Chad Pytel
Co-Host of Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots
Chad Pytel has hosted 112 Episodes.
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500: Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots 500th Episode!
November 16th, 2023 | Season 11 | 1 hr 12 mins
We released episode one of this podcast on June 11, 2012. Now, more than a decade later, we're celebrating the 500th episode of our show. In honor of this milestone, Victoria, Will, and Chad caught up with each of the past hosts of the show: Ben Orenstein, Chris Toomey, and Lindsey Christensen.
We chatted about what they’re up to now, what they liked and learned from hosting the show, their time at thoughtbot, and more!
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494: Aigo.ai with Peter Voss
September 28th, 2023 | Season 11 | 33 mins 54 secs
Peter Voss is the CEO and Chief Scientist of Aigo.ai, a groundbreaking alternative to conventional chatbots and generative models like ChatGPT. Aigo's chatbot is powered by Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), enabling it to think, learn, and reason much like a human being. It boasts short-term and long-term memory, setting it apart in terms of personalized service and context-awareness.
Along with host Chad Pytel, Peter talks about how most chatbots and AI systems today are basic. They can answer questions but can't understand or remember the context. Aigo.ai is different because it's built to think and learn more like humans. It can adapt and get better the more you use it. He also highlights the challenges Aigo.ai faces in securing venture capital, given that its innovative approach doesn't align with current investment models heavily focused on generative or deep learning AI. Peter and Chad agree that while generative AI serves certain functions well, the quest for a system that can think, learn, and reason like a human demands a fundamentally different approach.
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481: Oscar Health with Neetu Rajpal
June 29th, 2023 | Season 11 | 31 mins 49 secs
Neetu Rajpal is the CTO of Oscar Health. Oscar aims to make a healthier life accessible and affordable for all by refactoring healthcare to make great care cost less.
Chad talks to Neetu about working for a relatively new insurance company, reorganizing its structure by getting people into the right positions, and how incorporating large language models and generative AI is an inflection point that will help move things forward.
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477: 20th Anniversary Episode
June 1st, 2023 | Season 11 | 52 mins 35 secs
Chad joins cohosts Victoria and Will to talk about thoughtbot's 20th birthday! 🤖🎉
In this episode, you'll find the 411 on the thoughtbot mascot, "Ralph," taking the company fully remote, and our company values and how we believe products should be designed and built!
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474: Freelance Producer, Podcaster, Actor, Motion Capture & Performance Capture Performer Jasper (William) Cartwright
May 11th, 2023 | Season 11 | 43 mins 42 secs
Jasper (William) Cartwright is a Freelance Producer, Podcaster, Actor, and Motion Capture & Performance Capture Performer.
Chad talks to Jasper about his podcast Three Black Halflings, which is committed to discussing diversity and inclusion within fantasy, sci-fi, and nerdy culture from the perspective of three people of color, what it's like to be in the space, and why representation is super important.
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469: Harpoon with Dominic Holt
April 6th, 2023 | Season 11 | 46 mins 26 secs
Dominic Holt is CEO of harpoon, a drag-and-drop Kubernetes tool for deploying any software in seconds.
Victoria talks to Dominic about commoditizing DevOps as a capability, coming up with the idea for drag and drop just thinking through how he could do these things in a visual and intuitive way, and using Kubernetes as a base for Harpoon.
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454: The Global Collective with Stacy Kehren Idema
December 22nd, 2022 | Season 11 | 35 mins 50 secs
Stacy Kehren Idema is the Founder and Managing Director of Global Collective, which is revolutionizing how men and women do business.
Chad talks to Stacy about the work Global Collective does, starting a company based in the U.K, and the differences between doing business in the U.S. and the U.K.
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453: Greenpixie with John Ridd
December 15th, 2022 | Season 11 | 28 mins 33 secs
John Ridd is the Co-Founder and CEO of Greenpixie, which is building solutions to reveal and reduce cloud emissions.
Chad and Will talk to John about giving a clearer view of AWS emissions down to the service level, why cloud emissions are a much bigger sustainability issue than most people realize, and how this will be the next big issue of the climate crisis.
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451: Product Strategy with Jordyn Bonds
December 1st, 2022 | Season 11 | 39 mins 29 secs
Jordyn Bonds is the Director of Product Strategy at thoughtbot. Jordyn helps companies validate new product opportunities and reach that first key milestone, from validating an early adopter market to creating a pitch deck to building a prototype, proof of concept, or an MVP launch.
Chad talks to Jordyn about what a Director of Product Strategy does, how Jordyn's career has evolved (She got to build madonna.com for the Confessions on the Dance Floor release and tour!!), and finding practices that keep you motivated and inspired to be working towards long-term, large goals.
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449: Welcome, Will Larry!
November 17th, 2022 | Season 11 | 35 mins 43 secs
Will Larry, Software Developer at thoughtbot, joins Giant Robots as host! 🎉
Will talks about how he got into tech, how everything is going so far at thoughtbot, interviewing at thoughtbot previously but not getting the job, and why he decided to interview again (and snagging the job!)
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447: Gembah with Neil Macqueen
November 3rd, 2022 | Season 11 | 28 mins 57 secs
Neil Macqueen is a leading industrial designer with 78 patents to his name, having previously spent ten years at Dyson and is now the Head of Design at Gembah, the world's first global marketplace for product development.
Chad talks to Neil about being focused on industrial design or actual physical products as opposed to interfaces and digital products, working with designers and developers, and design to manufacture as a process.
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446: Plants and Perks with Chloe Sweden
October 27th, 2022 | Season 11 | 43 mins 22 secs
Chloe Sweden is the Founder and CEO of Plants and Perks, a service for rewarding employees with sustainable perks.
Chad talks to Chloe about supporting employees on plant-based sustainability journies by gifting free samples and high-value prizes, choosing a co-founder, and being strategic with the types of businesses they've approached.
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442: Zedosh & The Attention Exchange with Guillaume Kendall
September 29th, 2022 | Season 11 | 36 mins 43 secs
Guillaume Kendall is the Founder of Zedosh and Attention Exchange, which is working to build a safe place for advertisers, publishers, and consumers to all benefit from fair access to human attention.
Chad talks with Guillaume about open banking, changing up who the beneficiaries of consumer attention and data are, and giving companies opportunities to advertise without interrupting consumers with ads.
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441: Creative Startups with Alice Loy
September 22nd, 2022 | Season 11 | 40 mins 47 secs
Alice Loy is a Founding Partner at DaVinci Ventures and the Co-Founder and CEO of Creative Startups, the leading global startup accelerator and company builder for design, food, immersive, and creative companies.
Victoria and Chad talk with Alice about what she means by creative companies, how much judgment she must pass as an investor with a love for the "weird and wonderful," and some of the challenges faced in bringing diversity to the rest of the accelerator world.
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440: The LGBTQ+ Family Connections Center with Joe Barb
September 15th, 2022 | Season 11 | 20 mins 49 secs
Joe Barb is Executive Director and Founder of LGBTQ+ Family Connections Center. They have a mission to strengthen and empower all youth, however they identify, to overcome obstacles by providing housing, supportive counseling, community education, and advocacy.
Victoria and Chad talk with Joe about identifying needs for the center, his own lived experience and connection to the LGBTQ+ community, and deciding what services to provide and evaluating which are most impactful.
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439: LOANHOOD with Lucy Hall
September 8th, 2022 | Season 11 | 31 mins 14 secs
Lucy Hall is the Co-Founder of LOANHOOD, an online fashion rental platform and community that allows users to loan inclusive, diverse, and creative styles for an affordable price.
Chad talks with Lucy about being a peer-to-peer fashion rental app, building a community, and reducing the impacts of the fashion industry on the planet and people by helping to create a sustainable future.