Zero Prime Podcast

May 01 2024 6
Zero Prime Podcast artwork

The Zero Prime Podcast with Pete Soderling explores the early stories of top startups as seen through the eyes of their engineer-founders. In each episode we uncover insights on what it takes to start a company as an engineer in the words of the founders themselves. From the most cutting edge infrastructure companies to the newest trends in developer tooling, we introduce you to the engineer-founder personalities behind the up and coming software startups that you can’t afford to ignore.

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E23: Inside the Mind of an AI Pioneer: A Conversation with Alex Mashrabov

May 01 2024 28 mins  
In this episode, I sit down with Alex Mashrabov, the visionary CEO of Higgsfield AI. We journey through Alex's impressive career, beginning with his time at Yandex where he witnessed the early implementations of neural networks. We explore what ignited his entrepreneurial spirit and delve into the stark contrasts between the Russian and American educational landscapes.Our discussio

E22: From BigQuery to Motherduck: The Journey of Jordan Tigani

Apr 25 2024 21 mins  
In this episode, I chat with Jordan Tigani, the dynamic engineer-founder of MotherDuck who previously led Google's BigQuery team and headed up product at SingleStore. Jordan shares the inspiring origin story of MotherDuck, which emerged from the overlooked analytics' long tail, focusing on serving small users in data analytics. Our conversation delves into thought-provoking topics

E21: The Power of Pricing with Alvaro Morales of Orb

Apr 03 2024 24 mins  
In this episode, Pete speaks with Alvaro Morales, the co-founder and CEO of Orb, who shares his journey from being an engineer to becoming the founder of a flexible billing engine for modern software pricing. Alvaro traces his path from Lima, Peru to San Francisco, discussing the rise of startups in his home city as well as his early engineering experiences at Yahoo, Palantir and A

E20: Building Sustainable Businesses in the Tech Industry with Craig McLuckie

Feb 06 2024 26 mins  
In this enlightening episode, I have the privilege of hosting Craig McLuckie, a tech industry veteran who has made significant contributions to the cloud computing industry and is currently the Co-founder & CEO of stacklok. We begin by exploring his journey from Microsoft to Google, where he co-authored Kubernetes, a pivotal project that has shaped the industry. We also delve i

E19: Overcoming Self-Doubt to Become a Founder with Erik Bernhardsson

Dec 28 2023 23 mins  
In this episode, I chat with Erik Bernhardsson, co-founder and CEO of Modal, about his journey from Spotify engineer to startup CTO to startup founder. Erik takes us back to his early days as a software engineer and shares how his transformative years at Spotify ignited his startup mindset. We discuss the challenges he faced during his transition from engineer to founder, including

E18: Data Tool Disruption: Barry McCardel on Building Hex

Nov 27 2023 24 mins  
In this episode, we chat with Barry McCardel, Co-Founder and CEO of Hex, as he shares how honing his leadership skills in college paved the way for his journey to becoming a founder. Barry discusses building his team with former Palantir colleagues and Hex's emphasis on design from its inception. He shares insights on Hex's rapid feature development, scaling challenges and his visi

E17: The Visionary Behind Vercel with Guillermo Rauch

Nov 03 2023 32 mins  
In this episode, we explore Guillermo Rauch's path from a teen hacker in Argentina to the founder of Vercel. We touch on his engineering roots, the role of open-source in his success and Vercel's creation to simplify deployments with Next.js. We compare Vercel's innovations to the evolution of electric cars, discuss the significance of speed in edge computing and peek into the futu

E16: The Future of AI in the Workplace -- A Conversation with Aaron Lee of Smith.ai

Oct 05 2023 30 mins  
In this episode, Aaron Lee, Founder & CEO of Smith.ai joins me to discuss a variety of topics. First, we delve into the innovative strategies of tech giants like Google, and explore the future of AI in business. Then we journey back to the early days at Smith.ai, where AI was used to enhance productivity. Aaron shares a multitude of learnings from his time founding RedBeacon an

E15: Developer Productivity and the Future of Software Development -- A Conversation with Graham Thompson and Debo Ray

Sep 07 2023 23 mins  
In this episode, we debut a new format where engineer-founders discuss key tech topics. Joined by Graham Thompson of Privacy Dynamics and Debo Ray of DevZero, we dive into modern software development. Topics include the role of developer productivity, challenges of new productivity tools and the problems that arise around data access. We also discuss the evolving role of database a

E14: From Google Engineer to Cockroach Labs Co-Founder -- a Conversation with Spencer Kimball

Aug 01 2023 29 mins  
In this episode, I have the pleasure of hosting Spencer Kimball, a former Google engineer turned tech entrepreneur, and now the Co-Founder & CEO of Cockroach Labs. Spencer shares his journey from working at Google to creating his project, Viewfinder, which eventually led to the birth of CockroachDB. Spencer discusses his advice for founders as they approach the challenge of sta