nonlinear

Shyeon Delnawaz is the co-founder of Puralink, a startup building autonomous pipe inspection robots.Saurav and Shyeon talk about the origin story behind Puralink, what living in both the US and Australia taught him about business, the sheer volume of rejection that comes with building a hardware startup, what makes a great engineering hire, how raising a pre-seed round enabled the team to execute on their ambitions and why he believes in staying led by curiosity even when the path isn't obvious.Timestamps:00:00 - Intro01:31 - The Puralink origin story03:26 - Early family life06:12 - US vs Australia07:29 - Early Puralink days11:37 - Naming "the Ferret"14:07 - Why now16:52 - Team structure and hiring20:56 - Childhood roots of his business curiosity22:29 - Challenges of building27:12 - Fundraising31:08 - The vision for full autonomy35:12 - Global expansion37:41 - Australian robotics40:16 - Startup life and career advice44:21 - Nonlinear's 3 closing questionsThis episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at ⁠https://www.choppity.com/⁠Puralink: https://www.puralink.com.au/Sheyon's book recs: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39899253-scattered-mindshttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens

Ben Lai is the founder of Home Croissanterie, a bakery and cafe in Balmain, Sydney. Home was recently selected as one of just eight stalls to represent Sydney at the Good Food and Wine Festival.Previously, Ben studied computer science and spent years in a corporate software job, but never found meaning in the work. He cut his teeth in the culinary world by interning at world-class kitchens including Quay in Sydney and Noma in Copenhagen. After learning pastry-making from scratch, he eventually left the corporate world for good to open his own shop, bringing his brother (who quit his own job) and his mum on board.Ben and Saurav talk about what actually separates a great croissant from a good one, the chaos of the Noma internship, betting on yourself without a financial plan, running a family business, and the hardest part of scaling without losing what makes something special.Timestamps:00:00 - Intro02:20 - Ben’s formative years04:46 - First kitchen experiences07:22 - Inside Noma12:03 - The origin of Home Croissanterie17:55 - Improving at the craft21:16 - Deciding to scale up28:42 - The reality of running a physical store33:37 - How he thinks about creativity36:38 - Community support37:47 - Scaling without losing quality41:15 - Work ethic and advice for chasing a passion43:08 - nonlinear's 3 closing questionsThis episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at ⁠https://www.choppity.com/⁠Home Croissanterie website: https://www.homecroissanterie.com/Ben's book rec: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14896485-faviken

Georgie Healy is the host of In the Blink of AI, Australia's leading AI podcast with 350K+ listens. She also writes the weekly Substack Attention Is All I Need.Previously, she launched Google’s AI First Accelerator in Australia and worked across tech, consulting, and investing globally. Georgie and Saurav talk about the discipline required to constantly learn new tools, why putting your personality online is inherently cringe (and worth doing anyway), her aspirations to become a globally leading podcast, and where she lands on AI optimism versus doomerism.Timestamps:00:00 - Intro02:41 - Formative years and love of performance05:00 - Lessons from 15 years in tech05:53 - Leaning into her personality online07:53 - Changing opinions on AI's biggest names09:59 - How the podcast started12:12 - Research process15:00 - Hallmarks of a great interview17:07 - How to think about podcast analytics20:19 - Keeping pace with AI change23:39 - Starting the Substack28:43 - Traits of frontier AI builders29:51 - Future of the podcast34:12 - AI optimism vs. doomerism38:00 - nonlinear's 3 closing questionsThis episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at ⁠https://www.choppity.com/⁠Links:In the Blink of AI: https://open.spotify.com/show/5K4NkKXa8Cqxuoed1jBGwO Georgie's Substack: ⁠https://georgiehealy.substack.com/Georgie's book recommendation: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4030991-shoe-dog

Kevin Lu is the founder of Atrium, an AI comms and relations team built to help founders, execs, and investors manage and nurture relationships. Before founding, Kevin spent six years on the other side of the table as a VC at Reinventure and AirTree.Kevin and Saurav talk about the pain point that sparked Atrium, the joy of building with his brother, lessons from fundraising in the US versus Australia, and the aspects of relationship-building that can't be automated.Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction02:11 - What Atrium does and the pain point it solves03:25 - Childhood influences06:21 - Getting into venture capital08:57 - Learnings from VC that still apply12:32 - Atrium's origin story and evolution16:00 - Fundraising lessons in the US vs Australia21:05 - What he wishes he'd known 12 months ago22:46 - Differentiating vs competitors26:09 - What can't be automated28:12 - How Kevin unwinds31:49 - Founder-led marketing34:19 - AI's trajectory and what skills still matter37:00 - nonlinear's 3 closing questionsThis episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at https://www.choppity.com- Atrium website: https://www.atrium.me/- Kevin's book recommendation: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40180098-the-overstory

Joe Harris is the founder of Alloy, an AI-native data platform helping robotics companies manage their data and ship safer, more reliable robots. Alloy just closed an $11.5M seed round at a $115M valuation, backed by leading Australian VCs and angels from OpenAI, Tesla, Anthropic and more.Before Alloy, Joe led growth at telehealth company Eucalyptus, which recently sold to Hims for over $1 billion.Saurav and Joe talk about how robotics is still in its early innings, how he’s earned credibility without decades in the industry, what he looks for when hiring and what keeps him up at night as he tries to scale Alloy into one of the biggest companies in physical AI.Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction02:07 - Alloy's $11.5M seed round and what it unlocks03:16 - The journey from Eucalyptus to robotics07:27 - Why Joe chose to start a company08:51 - Joe's founding insight12:02 - What does the future of robotics look like?18:24 - How Alloy helps customers20:18 - Competition23:52 - Building a team26:06 - Earning credibility27:30 - Timing32:38 - Prioritization and killing bad experiments34:01 - What success and failure look like38:49 - Advice for early-career people amid AI disruption42:55 - Building a founder-led brand44:46 - nonlinear's 3 closing questionsThis episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at https://www.choppity.com/Links:Alloy: https://www.usealloy.ai/Joe’s book recommendation: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20518872-the-three-body-problem