sha) Cave, and Nicholas Flanders Twelve is transforming CO2 into valuable products and materials. Using their carbon transformation technology, they're able to convert captured carbon dioxide into chemicals, materials, and fuels that are typically made from #petroleum. Heirloom HQ: California Founders: Shashank Samala, Noah McQueen Heirloom Carbon is accelerating the natural process of #carbonmineralization. By enhancing the ability of minerals to absorb CO2 from the air, they're developing a scalable, permanent carbon removal solution. #carboncapture #climatetech #CO2 #carbon #carbonoffset #greenstartups #cleantech #california #Innovation #carbonremoval #netzero #sustainability

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On Agent Dev & The Case for The Engineer’s Creative Process Agent development pulls engineers closer to the headspace of artist - and my bet is if engineers embrace and protect their creative processes, we unlock the next level of innovation in this agentic era. In machine learning, the saying goes, "it is more art than science." Building agents is a non-deterministic process that adds significant variance into systems. Engineers would be well-served to hone their creative process. The best engineers will become artists. 1. Building isn’t linear. Building agent infrastructure is far from linear. Engineers often experience a cycle of frustration and eventual breakthroughs. While not perfect, these reasoning systems are now stable enough for integration into our tools and lives. The history of AI, from machine learning to deep learning, has always involved non-linear development. Today's agent infrastructure development is even less linear, requiring engineers to understand complex semantic translations and carefully manage user rollouts to avoid failures. 2. Building with a relationship to the work. With new forms of intelligence come new relationships. Engineers must navigate a relationship to work that involves agent memory and understanding. What is it to build a system that knows you? When people feel understood, they feel loved. What is it to love the systems we’re creating? How does a creative process help? A non-linear process and a relationship to the work are the territories of the artist. Engineers, trained towards control, must embrace uncertainty, risk embarrassment, and accept that their efforts might yield unexpected results. We’re glimpsing a creator's role in a system that understands. While engineers have largely operated in a logical space, they are now called to form a heart connection with the systems they build. A creative process helps artists endure challenges and breathe life into their work. It involves a commitment to creating, discipline, and accepting that one can only control the process, not the outcome. Agent development pulls engineers closer to the mindset of artists. If engineers embrace and protect their creative processes, we can unlock the next level of innovation in society. Read more on this on my Twitter: https://x.com/ashebytes

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Someone asked me how to move from SW to HW / robotics as a kickass builder excited to jump in. Love it! My response: robotics needs more great SW leaders who treat HW like a commodity, figure out a huge market need / GTM path, then pull in a team to unlock that.  With a SW mindset and SW architecture thinking. A lot of MechEs in love with their tech and the HW.  The HW is commodity - hard but commodity - and SW is where the interesting stuff is.  Simpler is better.  Most important is problem selection.  That is where you make / break the company and idea. And yes - there is HW innovation to be had - and I love folks doing that and doing it well. But there are far, far more opportunities for automation and problem solving with huge value creation now, with basically commodity OTS HW and SW. Choose problem, assemble solution, kick butt.

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Downturn? What downturn? Innovation is on a tear! Check out the impressive 175% growth of the Stealth Startup employees over the last two years (you know who you are 🤫 ).

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