Tech Teams Today

Linda Tong is the CEO of Webflow, where she's turning a website builder into an agentic marketing platform while the tools change under her every month. Linda is refreshingly open about what this pace costs. She wakes up most mornings with an overwhelming fear of being behind, and she's working out how to keep her team from feeling the same way. We discuss:Why there was no single "go AI-first" moment at Webflow, just a constant barrage of themThe rule behind Webflow's bias for action: decisions belong with the person closest to the problemThe 2 traits Linda hires for now: curiosity and resilienceThe early-morning fear of being behind, and how she keeps it from spreading to her teamRefresh days and builder days: forcing time to recover and time to learnWhy good leaders say no to good ideas, and how to test a candidate's judgment by asking "why" 5 timesProject Assassin, and why deprecating a feature is 10x harder than building oneHow 4 people got 4 different ARR numbers from AI, and the year of data work that fixed itHer "every person is a different board game" model for leading a teamHow falling from grace early in her career wiped out her ego and changed how she leadsWhere to find Linda Tong:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lktong/X: https://x.com/YayLTWhere to find Josh Anderson:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/Tech Teams Today: https://www.revelo.com/t3/podcastTech Teams Today is produced in association with:Revelo: Hire senior Latin American engineers in your time zone: ⁠https://www.revelo.com⁠

Rob Zuber has been CTO at CircleCI for just over 12 years. He came in through an acquisition, shipped a PR that took down production in his first week, and now runs an engineering org of a little over 100 people while still writing code most days on a small team inside it.He's also doing something almost nobody else is doing right now: hiring junior engineers on purpose, through a program built specifically for new grads. A year ago he was saying the opposite in public, and he'll tell you exactly where to find the receipts.We got into what changed, what breaks when half your org adopts agents and half doesn't, and the one question Rob thinks separates the companies pulling ahead from everyone else.What you'll learn:Why Rob restarted junior hiring while the rest of the market stopped, and what the program actually looks likeThe reason this moment is a leveler, and why "I don't know, let's figure it out" beats "come along little one, let me teach you"How Rob interviews for comfort with the unknown, and the specific follow-up that makes a rehearsed answer fall apartThe email from a stranger that changed how he talks about failure across culturesReframing bets and hypotheses so a team stops guarding against being wrongThe real friction in AI adoption: not tooling, but one engineer deciding another one is recklessWhy Rob stopped deleting the agent's extraneous commentsReadable for humans versus readable for agents, and why he thinks great agent-readable code is something we'll discover rather than designThe ambiguity gap, and the 2 choices you have when your team can't absorb more changeWhy nobody is managing your ability to handle the next level, and what that means if you're aiming at the CTO seatWhere to find Rob ZuberLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robzuber/Where to find Josh AndersonTech Teams Today: ⁠https://www.revelo.com/t3/home⁠LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/⁠

Doug Guttenberg owns AI transformation at DonerColle Partners, a creative agency, and he's never been a developer. Since early 2024, he's built a team of about 15 engineers and creative technologists, and most of them came out of an internal skunkworks he started with a small monthly budget.Doug and Josh get into how that task force turned into a real team, the one rule that kept it from becoming a string of cool demos, why juniors aren't ahead of seniors on AI yet, and why the cost of switching models is mostly in our heads. Doug also shares the 2 things he hires for.Where to find Doug GuttenbergLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougguttenberg/Where to find Josh AndersonTech Teams Today: https://www.revelo.com/t3/homeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/ReferencedClaude: https://claude.comClaude Fable: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/fableChatGPT: https://chatgpt.comCodex: https://openai.com/codexGrok Bot: https://x.ai/news/introducing-grok-botOpenClaw: https://openclaw.aiModel Context Protocol (MCP): https://modelcontextprotocol.ioFigma MCP server: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/32132100833559Adobe InDesign: https://www.adobe.com/products/indesign.htmlJ.A.R.V.I.S.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.A.R.V.I.S.Recommended booksOutliers by Malcolm Gladwell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book)Meditations by Marcus Aurelius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations

Kish Khemani runs AI architecture for B2B payments at REPAY, and he's been leading engineering teams since his first job in 1993, building a C++ compiler at a Silicon Valley startup.His current team is roughly 20 people across the US, South America, and India, and he's kept it as 1 team on purpose. He explains why the pizza rule failed him at a previous company, why 3 teams of 6 turned into 2 teams of 9, and why it takes about 3 months to know if a structure is working.The bigger part of the conversation is about what AI is doing to the way his team learns. Every check-in requires at least 2 peer reviews. The reviews still happen. But something in them has quietly changed.Also covered: daytime and nighttime crews, why offshore contractors won't tell you the deadline is wrong until the week before, and how you run AI agents inside a payments platform when a single logic error costs millions.About Our Guest:Kish Khemani is VP of AI Architecture for B2B Payments at REPAY. He's led distributed engineering teams for 30+ years, starting in 1993 on a C++ compiler, and now runs AI architecture inside a payments platform. Connect with Kish on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kishkhemani/About Tech Teams Today:Tech Teams Today is a podcast by Revelo where we sit down with engineering leaders to talk about how they build, scale, and lead high-performing tech teams. Real conversations. No fluff.Subscribe and never miss an episode:- YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect with us:- Revelo: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.revelo.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Josh Anderson (Field CTO): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Revelo on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/⁠⁠

Every hiring process at Zapier now includes an AI fluency assessment. Candidates are encouraged to use AI in technical work. And a human still reviews every single application that moves forward.Bonnie Dilber runs recruiting at one of the most AI-forward companies operating today. Josh sat down with her to work through what's actually changed in hiring, and what hasn't.The answers are messier than the headlines. Deepfaked candidates showing up in remote interviews. Automated application tools that trip the same fraud alerts as real scammers. Teams getting leaner at the top and thinner at the bottom, with career ladders that no longer describe how growth works. And underneath all of it, a supply problem that no amount of tooling fixes.Bonnie also gets specific about the things a VP controls directly: what separates hiring managers who get great outcomes from ones who throw a job description over the wall, how to test for comfort with ambiguity when it isn't on a resume, how to break a split panel decision, and what to say to an interviewer who gets overruled and takes it personally.About Our Guest:Bonnie Dilber is a recruiting leader at Zapier, the fully remote automation company. She hires across business teams at one of the most AI-forward companies in tech, and writes about hiring and the job market for a large following on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonnie-dilber/About Tech Teams Today:Tech Teams Today is a podcast by Revelo where we sit down with engineering leaders to talk about how they build, scale, and lead high-performing tech teams. Real conversations. No fluff.Subscribe and never miss an episode:- Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://techteamstoday.substack.com/s/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠- YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect with us:- Tech Teams Today Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://techteamstoday.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠- Revelo: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.revelo.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Josh Anderson (Field CTO): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Revelo on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/⁠⁠